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Constanza Cerioli was born on January 28, 1816, in Soncino, Cremona, Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia (Italy), the youngest of 16 children of Francesco Cerioli and Francesca Corniani. The family were part of the nobility of their age.
Constanza was a frail child and affected by a heart condition throughout her life. When she was eleven, her parents sent her to Bergamo for schooling where she studied from 1827 to 1832.
When Constanza returned home from her schooling, she discovered that her family had arranged her to be married to a 59-year-old widower who had lost his countess wife. Constanza accepted this as “God’s will” for her, and she married Gaetano Busecchi on April 30, 1835.
Unfortunately, Gaetano was a difficult personality and was frequently in poor health. Additionally, three of her four children died after being born prematurely, and the surviving child, Carlo, died when he was sixteen in January of 1854. Before he died, Carlo told his mother, “Mama, do not cry…the Lord will give you other children.” In the same year, Gaetano died, leaving Constanza a widow.
Constanza experienced a deep mourning period, but this led to a vibrant new life of service for the poor. Carlos’ words helped strengthen her when things looked bleak. So, when she was 38, she opened the family’s country home for orphan girls, and she decided to devote the rest of her life by serving God by serving those in need.
On Christmas Day, 1856, at the age of 40, Constanza took a vow of chastity and on February 8, 1857, she took vows of poverty and obedience. At that time, she founded a new religious community of women, the Institute of the Sisters of the Holy Family in Comonte, a village in the province of Bergamo in northern Italy. The purpose of this community was to care for abandoned children and help new parents. In religious life, Constanza became known as Paola Elisabetta.
On November 4, 1863, Mother Paola Elisabetta founded a community for men religious called the Congregation of the Holy Family and established an orphanage for boys. Mother Paula Elisabetta named Saint Joseph as the patron of both of her orders, and she wanted the orphans who were cared by the men and women of her orders to be known as the “sons and daughters of Saint Joseph.”
Mother Paola Elisabetta died on Christmas Eve, 1865, in Comonte at the age of 49. Pope Pius XII beatified her on the feast of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, March 19, 1950, and Pope St. John Paul II canonized her on May 16, 2004. Saint Paola Elisabetta’s feast day is December 24, and she is the patron saint of the religious communities she founded.
