Rushing day and night to visit the abandoned elderly and look after the poor, one of Chiara’s companions, Dori Zamboni, got an infection on her face. On January 24, 1944, Father Casimiro Bonetti who went to visit her, seeing the wound, turned suddenly to Chiara with a question: “Do you know what Jesus’ greatest pain was?”. According to the prevailing ideas of the Christians of that time, the girls replied, “His suffering in the garden of olives “. But the priest replied, “No, Jesus suffered more when on the cross he cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Mt 27:46). Impressed by those words, as soon as they were alone, Chiara said, “We have only one life, let’s spend it as best we can! If Jesus’ greatest sorrow was when he felt forsaken by the Father, we will follow Jesus Forsaken.”

Chiara and her companions' first fields of action, were the poorest neighbourhoods: San Martino, La Portela and Le Androne (in the photo)
Back to Biography