Review (5/5): A remarkable story of one holy woman’s beautiful life of submissiveness to the Divine.
One of the many beautiful and truly interesting aspects of the Catholic faith are the stories of the extradorinaiy holy men and women-Gospel witnesses-if-you-will, who are on the path to sainthood. These men and women, who are of diverse educational, professional, economic and cultural backgrounds, are as varied as the grains of sand on a beach. And yet, their stories are so unique, powerful and individualistic that one can’t help thirsting to hear and read more of how the Lord invites such souls into an amazing intimate and supernatural communion that transcends the ordinariness of everyday life. These people are Gospel “lighthouses,” and I cherish every life story of such souls that come my way. One such remarkable story is that of the Venerable servant of God Benedetta Bianchi Porro, a young Italian woman from Dovadola, Romagna who, at an early age, was struck with poliomyelitis, a sickness which crippled her leg and forced her to wear a painful brace to keep her spine from deforming. At seventeen-years-of-age, despite her physical infirmities and limitations, she was able to plow through her academic studies and eventually enroll at the University of Milan to study physics. However, that did not satisfy the need that she had to minister to people who were seriously ill and physically limited as she herself was. With that hunger to help, she transferred to medical school and began a journey that one can only say was awe inspiring.
From age five up, Benedetta kept a diary where she detailed her faith and the cross of her illness in light of that faith. It was not a record of bitter grief or feelings of misfortune and hopelessness. Rather, it was the exact opposite, a journal where her thoughts always expressed gratitude and wonder at the mysterious ways of God: “How beautiful and awesome is life! Every joy is pain and every pain is joy!” Or: “ It is Easter Sunday today. O how I wish that I too would be able to rise again from these sins and to live only in God.” And: “...I have always dreamed of becoming a doctor! I want to live and struggle and sacrifice myself for all men.” Yet, these diary entries are not always so expressively ebullient. The diary, too, shows a brilliant woman who is also afraid, willful, frustrated and self-conscious because she fears that she cannot live up to the high expectations that she has of and for herself: “Tonight I am so sad thinking that I will not be able to go through life with this deafness. I must find a cure, whatever it be; and I must find it as soon as possible.” Even before her illness began to dominate her to the point where she couldn’t do anything, medically speaking, she knew what was truly important in life: “Today Gabriel and I philosophized together about God and the immortality of the soul. How stupid men are when they are ashamed to speak of these important things.” As her illness progressed, her insights into the Cross of Suffering, the Cross of Christ, became keener and more illuminating: “Let us not be overcome by doubt, never, never. And if this should happen even for a moment, Jesus will look down upon us and lovingly restore us to life, just as He did Lazarus. Have no fear.” And: “I am aware more than ever of the richness of my condition and I don’t desire but to continue in it. This has been for me the miracle of Lourdes this year.” Lastly: “Sometimes I find myself defeated under the weight of this heavy cross. Then, I call upon Jesus and lovingly cast myself at His feet; He kindly permits me to rest my head on His lap. Do you understand Maria Grazia? Do you understand the ecstatic joy of those moments?”
Those grace filled moments were episodes that allowed Benedetta to live through her Calvery, for the shadow of that was always with her, even though the illness offered quiet periods of normalcy whereby she was able to excel in her studies of math and science. But then, her sickness would progress to such an extent that her life would instantly change from being a medical student to being a hospital patient and then a victim soul. Her constant companion throughout her life was the ups and downs of her illness, the lack of surety of a future, of a life. And worse, none of the doctors could properly diagnosis what her illness was. Operation after operation, and no satisfactory results could be yielded. She physically deteriorated and had to abandon the hopes of a medical career. However, because she had a gift for medicine, she was able to diagnosis herself with Recklinghausen Disease­-Neuro-Fibromatosis, an illness which lead to the paralysis of her nervous system. Eventually, she became bedridden, deaf, blind and unable to touch and talk. She could only communicate through symbolic language. She would, in this darkness, always see a light and would be gifted with inner illuminations and or interior locutions. From her hospital bed, she was able to conduct a ministry of evangelization, always preaching about God’s love and the mysterious gloriousness of His ways. This ministry united her medical friends, family, staff, doctors and strangers who never knew of her. Because of the family’s deep faith, they knew that only God could restore her health. And with that truth, the family traveled twice to Lourdes, the healing shrine where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Bernardette Soubirous in 1858. On the first visit there in 1962, the woman lying next to Benedetta was miraculously healed of paralysis, but nothing happened for Benedetta until her next trip to Lourdes in 1963. At the next trip she was illuminated with the insight that what she was enduring, was, in reality, a grace, a privilege to be a sharer of the Cross. Her illness was a pivotal part of her evangelization. Her illness and suffering could not be extricated from the love of God and Christ on the Cross that she wanted to express, for they went hand-in-hand. For the time that she had left, she communicated love, as stated in her diary: “Life has only one face: Love.” At the moment of her death, a white rose bloomed outside of her window. In 1993, Saint Pope John Paull II declared Benedetta a Venerable soul due to her heroic virtues. Only two miracles are needed for Benedetta to be declared a saint herself.
This book, Beyond Silence, only gives a glimmer of the amazing life of Benedetta; it has a little biography, journal snippets, remembrances by those who knew her and an assortment of letters that she was able to have written before she lost all the power of her senses. It is not a biography in the traditional sense but rather a patchwork profile of gathered information. It was inspiring and evoked a desire to pray in all circumstances and conditions of life. Venerable Benedetta Bianchi Porro, pray for us.