Anniversary Day

Today the Daughters of St. Paul celebrate the 92nd anniversary of the historic meeting between Father Alberione and Teresa Merlo in the sacristy of Sts. Cosmas and Damien Church in Alba, Italy. Teresa was just a young seamstress from a village in the hills. She had wanted to be a sister, but no one would take her! They said her health was just too poor; she "didn't have a vocation." But Father Alberione had a new kind of religious life in mind. He had nothing to show her--there was one woman who was working with him, but no group yet, no convent, no mission, even. He told her what the vision was, and she was enthralled by it: a new missionary community, printing books, using the most modern means available to spread the Gospel! Just a few years later, there was a "group" of women with the same ideal, and already people were calling them "daughters of St. Paul."