CANORI-MORA, ELISABETTA, BL.

Patroness of abused spouses, mystic and Trinitarian Tertiary; b. Rome, Italy, Nov. 21, 1774; d. Rome, Feb. 5, 1825. Elisabetta was the daughter of a wealthy, Christian family headed by Tommaso Canori and Teresa Primoli. Under the tutelage of the Augustinian Nuns of Cascia (1785–88), she grew spiritually. In 1796, she wedded Cristoforo Mora (d. 1845), a lawyer who abused her and eventually abandoned her and their two children (Marianna and Luciana; two others had died in infancy), reducing the family to poverty. Elisabetta provided for her children and paid her husband's debts by working as a maid, laundress, and seamstress. While earning a living and raising her family, Elisabetta ministered generously to the poor and sick. Following a grave illness in 1801, she was favored with many spiritual gifts, and she became a member of the secular third order of the Most Holy Trinity in 1807. Her home was always open to those in need of spiritual or material comfort. She offered the sufferings of her life for the conversion of her husband, who, after her death, became a Trinitarian tertiary and Conventual Franciscan priest. Her body rests in the Trinitarian San Carlino alle Quattro Fontane Church in Rome. A miracle attributed to Elisabetta's intercession was approved, July 6, 1993, which led to her beatification by John Paul II, April 24, 1994.

Feast: Feb. 4.

Bibliography: La mia vita nel cuore della Trinità. Diario della Beata Elisabetta Canori Mora, sposa e madre (Vatican City 1996). p. giovetti, Madri e mistiche: Anna Maria Taigi ed Elisabetta Canori Mora (Milan 1991); Elisabetta Canori Mora: Sposa, madre e mistica romana (Milan 2000). p. redi, Elisabetta Canori Mora: un amore fedele tra le mura di casa (Rome 1994). Acta Apostolicae Sedis (1994): 501–503.

[k. i. rabenstein]