Bl. Anne Michelotti

Blessed Anne Michelotti, known in religion as Giovanna Francesca della Visitazione, was a foundress and servant of the sick poor. She was born in Annecy on August 29, 1843, when that region belonged to the Kingdom of Sardinia, and died in Turin on February 1, 1888. Her patronage belongs naturally to the sick poor, home nursing, and those who serve hidden suffering without public recognition.

Her father died while she was young, and poverty marked the family. A formative moment came on the day of her First Communion, when her mother took her to visit a poor sick person. That visit gave direction to the rest of her life. Anna tried religious life with teaching communities, but gradually understood that her mission was not classroom education but care for the sick poor in their homes. She moved between Annecy, Lyon, Almese, and Turin, carrying a vocation that matured through disappointment, fragile health, and practical service.

The decisive foundation took shape in Turin. With permission from the archbishop, she gathered companions and founded the Little Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the Sick Poor. Their work was intensely concrete: entering poor homes, visiting those who were ill or dying, bringing care where no respectable institution was visible, and making the Sacred Heart known through service. She took the religious name Giovanna Francesca in honor of the Visitation tradition, a fitting name for a woman whose charity moved from house to house.

Saint John Bosco was among the priests she consulted, and her final years unfolded in the same Turin Catholic world that produced so many works for the poor, the young, and the abandoned. She suffered from bronchial asthma and died on February 1, 1888, the day after Don Bosco. Pope Paul VI beatified her on November 1, 1975. Her life is not famous because of public miracles or great writings, but because she gave the Church a congregation formed around an intensely merciful idea: Christ must be served in the sick poor where they suffer, not only where institutions can receive them.