CNA: Italian mystic who predicted fall of Mussolini beatified

Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, recently beatified Elena Aiello, an Italian religious woman who bore the stigmata and foretold the fall of Benito Mussolini.

The beatification Mass took place Sept. 14 in Calabria, Italy, the hometown of Sister Aiello.

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According to L’Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Amato noted that Sr. Elena, who died at age 66, taught Catholics that “it is possible to live the Gospel to a heroic degree, it is possible then to be saints … because this land needs the spiritual beauty of the saints.”

He recalled that Sr. Elena founded the congregation of the Little Sisters of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ with her philosophy of the “little way” toward holiness and her mystical participation in the Paschal mystery, with “her eyes always fixed on the crucifix.”

To those who said her charity toward the needy and the handicapped was “exaggerated,” Sr. Elena said, “The poor, the handicapped and the suffering are the best friends of Jesus, and in doing good to them, we are specifically loving the Lord.”

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Among her many prophecies, Sr. Elena foretold the tragic end of Mussolini, the Italian dictator who was executed by firing squad on April 28, 1945, after he was caught trying to escape Italy disguised as a German soldier.

“Do you remember when you asked me last July 7 what would happen to the Duce, and I told you that if he did not remain united to the Pope, he would have a worse end than that of Napoleon?  I repeat the same words to you now: If the Duce does not save Italy by doing everything that the Holy Father says and does, he will soon fall,” Sr. Elena said.

Sr. Elena Aiello