Featured Vincentian Blessed of the Month
Image of Blessed Némésia Valle

Blessed Nemesia Valle

Birth: June 26, 1847
Death: December 18, 1916
Beatification: April 25, 2004

Giulia Nemesia Valle (1847-1916) was born in Aosta, Italy, the first child of Anselmo Valle and Cristina Dalbar. She was schooled, catechized, and prepared for the Sacraments at home by a priest who was a friend of the family. At age eleven, Giulia was sent to a boarding school of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Jeanne-Anne Thouret in Besancon , France. There she learned French and gained household skills.
  On September 8, 1866 her father accompanied her to the order's novitiate at the Monastery of Saint Margaret in Vercelli. During Giulia's formation, she began to pray a prayer that would remain with her for the rest of her life: "Jesus, empty me of myself, let me be clothed in you. Jesus, for you I live and for you I die..." At the end of her novitiate, she received the religious name Nemesia, after the Roman martyr Nemesius, a deacon who was beheaded c. 260 because of his conversion to Christianity.
  Sister Nemesia was sent to Saint Vincent's Insitute at Tortona, where she worked in the elementary school, the boarding school, and the orphanage. At age forty she was elected superior of her community.
    After 36 years at Tortona, she moved to Borgano, near Turin, to work with novices in a new province of the Sisters of Charity. In the thirteen years before her death, she helped to form about five hundred novices.
Patrons of Santa Isabel College - Manila
Image of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY

Elizabeth was the daughter of the King of Hungary. She married Louis IV, Duke of Thuringia, at the age of 14. She was a mother with three children.

Her life is an example of devotion to her husband and to the poor. She set up three hospitals, and spent the best years of her life in piety and services to the poor and the sick. She became a widow at the age of 24 and thereupon entered the Third Order of Saint Francis where she practiced heroic works of charity. She spent the remaining years of her life administering to the poor, the destitute and the sick.

Amidst great deprivations and even rejection by her own household, she continued her works of charity, mercy, and kindness. She died on November 17, 1231 and was canonized four years after her death.
There are two well-known miracles during the lifetime of St. Elizabeth. One is the Miracle of Roses. Elizabeth was coming from the royal kitchen with bread for the poor which she bid under her apron when she met Louis who asked her what she was hiding. She said, "Roses my Lord". When Louis gestured to see, she let go her apron and down fell, fresh red roses. And there are no roses on winter.

There was a story about a leper whom St. Elizabeth brought to the Master's Bedroom, to keep him warm and comfortable. When the royal household learned about it, there was a commotion. Louis could not believe Elizabeth could do such thing, so he led the members of the household to see for themselves. to prove that there was no leper. There was a wounded Christ in the room.

St. Elizabeth of Hungary is the patroness of Santa Isabel College and our school is named after her.