Maria Pierina

Blessed Maria Pierina De Micheli
Portrait of Blessed Maria Pierina
Mystic
Born	11 September 1890 Milan, Italy
Died	26 July 1945 Centonara, Italy
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	May 30, 2010, Rome by Archbishop Angelo Amato
Patronage	Devotees of the Holy Face of Christ

Blessed Maria Pierina De Micheli (1890–1945) was a Roman Catholic religious Sister who was born near Milan in Italy. She is best known for her association with the Holy Face of Jesus (one of the Catholic devotions) and for introducing a medal bearing an image from the Shroud of Turin as part of this devotion.

In April 2009 Pope Benedict XVI advanced her beatification process by formally recognizing a miracle attributed to her. She was beatified on Sunday, May 30, 2010 at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome by Archbishop Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Roman Curia. Although he was not present for the beatification Mass, Pope Benedict XVI noted her "extraordinary devotion" to the Holy Face of Christ at the Angelus audience the following Sunday.

She was born Giuseppina De Micheli in Milan on 11 September 1890. She took the name Sister Maria Pierina on 16 May 1914, when she took vows as a member of the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From 1919 to 1921 she was sent to the motherhouse of her religious congregation in Argentina. While there, her attachment to the Holy Face devotion grew stronger. After her return to Milan she was eventually elected as the mother superior of her house and began to spread the devotion.

She had been aware of the Holy Face of Jesus devotion since an early age. Sister Pierina did not initiate the Holy Face of Jesus devotion, for it had already been started almost a century earlier by a French Carmelite nun, Sister Marie of St Peter, of Tours, France. Both women claimed visions of Jesus and Mary as part of their motivation for following the devotion.