SW News: Neapolitan believers are jubilant as the much-awaited beatification of Venerable Maria Lorenza Longo, a Capuchin Poor Clare, is just hours away. The 16th-century nun will be declared Blessed on Saturday, October 10 at 10.30 am in the cathedral.

The beatification ceremony will be presided over by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. It will be attended by Capuchin Cardinal Celestino Aos Braco, archbishop emeritus of Santiago de Chile, and former Archbishop of Naples Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe. According to vice-postulator Sr Rosa Lupoli, the cause of beatification of the abbess of the monastery of Santa Maria in Gerusalemme in Naples began at the end of 1800. However, it got stalled after some time.

The cause of Mother Longo was once again taken up in 2004 after documents proving the miraculous healing of a Capuchin nun Cherubina Pirro in 1881 through the intercession of Mother Longo were discovered in the convent archives.

Born in Lerida in Spain in 1463, Longa married Juan Llonc, viceregent of the chancellery of Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1483. She accompanied her husband to Naples with their three children in 1506. But three years later, she lost her husband. After being poisoned by one of the maids, Longo went on a pilgrimage to the Holy House of Loreto seeking the grace of healing. She was healed in the Marian sanctuary there.

The grace of healing led her closer to spiritual life and she led a life of fervent prayer. She returned to Naples dressed in the habit of a Franciscan tertiary. Longo then got engaged in works of charity at the hospital of San Nicolo. With the assets she inherited from her late husband, she built the hospital of Santa Maria del Popolo in 1519,

She built a house for repentant prostitutes in 1526 next to the hospital. In 1533, after the Theatine priests arrived in Naples, Mother Longo chose their founder St Cajetano Thiene as her confessor. Under his guidance, she decided to found a contemplative community.

Mother Longo obtained from Pope Paul III the permission to found a new monastery subject to the rule of St Clare in 1535.  She slept in the Lord on 21 December 1539. Before breathing her last, she told her daughter nuns, “It seems to you that I have done great things and good works. But I don't trust in myself at all, I trust only in the Lord ”. After kissing the crucifix, she repeated the name of Jesus thrice and gave up her spirit.