'A SIMPLE SOUL'
A NEW FILM
ABOUT SAINT MARY MAZZARELLO
Mary's Dowry Productions DVDs
Saint Mary Mazzarello was an Italian. She died at the age of 44 having dedicated her life to the service of young women and girls in Mornese, deeming that by serving them she would save her own soul. Mary was gifted with a strong character and strong physical abilities. As a young woman she undertook manual labour on her parents farm. She joined the Daughters of Mary Immaculate and loved to give her time to prayer and helping people.
When a typhoid epidemic swept through Mornese, Mary took care of her uncle, aunt and their children and contracted the disease herself. She was 23. It was thought she would die and a coffin was even prepared for her. But she recovered. The illness left her weak and she was no longer able to work the land as before, so she prayed for guidance as to what to do.
Mary and her friend learned sewing and were moved by the plight of many young girls about Mornese, uneducated and in dire circumstances with many threats to their lives and virtue. Mary was given a vision of a courtyard filled with happy girls and a voice told her: "I entrust them, to you."
At the same time, Saint Don Bosco had a similar vision in Turin.
Mary and her friend decided to set up a sewing school for the girls where they also taught them the Catholic Faith.
When Saint Don Bosco learned about the work and sanctity of Mary Mazzarello, he brought his oratory boys on a field trip to Mornese to meet Mary. They discussed their mutual aims for the girls and Saint Don Bosco knew that Mary Mazzarello would be the one to help him found the female Salesian counterpart to his Salesian order.
After correspondence, spiritual direction, prayer and discussions, many of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate agreed to become The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the Salesian sisters, under the guidance of Saint Don Bosco. Mary designed the habits they would wear and Saint Don Bosco wrote the rules for the nuns.
Mary Mazzarello was chosen to be the superior of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians but she said, "Our Lady will be our superior and I will be her vicar."
The sisters cared for and educated many girls. When she was 44 years of age, Mary fell ill with pleurisy. After a long time suffering and giving advice and counsel to the dear nuns she would leave behind, Mary died having received the Last Rites, in an edifying, holy death.
Pope Pius XI proclaimed the heroic nature of Saint Mary Mazzarello virtues and said of her: "Here is a woman of simplicity, extreme simplicity - a simplicity as pure as that of the simple elements, as simple and unmixed as gold without alloy!"
'A SIMPLE SOUL: The life of Saint Mary Mazzarello' DVD
will be available July 2018 here:
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