Blessed Sandra Sabattini

Sandra Sabattini was born in Riccione, Italy, on August 19, 1961, to devout parents, Giuseppe and Agnese, who nurtured in her faith and love for Christ.
She was not content to live an ordinary life; from childhood she longed for holiness. She began keeping a diary when she was ten years old.
The sheets of paper on which she wrote her notes and thoughts accompanied her throughout her life, and after her death they became her greatest legacy.
She used her pocket money to help the poor, keeping nothing for herself.
Her heart was focused on the weak and those with special needs, and she tried to help them in every way she could.

She finished secondary school in 1980 and then enrolled at the University of Bologna to study medicine. Her dream was to become a missionary doctor, to help the needy and abandoned in Africa, meet their needs and care for them.
She met the Servant of God Oreste Benzi, founder of the Pope John XXIII Community in Italy. She spent that summer as a volunteer at the house in Canazei, helping young people with special needs. It affected her so deeply that she later told her mother: “We worked like crazy, but these are people I will never abandon.”
She gave her life, within the Pope John XXIII Community, to serving people with disabilities and drug addicts, while continuing her university studies.
At one of the Pope John XXIII Community gatherings she met a young man named Guido Rossi. They fell in love and shared the same principles and ideals. They became engaged and were expected to marry, united by their love for God and for the poor.
Sandra was always careful to pray every day; most days she got up early to go and pray in a nearby church. She would kneel or sit on the floor out of humility, to spend intimate time with Jesus.

On April 29, 1984, on her way to a meeting of the Pope John XXIII Community, she was hit by a car as she got out of her own car. She died in hospital on May 2, 1984, at the age of twenty-two.
She left behind a beautiful legacy: a heart burning with love for God. Her life has been an inspiration to many because of her pastoral zeal and her love for the poor.
On March 6, 2018, Pope Francis declared her Venerable; on October 2, 2019, he approved a miracle through her intercession, and she was beatified on October 24, 2021.

Her fiancé said of her:
“I sometimes found it hard to follow in her footsteps and keep up with her pace when we were together. But I can testify to how she tried to involve me, or rather, how she tried to make us choose together and clearly, not what we ought to do, but the Lord’s will. I was always moved by her joyful and deep way of looking at life, by her trust in the Lord and her surrender to him in whatever happened.”

Some of her sayings:
“Love is the synthesis of contemplation and action; it is the point where heaven meets earth and where man meets God.”
– “If I really love, how can I bear that a third of humanity is dying of hunger while I hold on to my security or my economic stability? That way I will only be a good Christian, but not a saint! Today there is an inflation of good Christians, while the world needs saints!”
– “A life lived without God is only a way of passing the time, boring or amusing, a time to fill while waiting for death.”
– “This life is not mine, this life that unfolds in the rhythm of a regular breathing that is not mine, enlivened by a peaceful day that is not mine. There is nothing that is yours, Sandra, you must realize that!”

Prepared by Rita, of the Sawt el Rab team