Blessed Chiara Luce Badano:

Feast day : 29 October

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Blessed Chiara Badano, a Catholic Italian teenager who lived during the period 1971-1990. Through her short life of 18 years, she lived the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love in a heroic way even in the midst of her most painful illness. Her face radiated her love for Jesus and those who met her were profoundly influenced by the ‘light’ of Jesus in her. She endured all the sufferings of her bone cancer patiently and offered them lovingly to Jesus. She was declared ‘Blessed’ by Pope Benedict XVI on 25 September 2010 at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love in Rome.

Blessed Chiara Badano was born on October 29, 1971 to Ruggero and Maria Teresa Badano in the small village of Sassello, Italy. They were a childless couple for 11 years of their marriage and Chiara was born as God’s answer to their fervent prayers. As a small child she was known to be compassionate and considerate to the needs of the less fortunate. She would donate her good toys happily to poor kids out of compassion and was always considerate to visit her sick friends who were confined to their home. She loved attending Holy Mass and listening to stories from the Bible. But she had her own struggles too. She was not good at academics and even failed in her first year of high school. At the age of 9, she joined the Focolare movement, which is an international Catholic organisation that promotes the ideals of unity and universal brotherhood. This helped her to grow in her prayer life and gain strength in her struggles. She was often mocked in school and called ‘Sister’ for her piety and faith. Nevertheless, she was very popular and had a lot of friends. She was good in sports and loved to sing and dance as any normal adolescent of her age.

At the age of 16 she had a deep spiritual encounter in a Focolare spiritual retreat in Rome. There she met the founder of the Focolare Movement – Chiara Lubich. From the retreat she wrote to her parents “This is a very important moment for me: it is an encounter with Jesus Forsaken.“ From thereon she remained in regular correspondence with Chiara Lubich who added ‘Luce’ meaning ‘light’ to her name mentioning to her that “your luminuous face shows your love for Jesus”. This spiritual discipleship helped her to grow closer to Jesus.

Illness & death:

In the same year whilst playing tennis she experienced a sharp pain on her shoulder that persisted. After medical examinations, she was diagnosed with a rare form of aggressive bone cancer - Osteogenic Sarcoma. Chiara accepted her illness bravely and saw it as her way of uniting her suffering for “the forsaken Jesus on the Cross’. She said “It is for you Jesus. If you want it, I want it too! “ She embraced her pain with joy and refused to take morphine saying “I want to share as much as possible in His suffering on the Cross.” Her faith and patient endurance inspired all those who met her. The treatments were of no avail and her condition worsened. Yet her spirits were never dampened. In the hospital though she was advised rest she would spend time with patients who were depressed and her presence would make them happy. One of her doctors later said “ Through her smile, and through her eyes full of light, she showed us that death doesn’t exist; only life exists.” Her friends from the Focolare movement too visited her to cheer her but were amazed to see her in high spirits. She donated all the money she had to a friend who was doing mission work in Africa. She wrote to him “ I don’t need this money any more. I have everything.”

Whilst undergoing a painful procedure, she was visited by a beautiful lady. In her own words she described it as "When the doctors began to carry out this small, but quite demanding, procedure, a lady with a very beautiful and luminous smile came in. She came up to me and took me by the hand, and her touch filled me with courage. In the same way that she arrived, she disappeared, and I could no longer see her. But my heart was filled with an immense joy and all fear left me. In that moment I understood that if we're always ready for everything, God sends us many signs of his love”

When she became paralysed and unable to walk anymore, she said “If I had to choose between walking again and going to heaven, I wouldn’t hesitate. I would choose heaven.” She felt closer to Jesus in her suffering and as she saw her death approaching, she happily embraced the thought of it. She told her mother, "Oh Mama, young people…young people…they are the future. You see, I can't run anymore, but how I would like to pass on to them the torch, like in the Olympics! Young people have only one life and it's worthwhile to spend it well." When Cardinal Saldarini, Archbishop of Turin, Italy, heard about Chiara's illness and visited her at the hospital, he asked her, "The light in your eyes is splendid. Where does it come from?" Chiara simply replied, "I try to love Jesus as much as I can."

As her time approached, she began preparing her parents for the life without her. She made a Christmas card and wrote on it “Holy Christmas 1990. Thank you for everything. Happy New Year” and hid it for her parents to find later. She wanted them to celebrate her death as she believed she would be with Jesus. She told them "Don't shed any tears for me. I'm going to Jesus. At my funeral, I don't want people crying, but singing with all their hearts.

She wanted her funeral to be celebrated as her wedding and she began to plan it with her mother. She chose the music, songs, flowers and the readings for the Holy Mass. She wanted to be buried as a bride because after her death she would be the Bride of Christ. She told her mother, "When you're getting me ready, Mum, you have to keep saying to yourself, 'Chiara Luce is now seeing Jesus.'" When her life was almost at end she said “ I have nothing left, but I still have my heart, and with that I can always love.”

On October 7 1990, with her parents at her side she received absolution and Holy Communion. Her last words were “Bye, mom. Be happy because I am.” Her funeral was attended by thousands of people. Her cause for canonization was opened nine years later. She was declared Venerable on July 3 2008. In December 2009, Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged the miraculous healing that a young Italian boy received through her intercession. He was healed from meningitis that was destroying his organs and the miraculous healing was unexplainable by medical experts. Following this, Pope Benedict XVI declared her ‘Blessed’ on 25 September 2010 at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love in Rome.