Blessed Elisabetta Sanna, member of the Union of Catholic Apostolate.
The Rite of Beatification of Elisabetta Sanna took place in the home parish of Elisabetta in the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, in Saccargia, Codrongianus, Sardinia, on Saturday 17 September. The Principal Celebrant at the out-door concelebrated Mass was Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. Cardinal Amato was accompanied by the Archbishop of Sassari, other Bishops from Sardinia, Mgr Julio Ende Akamine, SAC, a Pallottine Bishop from Sao Paulo, and a very large number of priests. The Pallottine Family was well represented with almost 60 priests, brothers and seminarians from around the world, this number included Frs. John Kelly, Derry Murphy and Rory Hanly, General Secretary of the Union of Catholic Apostolate; and with Sr. Ivete Garlet, CSAC, General Superior of the Pallottine Sisters and the General Council; Sr. Izabela Swierad, SAC, General Superior of the Pallottine Missionary Sisters, and the General Council; Sr. Adalgisa Cammarata, of the Eucharistic Sisters of St. Vincent Pallotti and by many Pallottine Sisters of both Congregations; Ms. Donatella Acerbi, President of the UAC was there and was accompanied by members of the Quinta Dimensione Community of which she is a member, and there were lay members of the Union of Catholic Apostolate from Italy, Brazil, Australia and Poland and friends of the Pallottine Family present. It all it is estimated that almost 6,000 persons took part in the open-air Mass of Beatification.
In order to be a candidate for Beatification it is necessary to have a miracle attributed to the person in consideration; a miracle attributed to the intercession of Elisabetta Sanna occurred on 18 May 2008 in Niteroi, Brazil. A 31 year old woman, Suzana, had surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from her forearm in 2003, following the surgery the muscles in her forearm and right hand atrophied and she lost all mobility in the forearm and hand. Suzana frequented a Pallottine parish in Niteroi, close to Rio de Janeiro, and in 2007 she heard of Elisabetta Sanna and because Elisabetta also had suffered a disability in her arms she began to pray to her daily. On 18 May 2008 in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel in the parish church in Niteroi, while praying, Suzana rested her right arm on the altar and after a while felt a tingling in the arm and gradually, over the course of an hour, recovered full use of the hand and arm. This healing was certified by a doctor on 4 June and further medical inspections confirmed this; the Holy See subsequently certified the miraculous nature of the healing through the intercession of Elisabetta Sanna. Suzana was present at the Beatification and it was a special joy to speak with her and listen to her recount the experience of a miraculous healing.
Derry Murphy, SAC.
