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Maria Laura Mainetti

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Blessed

Maria Laura Mainetti

FDLC
Virgin and martyr
BornTeresina Elsa Mainetti
(1939-08-20)20 August 1939
Villatico, Colico, Lecco, Kingdom of Italy
ResidenceChiavenna, Sondrio, Italy
Died6 June 2000(2000-06-06) (aged 60)
Chiavenna, Sondrio, Italy
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
Beatified6 June 2021, Stadio Comunale, Chiavenna, Sondrio, Italy by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro
Major shrineCollegiate Church of Saint Lawrence
Chiavenna, Sondrio, Italy
Feast6 June

Maria Laura Mainetti (born Teresina Elsa Mainetti; 20 August 1939 – 6 June 2000) was an Italian religious sister of the Sisters of the Cross. Mother superior of a convent in Chiavenna that specialised in helping juvenile delinquents, she was stabbed to death in a satanic sacrifice by three teenage girls on the night of 6 June 2000. Mainetti's death was declared a martyrdom by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 2020, and she was beatified on 6 June 2021, the twenty-first anniversary of her murder.

Life

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Teresina Elsa Mainetti was born on 20 August 1939 in Villatico,[1] a frazione of Colico, Lecco, Italy, and was baptised aged two days. She was the tenth and last child born to Marcellina Gusmeroli (who died when Teresina was 12 days old) and Stefano Mainetti.[2] She attended the Istituto Magistrale run by the Sisters of the Cross in Parma, and decided to join the Sisters of the Cross after turning 18. Mainetti began her postulancy in Rome on 22 August 1957 and was admitted into the novitiate in February 1958. On 15 August 1959, she made her first vows to live according to the evangelical counsels, taking the sister name Laura in honour of the late daughter of another sister. Mainetti made her final vows in La Puye on 25 August 1964. After teaching at primary schools run by the Sisters of the Cross in Vasto, Rome, Parma and Chiavenna, she became mother superior of a convent in Chiavenna specialising in providing help for juvenile delinquents.[3][4]

Murder

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Map
Location of the murder

Around 22:00 on 6 June 2000, Mainetti left her convent in Chiavenna and went to a local public square to meet a girl who had recently requested an appointment via telephone, claiming to have been raped and impregnated and to be considering an abortion.[5] There, Mainetti encountered the girl, Veronica Pietrobelli, and the latter's friends, Milena De Giambattista and Ambra Gianasso. The three girls, aged 16 and 17, lured Mainetti down a nearby street to a secluded area outside a park where they ambushed her, stoning and shouting abuse at her before taking turns in stabbing her with a kitchen knife that De Giambattista was carrying.[6] Mainetti prayed as she was being attacked, asking God to forgive the girls, before dying after having been stabbed 19 times.[7] Mainetti's body was found the next morning by a passerby.[8]

The girls were arrested on suspicion of the murder three weeks later, after two of them discussed what they had done in a telephone conversation—police had monitored the girls' telephones after a witness claimed to have seen them with Mainetti.[9][10] In custody, the girls initially said they killed the sister "for sport", later saying they killed her in a satanic sacrifice. They told investigators they had initially wanted to kill the parish priest, but decided that Mainetti, who had previously taught them catechism, would be an easier target;[9][10] and that their intention had been to stab the sister 18 times—6 times per girl, as per the number of the beast; the nineteenth stab wound was inflicted "by mistake".[11] After a summary trial at the juvenile court of Milan on 9 August 2001, De Giambattista and Pietrobelli were convicted of murder and sentenced to 8 years and 6 months' imprisonment, with the court taking into account that they were partially insane at the time of the crime; their sentences were later upheld by the city's appeal court. Gianasso, who was initially found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity, was sentenced to 12 years and 4 months' imprisonment by the appeal court on 4 April 2002;[12] she was released on 17 January 2003 after the Supreme Court of Cassation failed to reach a verdict on an appeal she had filed,[13] before returning to prison six days later after the court upheld her sentence.[14] By 2008, all three perpetrators had been released from prison after participating in community service programs.[15][16][17]

Legacy and beatification

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Memorial for Mainetti at the site of her murder. The following bible verse is inscribed: "If the grain of wheat dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24)

Mainetti's funeral on 9 June 2000 was attended by some 2,500 mourners.[18] On 23 October 2005, Alessandro Maggiolini, Bishop of the Diocese of Como, opened the diocesan phase of Mainetti's beatification process at the Collegiate Church of Saint Lawrence in Chiavenna.[19] On 20 March 2008, he announced that the request for the initiation of her beatification process had been approved.[20] The Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared her a martyr,[21] eliminating the need for recognition of a miracle.[22] The Congregation declared her a martyr again on 19 June 2020.[23][24] She was beatified on 6 June 2021, the twenty-first anniversary of her murder.[25][26]

On 26 February 2019, Mainetti's remains were exhumed from Chiavenna cemetery and placed in the Collegiate Church of Saint Lawrence.[27]

References

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  1. ^ Redazione (6 June 2021). "Suor Maria Laura Mainetti è beata: "Una vita donata due volte"". Lecco Notizie (in Italian). Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  2. ^ "Testimone d'Amore", Figlie della Croce
  3. ^ "Suor Maria Laura Mainetti". Figlie della Croce (in Italian). Retrieved 5 June 2021.
  4. ^ "Storia". Beata Suor Maria Laura (in Italian). Retrieved 5 June 2021.
  5. ^ "Le ragazze di Satana". Delitti [it]. History [it].
  6. ^ "La killer di suor Maria "Averla uccisa mi ha salvato la vita"". ilGiornale.it (in Italian). 4 April 2008. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
  7. ^ "Mentre la uccidevamo la suora pregava per noi". la Repubblica. 7 July 2000. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  8. ^ "Suora uccisa a coltellate". la Repubblica. 7 June 2000. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  9. ^ a b Carroll, Rory (1 July 2000). "Girls confess to killing nun 'for sport'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  10. ^ a b Johnston, Bruce (2 July 2000). "Bishop blames liberal society for girls' 'joke' killing of nun". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  11. ^ "A Satana bastavano 18 coltellate". la Repubblica (in Italian). 8 July 2000. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  12. ^ "Omicidio di Chiavenna, condannate le tre ragazze". www.repubblica.it. 4 April 2002. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  13. ^ "Suora uccisa, scarcerata una delle ragazze killer". la Repubblica (in Italian). 18 January 2003. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  14. ^ "Ambra torna in carcere". la Repubblica. 23 January 2003. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  15. ^ "Esce una delle killer della suora". la Repubblica. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  16. ^ "Milena in comunità". la Repubblica (in Italian). 5 May 2006. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  17. ^ Giliberti, Luigina (11 December 2007). "Uccisero una suora. Fuori l'ultima ragazza". Corriere della Sera. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  18. ^ "Il vescovo piange per la suora uccisa". Archivio – la Repubblica.it (in Italian). 10 June 2000. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  19. ^ "La suora uccisa da tre ragazze sarà santa". Gazzetta di Reggio (in Italian). 23 October 2005. Archived from the original on 12 November 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  20. ^ "Suora uccisa, sì al processo di beatificazione". Corriere della Sera. 21 March 2008. Archived from the original on 1 January 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  21. ^ "Pope speaks about religious sister who was killed by Satanists". Catholic News Agency. 9 April 2008. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  22. ^ "Suora uccisa, fu un martirio la beatificazione sarà più rapida". la Repubblica (in Italian). 22 March 2008. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  23. ^ Morandotti, Lorenzo (19 June 2020). "Suor Maria Laura Mainetti, riconosciuto il martirio". Corriere di Como (in Italian). Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  24. ^ "Sarà beata suor Maria Laura Mainetti, uccisa venti anni fa da tre ragazze per un rito satanico". la Repubblica (in Italian). 20 June 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
  25. ^ "Suor Maria Laura Mainetti proclamata beata: venne uccisa da tre ragazze "nel nome di Satana"". Il Fatto Quotidiano (in Italian). 6 June 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  26. ^ Gerosa, Barbara (6 June 2021). "Suor Maria Laura Mainetti, è beata la religiosa uccisa da tre ragazze "in nome di Satana"". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  27. ^ "Serva di Dio. Il corpo di suor Mainetti traslato nella "sua" chiesa a Chiavenna". Avvenire (in Italian). 12 March 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
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