Quick Facts
- One of nine children born to the industrialist Clement di Rosa and Countess Camilla Albani and Clement di Rosa.
- Her father owned a large spinning mill, and Mary grew up in a happy and pious family.
- Educated by Visitandine nuns.
- Mary's mother died when the girl was seventeen, and she left school to help manage her father's estate.
- Her heart set on a religious life, she turned down many suitors.
- She worked with young girls in her community, those who worked in her father's mills, and the sick in local hospital, including endless work during the cholera epidemic of 1836.
- Founded a home dedicated to the spiritual needs of young girls, and a school for deaf children.
- In 1840 she became the superior of the Handmaids of Charity, nuns who cared for the sick, and she took the name Mary Crucifixa.
- The community received their bishop's approval in 1843, papal approval in 1850, and Mary led them until her death.
