Bl. Julia Salzano

At the age of nineteen, Julia Salzano, of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Italy, became a schoolteacher in the town of Casoria. In the afternoons, Julia devoted her free time to catechizing children and adults in fulfillment of her desire to “make Jesus known and loved.” For these classes, she carefully prepared her lessons, marked by a habitual use of the Scriptures and the inculcation of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She lined the walls of her classroom with depictions of various Biblical events so as to help her pupils visualize the history of salvation. This catechetical apostolate that Julia began as a laywoman ultimately led her to found a religious congregation to carry it out more efficaciously, namely, the Catechist Sisters of the Sacred Heart. As the first superior of her congregation, Mother Julia urged the sisters to teach the faith not only by verbal instruction but more so by the example of their own lives. Mother Julia died on May 17, 1929.