Saint of the Day: Bl. Anne Marie Taigi

Wife, Mother, and Trinitarian Tertiary (1769-1837)

Her life

+ Anne Marie was born in Siena, Italy. When she was five, her bankrupted family moved to Rome so her father could find work. Although he was trained as a pharmacist, he had to take a job as a household servant. In 1789, Anne Marie married Dominico Taigi, the butler of a noble family. The couple was married for 48 years and she had seven children. 

+ In her early married life, Anne Marie was vain and always concerned with dress and appearance. Dominico as a hard man, with a bad-temper and it is thought that Anne had an extramarital affair at one point in her marriage. However, during prayer one day, she experienced a profound conversion and felt called to give up the things that had once meant so much to her. 

+ Anne Marie became a third order member of the Trinitarian Order and began to live a life of austerity and charity. She gave all she could to the poor, visited the sick, and helped care for patients in Rome’s hospitals. She was so well-respected that cardinals and nobles sought her counsel. The witness of her life helped evangelize her family and they would regularly pray together. Shortly before her death, she met with Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget, the first bishop of Louisville, Kentucky. 

+ Honored as a gifted mystic, Anne Marie left behind a series of writings that include messages from Christ and the Blessed Virgin. 

+ Blessed Anne Marie Taigi died on June 9, 1837, and was beatified in 1920. Her incorrupt remains are enshrined in the Basilica of San Crisogono in Rome. 

For prayer and reflection

“The woman who fears the Lord will herself be praised. Her children have called her most blessed, her husband has sung her praises.”—Proverbs 31:30, 28

Prayer

O God, who gladden us each year with the feast day of blessed Anne Marie, grant, we pray, that we, who are called to honor her, may also follow her example of holy living. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Men Women—For a Holy Woman)
Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.