On the 20th June 2024, the Holy Father Francis received in audience Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, and authorized the promulgation of the following decree concerning the General Postulation of the Friars Minor, concerning two martyrs, a Friar Minor, and a contemplative religious.
The Decree contains, amongst others, the approval of the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Maria Costanza Zauli (née Palma Pasqua), Foundress of the Handmaids Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament of Bologna, born in Faenza on the 17th April 1886 and died in Bologna on the 28 th April 1954.
Consecrated to the Lord in the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart in Bologna in 1908, Mother Maria Costanza Zauli was favoured by an intense mystical life. A long period of physical suffering, faced in prayer and abandonment to the will of God, matured the idea of a new foundation entirely dedicated to the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
The Congregation of the Handmaids Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament began under her leadership in Bologna in 1933. From that moment on, worship was the heart and purpose of her life. In the long hours spent in front of the tabernacle, Mother Constance learned more and more every day to identify herself with Jesus the Host, and with Him to offer the Father the prayer of praise, thanksgiving, intercession and reparation for all humanity.
Her Cause for Beatification was initially entrusted to Rev. Fr. Germano Cerafogli, OFM and later to Rev. Fr. Luca De Rosa, OFM, Postulator General of the Order, who signed the Positio super vita et virtutibus in 2002.
