Background
Olivia Pietrantoni (known to the family as "Livia") was born on 27 March 1864 in Pozzaglia Sabina, about 50 kilometres north-east of Rome. The second of eleven children in a farming family.
Olivia Pietrantoni (known to the family as "Livia") was born on 27 March 1864 in Pozzaglia Sabina, about 50 kilometres north-east of Rome. The second of eleven children in a farming family.
She started work at the age of seven, doing manual labour for road construction. Refusing offers of marriage, Livia travelled to Rome with an uncle at the age of 22, with the aim of entering a religious order. Sister Agostina was sent to Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome as a nurse
While working in the tuberculosis ward, she contracted the disease herself but made a full recovery.
She was harassed by a male patient called Joseph Romanelli who eventually attacked and stabbed her to death on 13 November 1894. Agostina Petrantoni was beatified by Pope Paul VI on 12 November 1972, and canonized by Pope John Paul II on April 18, 1999.
Her feast day is 12 November.