Today, April 6, is the commemoration of Blessed Pierina Morosini.
Born in 1931, Pierina was one of nine children in a poor family in Bergamo, Italy.
Already a pious girl, Pierina had made a private vow of chastity to God. She was an active Catholic Action member and catechist. At 15, she worked as a seamstress in a fabric factory.
She found herself a spiritual director in the Capuchin priest Licano Mologni.
Pierina attended the beatification of St. Maria Goretti in Rome with fellow Catholic Action members. She always wore the Carmelite scapular and joined the Third Order of St. Francis at a time when she considered becoming a religious, but decided to stay and help her mother raise the family.
In 1957 as Pierina walked home, a man attacked her and tried to rape her. She tried to defend herself, but the assailant beat her to death with a rock and smashed her skull.
Pierina, aged 26, died a martyr of chastity in 1957. Pope St. John Paul II beatified her in Rome in 1987.