The purpose
The purpose of the Saint Rita International Recognition Award is to show the world the work of women who live according to the values that characterised Rita’s existence: forgiveness and love.
They are the women of Rita. Women who have distinguished themselves for the power of forgiveness or for having lived their commitment to defend the dignity of human rights and duties as a mission.
International and interconfessional
The award is given on May 21, the eve of the feast of Saint Rita, to women of all ages, conditions, nations and religions. The assignment criteria, in fact, are not necessarily based on religious aspects of the Ritian model, but also on ethical and social aspects. Because Rita’s message is timeless, as is the model of sanctity we want to pursue.
The award-winning women
YEAR 2019
Elisabetta Forlenza
From Torrevecchia Pia (Pavia), for having been able to forgive the drunken man who, fatally ran down her son Federico, who had just turned 16.
Fabrizia Felici
From Norcia (Perugia), for having been able to embrace the cross by welcoming as a wonderful gift from God the birth of her first-born Rosa Valentina, affected from birth (28 years ago) by a rare form of dysautonomia and epileptogenic encephalopathy.
Rosanna Serantoni
From Cascia (Perugia), for having dedicated her life entirely to the care of her family, with love and faith in the Lord, first by assisting her son Giovanni suffering from autism, then by taking care of her husband during his illness until his death and, immediately after, offering her loving care to her eldest son Fabio in rehabilitation following a serious accident that deprived the young man of his independence.
Nunzia Addolorata Epifania
From Matera, for having strongly believed in her marriage and in her family, so much as to forgive her husband’s repeated betrayals, bringing him, with love and relentless trusting prayer to God and to Saint Rita, to repentance and conversion.
YEAR 2018
Emanuele Disarò and Daniela Burigotto
Mothers, respectively, of Gloria Trevisan and Marco Gottardi, the two fiancés from Veneto who died in the fire at the Grenfell Tower in London – for having embraced the cross, seeking strength in faith.
Soňa Vancaková
From Košice (Slovakia) – chosen in the community twinned with Cascia – for having fought and believed to the full in the value of the family, translating her difficult family experience into concrete help for other families in difficulty.
Giuseppina Ceccaroni
From Gualdo Cattaneo (Perugia), for having faced the obstacles of life finding strength in her faith and for service to others.
YEAR 2017 Anna Montebruno
From San Benedetto del Tronto (Ascoli Piceno), for having forgiven the man who, in 1990, ran down and killed her 15-year-old daughter Maria Natali, and for her spirit of seeking dialogue and service to others.
Antonella Leardi
From Naples, for having forgiven the murderer of her son Ciro Esposito, who died in 2014 during the clashes that preceded the Coppa Italia final in Rome, and for helping to spread the seeds of peace and dialogue among young people through the ‘Ciro Vive’ association.
Federica Lisi
From Ravenna, wife, mother and widow, who, after losing her husband, the well-known volleyball player Vigor Bovolenta who died in 2012 during a game, picked herself up again with determination for her 5 children, being reborn in love for the family and for life.
Luciana Mosciatti
From Baiano di Spoleto (Perugia), who received the Saint Rita International Recognition Award for having forgiven the boy who caused the death of her son in a car accident and for her example of Christian life in the family and in the parish community.
YEAR 2016
Angela Sorrentino
From Lampedusa, received the parchment symbol of recognition on behalf of the Caritas group of the Parish of S. Gerlando and of the inhabitants of Lampedusa who every day reach out to the many refugees in search of hope in the future.
Margaret Karram
Arab, Catholic, with Israeli nationality and Palestinian origin. Received the award on behalf of the Focolare Movement. It has fostered dialogue among Christians, Jews, Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians starting from the “bottom”, from the daily routine of real life. Delegate of the Focolare Movement for Israel and the Palestinian Territories until 2013, she was a member of the Episcopal Commission for Interreligious Dialogue of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land.
Sister Carolina Iavazzo
She worked against the mafia and lawlessness alongside Blessed Don Pino Puglisi (the priest who was killed by the mafia in Palermo in 1993). Today, she is active in the “Good Samaritan Fraternity” of Bosco Sant’Ippolito, a district of Bovalino (Reggio Calabria), where she launched the “Padre Puglisi” youth centre.
Elena Maximova
President in Gomel (in Belarus brought to its knees by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986) of the Association of Families with Disabled Children. In her family suffering due to the illness of her son Maxim, who died last year at the age of 30 due to the cerebral palsy that afflicted him, Elena has relearned to live in solidarity with the families victims of the same painful events.
Vincenza Riccetti
From Pigge di Trevi (Perugia). Wife and mother of two children, for years she has been combining her dedication to family members with volunteer work at the “Monsignor Pietro Bonilli” shelter house in Trevi, which is home to children and girls with psycho-physical and intellectual disabilities.
YEAR 2015
Lucia Fiorucci
(Gubbio, Perugia). She transformed the suffering for the death of her daughter Elisabetta, victim of a car accident, into hope by donating the young woman’s organs.
Franca Pergher
(Udine). She forgave the person who caused the accident that destroyed the life of her son, hit in the head at the age of 6 by a reinforced concrete beam and whom she has taken care of for 42 years.
Mother Agnese Grasso
Mother Agnese Grasso for the Sisters of the Holy Family of Spoleto, who support needy families every day.
Claudia Francardi
Widow of carabiniere Antonio Santarelli, attacked in Pitigliano (Grosseto). Together with the mother of her husband’s young murderer, she founded the “AmiCainoAbele” Association.
ANNO 2014
Elisabetta Parmegiani
Elisabetta forgave and prayed for Francesco Tuccia, the boy who used violence against her daughter in 2012, leaving her dying outside a discotheque in Pizzoli (L’Aquila).
Mariella Cantamessa
She forgave the man who, in September 2013 in Chiuduno (Bergamo), ran into and killed her daughter Eleonora, a doctor, while she was busy helping a young man who had been stabbed.
Maria Teresa Caviglia e Ruggero Badano
Parents of Blessed Chiara Luce Badano, Maria Teresa and Ruggero (from Sassello, Savona) went through the ordeal of their daughter’s illness who died of a bone tumor at the age of almost 19.
Anna Maria Brizzi
She lives in Collestatte, Terni. Anna Maria faces life with tenacity, without her husband, who died of pulmonary fibrosis, and with all the difficulties of having an autistic child.
YEAR 2013
Sister Elsa Caterina Galfrè
Charity, welcome and giving. These are the values that have accompanied Sister Elsa since she was a child. Thus, in 1989, she began working as a volunteer at the prison in Cuneo.
Teresina Natalino
In 2010, in the province of Catanzaro, a young man mows down and kills eight cyclists. Among the victims is Teresina’s husband; she immediately forgives those who have harmed her family.
Alexandra Jianu
Born in Brezoi (Romania) in 1945. Alexandra Jianu managed to maintain her bond with faith, despite the great difficulties in communist Romania.
Lina Trappetti
With work and sacrifice, Lina has never ceased to work for others, for her family, for which she nurtures unconditional love, and also for her parish, which she has always served.
YEAR 2012
Carolina Porcaro
Mother of Lorenzo Cenzato, killed at the age of 18 by a 17-year-old Ecuadorian, in Sovico, Monza and Brianza in 2011. She immediately forgave the young man, who was stained with the murder of her son.
Nicoletta Bernardi
She lives charity in daily life, lovingly assisting her paralysed father-in-law, blind mother-in-law and sister-in-law who suffers from Down syndrome and has serious heart problems.
Anna Maria Landini She dedicates her life to serving others, contributing to the creation of the parish Caritas and Listening Centres. She has founded one of the first Italian Family Homes for single mothers.
YEAR 2011
Sister Eugenia Bonetti,
Consolata missionary, today president of USMI. She distinguished herself for her courage in helping many young women escape prostitution.
Egidia Patito,
Daughter, wife and mother, she divides herself between love for the family and love for the needy whom she helps through the OAMI Care Home, of which she is president.
Sara Fumagalli,
Her life is marked by the rediscovery of faith and by a tireless work of peace, which leads her to carry out development projects in the South of the world.
YEAR 2010 Pierluigia Ciucarilli Nurse from Spoleto and coordinator in the local ADI and Hospice Service. “Luigia” is the personification of care and support for cancer patients. Anna Olivieri She works inside prisons, where she opened a laundry to engage the inmates at the women’s section of the prison in a constructive way. Saint Rita Social Cooperative Created in 1992, thanks to some families in the suburbs of Milan and the Augustinian Fathers, to help children with severe disabilities, such as Down syndrome in particular.
YEAR 2009
Sister Maria Laura Mainetti
Killed on June 6, 2000 in Chiavenna (Sondrio) with 19 stab wounds inflicted by 3 underage girls. Following the example of Rita, the nun was available for others until giving her life.
Ferminia Sacdalan Punongbayan
She is poor and lives in the Philippines. She provides bank guarantees to secure a loan for a friend, who does not return the money. Although her house is foreclosed, she forgives her friend.
Paola Stocco
Fifty-year-old housewife from the Verona area, with Eugenio Marrone she believes firmly in the family: she gave birth to 13 children (of whom seven died), adopting four others.
YEAR 2008
Carla Faconti
Always sensitive to the needs of the poor and the suffering, she was able to communicate the ardour of her Christian charity among poor neighbourhoods in Palermo.
Marcella Demofonti
Caring for others, she testifies to the Gospel of Charity, giving her life for the common good, especially for the girls of the Beehive of Saint Rita.
Teresa Strangio
She had the strength to publicly forgive the killers of her son and her brother, in the peaceful Christian attempt to destroy the force of hatred and violence.