Hi, readers!  It’s the third Sunday of the month, when I plan to introduce a Holy Role-Model from our faith’s history (or a married couple together).  Some are full-blown Saints, and some are Servants of God, Venerables, and Blesseds, which are all steps on the road to being fully canonized Saints.  Our first Holy Role Models are Blesseds Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, Italians who were the first married couple to be beatified together by the Church.  They lived out extraordinary faith through their ordinary marriage, and they are a wonderful example of fruitful love.

Luigi Beltrame was born on January 12, 1880 and sent to Urbino in central Italy to live with his childless aunt and uncle.  Since they had effectively adopted him, Luigi decided to add their last name, Quattrocchi, to his own.  Luigi studied law in Rome, graduating in 1902.  Though he was kind and virtuous, Luigi did not have a strong faith before his marriage.

Maria Corsini was born in Florence, Italy on June 24, 1884.  Her parents often quarrelled, but Maria tried to be the peacekeeper between them.  Maria was brought up in a much more religious family.  She was thoughtful, obedient and had a heart for others.  After graduating from business school, Maria became a lecturer and professor of education.

Maria and Luigi became friends while he was in law school.  When both of Luigi’s adoptive parents died close together, Luigi grieved to the point of physical illness.  Maria gave him a picture of the Virgin of Pompeii with some words of encouragement.  Luigi recovered, and carried the image with him wherever he went for the rest of his life.  He realized that he wanted this encouraging, faithful woman by his side for life, too.  “How grateful I am to you for the good that your love does me, that it encourages me… [you] saved my soul from skepticism,” he wrote to her (July 29, 1905).  They married on November 25, 1905.

The Quattrocchis had a beautiful and virtuous marriage.  According to one of their children, “their life together was a veritable contest in respect, in self-giving, in loving dependence and mutual obedience.”  They wrote each other long letters throughout their lives.  Every evening after dinner, the family prayed the rosary together, and they had a special devotion to the Sacred Heart.  Luigi and Maria knew that their own faith must be kept strong if they were to raise children who appreciated everything “from the roof up,” as they liked to say.  The Quattrocchis’ first child, Filippo, was born before their first anniversary, and Stefania (called “Fanny”) and Cesarino followed in 1908 and 1909.  But the Quattrocchis’ openness to life was not always a smooth, easy road.

Maria struggled with severe morning sickness and other physical side effects of pregnancy.  “Who will give me the strength… to endure the physical and physiological exhaustion of pregnancy and the rest?” she wrote to her husband during her second pregnancy.  “Believe me, I am truly in despair.”  But even more difficult trials arrived with her fourth pregnancy, when Maria experienced violent hemorrhaging and was diagnosed with placenta previa.  Her doctors gave her a 5% survival rate and urged her to abort the baby.   At only 29 years old and with three other children to care for at home, Maria must have been terrified.  Fanny recalled seeing her father break down in tears while speaking to a priest during this time.  Still, the couple resolutely chose life for their child.  Maria was induced at eight months, and, miraculously, Maria and her daughter Enrichetta were both completely safe and healthy.  Through those long, uncertain months of the pregnancy, Maria and Luigi became even more bonded, both spiritually and emotionally.

“From this fertile spiritual terrain,” Pope John Paul II announced at the couple’s beatification Mass, “sprang vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.”  Fanny became sister Maria Cecilia at a Benedictine convent, and later the two boys left home on the exact same day to pursue their own religious vocations: Filippo became a Benedictine and Cesarino became a Trappist monk.  It was certainly difficult for Maria and Luigi to see their children leave.  Enricchetta recalled, “I can still see the silent, discrete tears of my father on his knees, while on the other side of the grille, the ceremony of his daughter’s taking of the habit took place.”  Still, the Quattrocchis felt blessed to be able to return the beautiful fruit of their marriage to the Lord in this way.

Having children and offering them back to God in religious vocations were hardly the only visible fruits of this holy marriage.  Maria published books and articles on encouraging topics like marriage, family life and education.  They were both extremely involved in their community, giving their time to the young through helping with the scouting movement, the ill through the Red Cross, and even those who were in danger during World War II.  The Quattrocchis stored false documents in their home for Jews, and borrowed Benedictine robes from their son to disguise people wanted by the Nazis on their way to the safety of monasteries.  Today, The Foundation Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi helps engaged and married couples cement their relationships in holiness by encouraging members to feed on the “three loaves” of the Eucharist, the Word of God, and the will of God. 

As the Quattrocchis grew older, they considered withdrawing to monastery life.  They discerned that this was not God’s will, but they did choose to take a vow of perfect and total openness to God that involved renouncing sexual relations after 20 years of marriage.  Luigi and Maria moved to the countryside, where they enjoyed hiking in the Dolomitas mountains, frequently with their little miracle child, Enrichetta, who cared for them tenderly in their old age.  Luigi passed away from a heart attack on November 9, 1951, but death could not truly part these spouses.  “Little by little, he is present to me ever more,” Maria wrote a few months later.  On August 21, 1965, Maria, too, suffered a heart attack, and died in Enrichetta’s arms.

The Quattrocchis were beatified on October 21, 2001, the 20th anniversary of Familiaris consortio, a papal encyclical on the role of the Christian family in the world.  As only Fanny had died at that point, Enrichetta (aged 87) was in the congregation to witness her parents becoming Blesseds, and both Filippo (aged 95) and Cesarino (aged 91) were able to concelebrate the Mass with the Pope.  Luigi and Maria’s feast day is celebrated on their wedding anniversary, November 25.

Had you heard of the Bl. Quattrocchis before this post? How does this couple inspire you in your own marriage? Tell us below in the comments!

References: 

“Bl. Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi and Bl. Maria Corsini.” L’Observatore Romano, October 10, 2001.

“Blessed Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi”.” Catholic Saints Info. Last modified February 3, 2019. http://catholicsaints.info/blessed-luigi-beltrame-quattrocchi/.

Hunter-Kilmer, Meg. “Blessed Luigi and Maria Quattrocchi: Ordinary married life, shot through with glory.” Aleteia. Last modified October 10, 2001. https://aleteia.org/2017/11/25/blessed-luigi-and-maria-quattrocchi-ordinary-married-life-shot-through-with-glory/.

Kennedy, Carol P. “Beautiful Together: Luigi Quattrocchi and Maria Corsini.” Lay Witness, May/ June 2002., 6-7.

Lilgadas, Josep. Santos y Santas 275: Luis y Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi. Barcelona: Agpograf Impressors, 2020.

“Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi and Maria Corsini.” Wikipedia. Last modified September 14, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Beltrame_Quattrocchi_and_Maria_Corsini.

Marie, Dom Antoine. “Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi.” Abbaye Saint-Joseph de Clairval. Last modified April 8, 2008. https://www.clairval.com/documents/AN-2008-04-08.pdf. 

Pope John Paul II. “Homily at Beatification Mass.” The Holy See. Last modified October 21, 2001. http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2001/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20011021_beltrame-quattrocchi.html.

Sullivan, Mary A. “Heroic in Marriage.” Marian Helper, Spring 2002. https://www.marian.org/marianhelper/issues/issue160/article160164.html.