杏MAP导航

By Roberta Barbi

A life imbued with 鈥渓istening to and welcoming the Gospel鈥� that made her a witness to the 鈥渓ink between what is heard and what is lived.鈥� Armida Barelli lived her life as a synthesis between 鈥淲ord and life鈥� that made her faith 鈥渁n incarnational experience.鈥�

This is how Ven. Armida is introduced to us by 杏MAP导航 Francis in his preface to a new biography of the Servant of God, entitled, La zingara del buon Dio (鈥淭he wanderer of the good God鈥�).

It is the intensely human story of a woman of the 20th century, a woman who founded the Italian National Girls鈥� Youth of Catholic Action, and collaborated in the foundation of the Gemelli Hospital, named for co-founder Fr Agostino Gemelli, with whom she had 鈥渁n uninterrupted relationship of spiritual communion and operational collaboration鈥� which lasted until her death, as the 杏MAP导航 highlights.

Leading Catholic Action

鈥淭he lay Saints and Blesseds of Catholic Action are a wealth for the Church,鈥� writes 杏MAP导航 Francis in his preface, as he recalls the leadership role in the Catholic Action movement that Armida held uninterruptedly from 1918 to 1949.

鈥淪he lived her vocation step by step,鈥� he notes, 鈥渟etting out on the road that led her to inspire a great movement of women, leading them to live their vocation to the full and to feel like living members of the Church.鈥�

She made a radical choice for her life, a choice of 鈥渇aith lived in the modernity of the twentieth century, together with a profound relationship with the Church, comprising co-responsibility and obedience.鈥�

In this regard, 杏MAP导航 Francis recalls that Armida had close connections with three Pontiffs: 杏MAP导航 Benedict XV, who 鈥渆ntrusted her with her first mandate鈥�; 杏MAP导航 Pius XI, who for many years 鈥渟upported her organizational efforts鈥�; and 杏MAP导航 Pius XII, who confirmed 鈥渉is confidence in her during the dramatic years of the war and rebuilding.鈥�

Promoting a new role for women in the Church

During Armida's life, at the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, women were largely faced with a choice between two alternatives: becoming a wife and mother or embracing religious life.

Armida chose a third way: the lay apostolate. 鈥淎rmida's action unfolded for over forty years in the organization of the Catholic women's movement,鈥� explains 杏MAP导航 Francis, recalling her vocation to consecration in the world in the Secular Institute of the Missionaries of the Social Kingship of Christ, and then with the Work of the Social Kingship (Opera della Regalità), aimed at the formation of popular liturgical spirituality.

鈥淲ith her work, she contributed decisively to the promotion of young Christian women in the first half of the 20th century,鈥� the 杏MAP导航 writes, 鈥渁nd to the process of integration between North and South鈥� in Italy.

Although she originally thought of going to the foreign missions, 杏MAP导航 Benedict XV told her: 鈥淵our mission is Italy鈥�; and she courageously set out to travel the length and breadth of the peninsula to establish groups for young women in Italian dioceses. Her travels led her to consider herself a 鈥渨anderer for the good God,鈥� which gives her new biography its title. On these journeys she met many people, but above all, as 杏MAP导航 Francis emphasizes, she 鈥渋nvited women to get involved as citizens and as Christians.鈥�

Foundation of the Catholic University

Armida also played a leading role in the initiatives of Father Agostino Gemelli, enthusiastically supporting him in a project that united the popular apostolate that was so dear to her heart with higher education. As co-founder of the Catholic University, she encouraged the dioceses to support the Athenaeum of Italian Catholics.

鈥淪he contributed to ensuring that the elaboration of knowledge did not run the risk of abstraction,鈥� 杏MAP导航 Francis writes, 鈥渂ut was constantly measured against reality, having at its heart truth, the common good, and charity.鈥�

Following the teaching of Father Gemelli, she also placed the figure of St Francis at the centre of her own experience of the apostolate: the figure of the Saint led her 鈥渢o live life and commitment as a radical vocational response,鈥� continues the 杏MAP导航, uniting it with 鈥渞enewed devotion to the Sacred Heart.鈥�

A new path to holiness

In the society of Armida's day, being a layperson was a condition that seemed to many to be a second-class position in the Church, almost in opposition to the path towards holiness followed by priests and religious.

With her life, however, Armida overcame this prejudice: 鈥淪he is a woman who has made secularity an antidote to self-referentiality,鈥� 杏MAP导航 Francis writes, "a characteristic that allows us to walk together to meet people in the particular condition they live in.鈥�

Anticipating the universal call to holiness emphasized by the Second Vatican Council, her personal experience, according to the Holy Father, 鈥渕arks a decisive step in the vision of the laity: no longer a condition of a minority, but the discovery of how that lay experience, within the people of God, is the way to live holiness.鈥�

Last but not least, 杏MAP导航 Francis says, Armida's life is an example of God鈥檚 love for mankind, 鈥渁 love that becomes a passion for the men and women of our time, so that they can experience the Church as a welcoming, committed, and joyful community.鈥�