Background
Rosa Maria Benedetta Gattorno Custo was born on 14 October 1831 to Francesco Gattorno and Adelaide Campanella who were from the upper middle-class and she had five other siblings.
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Career
Her order - after her death - expanded in Europe and other parts of the world. She was beatified on 9 April 2000 after a miracle was attributed to her intercession. She was baptized mere hours after her birth in the parush of San Donato.
Custo received the sacrament of Confirmation at the age of twelve in the church of Santa Maria delle Vigne under Archbishop Placido Tadini.
At the age of 21 she relocated to Marseille. The two were forced to return to Genoa after a series of financial difficulties.
The two had three children. Their eldest daughter Carlotta suffered from deafness after she was struck with a sudden illness.
Her husband"s death on 9 March 1858 paved the path for a new vocation to blossom within her.
She dedicated herself to the poor and to the children. In 1862 she received the stigmata and the pain hit her most on the date of the death of Jesus Christ each week. She also consulted with her confessor and the Archbishop of Genoa.
Custo established the Daughters of Saint Anne on 8 December 1866 in Piacenza and she assumed the habit in 1867.
Her religious profession was made with twelve new nuns on 8 April 1870. The new order received the Decree of Praise in 1876 from Pius IX and received the official papal approval of Pope Leo XIII in 1879.
The official Rule of the order was not introduced until 1892. Custo also collaborated with Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini - future Blessed - in providing assistance to the deaf.
She contracted influenza at the beginning of 1900 and her health started to deteriorate.
She was to receive the last rites and died on 6 May 1900 at 9:00am. The beatification process commenced on 30 March 1927 and the opening of a diocesan tribunal in Rome conferred upon her the posthumous title Servant of God. The local diocesan process concluded its work - the assemblage of documentation and witness testimonies - and received formal ratification on 19 November 1991 to confirm the process was a valid one.
The Positio - documentation on her life and her virtues - was compiled and was sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 1992.
The recognition of her life of heroic virtue allowed for Pope John Paul II to declare her to be Venerable on 21 December 1998. The miracle attributed to her intercession was investigated in a diocesan tribunal and received its formal ratification on 20 December 1996.
John Paul II approved the healing as a miracle on 28 June 1999 and beatified her on 9 April 2000.
Achievements
Membership
She cultivated this feeling and under the guidance of her confessor - Giuseppe Firpo - she took her vows as a member of the Franciscan third order on 8 December 1858.
