Blessed Clelia Merloni

Who was Blessed Clelia Merloni?

Blessed Clelia Merloni was the Italian foundress of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a congregation of sisters who teach and serve the poor in Italy, the Americas and beyond. She founded them in 1894, lost almost everything to debt and calumny, was removed from leadership and spent years in exile, and came home to her sisters only at the end of her life. Her motto was two words: "Dio solo," God alone. We keep her feast on November 21.

She was born Clelia Cleopatra Maria Merloni in Forlì on March 10, 1861, to Gioacchino Merloni and Maria Teresa Brandinelli. Her father prospered in business in Liguria and gave her lessons in languages and piano, hoping for a good marriage. He was an atheist and a Freemason. Clelia wanted only to belong to Jesus, and she promised to bring her father back to God.

Searching for her place

In 1883 Clelia entered the Daughters of Our Lady of the Snow at Savona, but illness sent her home after four years. In 1892 she joined the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence at Como. There, according to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, she recovered from tuberculosis in a way her sisters considered miraculous, and she understood that this was not her place either. She went back to her father's house troubled, with a call that had no shape yet.

Then she dreamed of Viareggio, a town on the Tuscan coast she had never seen, and understood that the Lord was sending her there.

Founding the Apostles of the Sacred Heart

On April 24, 1894, Clelia set out for Viareggio with almost nothing, together with her friend Elisa; a second companion, Giuseppina, soon joined them. A little over a month later the three opened their institute in a house in the town center, with the help of the Franciscan friars. They took in orphans, elderly and sick women and abandoned girls, and they soon opened a school. Their mission was the one Christ had entrusted to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque: to make His Sacred Heart known and loved. "Bring everyone a ray of the tenderness of the Heart of Jesus," Clelia told her sisters.

Her father, the Freemason she had prayed for, returned to the faith on his deathbed, and his inheritance paid for the congregation's houses.

Debt, calumny and exile

The money did not last. A priest who managed the congregation's affairs mishandled them, and the property had to be sold. Clelia took the blame herself rather than accuse him in public. The U.S. province of her sisters says she became "a victim of calumny" and faced lawsuits.

What followed was a long humiliation. She was removed as superior; the institute changed its title and adopted new constitutions without consulting her; sisters loyal to her were sent away, and she withdrew. Her exile took her to Turin, Roccagiovine and Marcellina. The Dicastery's summary of her cause also notes the hard years of canonical visitations and a court case in Genoa, where a sister was convicted of mistreating a girl and Clelia, though personally innocent, was held responsible.

Return and death

In 1928 she asked to return, and her sisters welcomed her to the motherhouse in Rome. Old and ill, she spent her last two years in a small room far from the community but overlooking the chapel. She died on November 21, 1930. Her last words were "Signore, vieni… Gesù!" — "Lord, come… Jesus!"

The miracle and her beatification

• Approved: in March 1951 in São Paulo, Brazil, a 41-year-old surgeon, Dr. Pedro Ângelo de Oliveira Filho, developed a rapid, ascending paralysis. On March 21 his case was judged desperate and treatment was stopped. That evening a sister of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart urged his wife to pray to Mother Clelia and gave him water with a thread from her clothing. He began to improve and recovered completely. The medical board in Rome found the cure rapid, complete, lasting and unexplained, and Pope Francis approved it on January 27, 2018.

Pope Francis had declared her heroic virtue on December 21, 2016. She was beatified in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome on November 3, 2018.

Symbols of Blessed Clelia Merloni in art

Mother Clelia lived in the age of photography, and her images follow her photographs.

• Sacred Heart of Jesus: the heart of her spirituality and the name of her congregation.
• Black habit and crucifix: the dress of her sisters in her time.
• Book: the schools her sisters opened from the start.
• "God alone": her motto, often printed on her holy cards.

Feast day, tomb and prayer

We keep her feast on November 21. Her tomb is in the chapel of the Generalate of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart in Rome, Via Germano Sommeiller 38. Her sisters, who came to the United States in 1902 to serve Italian immigrants, keep her memory in their schools and parishes. See also the feast day calendar and the Sacred Heart prayer.

The Apostles of the Sacred Heart publish this prayer:

I praise you, O merciful Father, for you have revealed to little ones the infinite treasures of the Heart of Your Son.

Through the intercession of Blessed Clelia Merloni, who was confident in the Heart of Jesus, zealous in charity, patient in adversity, and heroic in forgiveness.

I pray that I may obtain the grace I now ask of you (ask for the grace).

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in you.

Her own words go with it: "Trust God and miracles will happen!"