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Elena Guerra was born on June 23, 1835, in Lucca, Duchy of Lucca (now Italy) into a wealthy family. Elena was one of six children born to an aristocratic couple, Antonio Guerra and Faustina Francechi.
Although she was a timid child, her shyness never prevented her from serving God by serving others in her community. In fact, she began her ministry working with Vincentians caring for the poor and the sick.
When a cholera epidemic struck Lucca in 1853, Elena, at age 18, received her parents to nurse the cholera patients.
But from 1857 to 1864, Elena was struck by some illness that made her unable to leave her home. She used this time wisely, however, expanding her mind. Among some of things she studied were Latin, art, music, and religious works such as the lives of the saints and writings of the Church Fathers.
In 1866, Elena founded a group of women to help teach girls who often did not have access to quality education. She put this lay association under the patronage of Saints Joseph and Mary of the Holy Family, and of Saint Zita, patron saint of Lucca, who served as a household servant for the household of a wealthy silk merchant for almost 50 years. One of her students was Gemma Galgani, an Italian mystic who was canonized in 1940.
In 1870, Elena made a pilgrimage to Rome with her father, and on her birthday, 1870, she was able to meet with Pope Leo XIII. Elena, who had a lifelong devotion to the Holy Spirit, asked the pope if he would do what he could to rekindle devotion to the Holy Spirit among Catholics. The pope obliged her by writing an apostolic letter.
Encouraged by the pope’s response, Elena continued writing him. Thirteen letters that she wrote to Pope Leo between 1895 and 1903 have been preserved and published. In 1897, Pope Leo XIII wrote an encyclical, Divinum illud munus (That Divine Gift) which was subtitled, “On the Holy Spirit.” The encyclical established a novena to the Holy Spirit to be prayed between Ascension (which in those days was celebrated on a Thursday instead of Sunday) and Pentecost.
On October 18, 1897, Pope Leo granted Elena a private audience. He congratulated her on her work and the women of the community she founded, and he named the community the Oblates of the Holy Spirit.
The final approval for the Oblates of the Holy Spirit (O.S.S.), also sometimes known as the Sisters of Saint Zita or Zitines, was given by Pope Saint Pius X on March 6, 1911.
Sister Elena Guerra died on April 11, 1914, which was a Holy Saturday that year.
Saint John Bosco, founder of the Salesians, called her a “golden pen” in honor of her spiritual writings, and Pope Saint John XXIII, at her beatification in 1959, called her a “modern day apostle of the Holy Spirit.”
Pope Francis canonized Elena Guerra on October 20, 2024. Saint Elena Guerra’s feast day is April 11.
