"I am not able to do anything. I am a poor goose. Will you teach me what I must do? I want to become a saint."
It is amazing how God works in our lives and in the lives of our saints. Anna Francesca Boscardin was poor into a poor family on October 6, 1888 and her father even said that he was a violently abusive drunk (he testified this during her beatification). Anna received little eduction and was simple and innocent. She worked as a house servant and then joined the Sisters of Saint Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred Heart at Vincenza, Italy in 1904 and she took the name Maria Bertilla. She worked in the convent's kitchen and laundry and then she was trained as a nurse in 1907. She was assigned to the hospital in Treviso which was run by her Order. At first she worked in the children's ward and became a favorite becuase of her simple and gentle way with the kids. During World War I she also worked with wounded Italian soldiers and she stayed with the patients in 1917 while the area was being bombed. Maria Bertilla's reputation grew and her supervisor grew angry and reassigned her to the hospital laundry. However the congregations mother general heard of this move and vindictive treatment and transfers her back to nursing and made her the supervisor of the children's ward in 1919. She died of cancer on October 20, 1922 in Treviso. It has been reported that there were many healing miracles at her tomb. She was canonized on May 11, 1961 by Pope John XXIII. The crowd included many family members many of her former patients.
"Let us become saints too," whispered Sister Bertilla to her companions, "but saints in heaven and not on altars."
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