GIULIANI, MARIANNA, ST.

In religion Maria della Pace (Eng: Mary of Peace; Fr.: Marie de la Paix); martyr, religious of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM); b. Dec. 13, 1875, Aquila, Italy; d. July 9, 1900, Taiyüan, China. Although Marianna's father was dogmatically anti–religious, her mother covertly taught her the faith. Her father abandoned the seven children to the care of neighbors after her mother's death in 1885. Marianna's uncle, a Franciscan priest, commended her to the care of Mother Mary of the Passion. Upon completing her studies in France, she joined the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (1892) and took the name Sr. Marie de la Paix. At the novitiate in Paris she worked with difficult girls. Thereafter she was assigned consecutively to Vanves, where she made her first vows, Austria, and China, where she was responsible for organizing the orphanage and using her beautiful voice to enhance the beauty of the liturgy. She was killed during the Boxer Uprising. Sr. Marie de la Paix was beatified with her religious sisters by Pope Pius XII, Nov. 24, 1946, and canonized, Oct. 1, 2000, by Pope John Paul II with Augustine Zhao Rong and companions.

Feast: July 4.

Bibliography: g. goyau, Valiant Women: Mother Mary of the Passion and the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, tr. g. telford (London 1936). m. t. de blarer, Les Bse Marie Hermine de Jésus et ses compagnes, franciscaines missionnaires de Marie, massacrées le 9 juillet 1900 à Tai–Yuan–Fou, Chine (Paris 1947). l. m. balconi, Le Martiri di Taiyuen (Milan 1945). Acta Apostolicae Sedis 47 (1955) 381–388. L'Osservatore Romano, Eng. Ed. 40 (2000): 1–2, 10.

[k. i. rabenstein]