{{short description|Italian Roman Catholic saint}}
{{Infobox saint |honorific_prefix= Saint |name= Paula Frassinetti |birth_date= March 3, 1809 |death_date= June 11, 1882 |feast_day= June 11 |venerated_in= Roman Catholic Church |image=Paola frassinetti.jpg |imagesize= |caption= |birth_place= Genoa, Gênes, French Empire |death_place= |titles= Foundress |beatified_date= June 8, 1930 |beatified_place= |beatified_by= Pope Pius XI |canonized_date= March 11, 1984 |canonized_place= |canonized_by= Pope John Paul II |attributes= |patronage= |major_shrine= |suppressed_date= |issues= }}
'''Paula Frassinetti''' is an Italian saint in the Roman Catholic Church and foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Dorothy (aka, Congregazione Suore di S. Dorotea della Frassinetti). Her feast day is June 11.<ref>[https://www.catholiccourier.com/faith-family/kids-chronicle/saint-for-today/st-paula-frassinetti/ "St. Paula Frassinetti", ''Catholic Courier'', Diocese of Rochester, NY]</ref>
==Life== Paula Frassinetti was born March 3, 1809, in Genoa, Italy to Giovanni Battista Frassinetti, a cloth merchant, and his wife Angela. The third of five children, her four brothers all became priests. When she was nine years old, her mother died and an aunt came to help with the household. Three years later her aunt died, and at the age of twelve, Frassinetti assumed the responsibility.
At the age of nineteen, Frassinetti went to stay with her brother Giuseppe Frassinetti, a priest at the seaside village of Quinto in Liguria. In 1834 she and six other women formed a small community called the "Daughters of Holy Faith". Giuseppe and members of the parish started a small school in a church that had been dedicated to Clare of Assisi. The sisters taught in the school. They went to Genoa to help during a breakout of cholera.<ref name=va/>
In 1835 Luca Passi, of Bergamo, a friend of her brother Giuseppe, asked Frassinetti if she would assume the Pious Work of Saint Dorothy, a project he had founded to serve the poorest and most needy youth. Thereafter the Daughters of Holy Faith became known as the Sisters of Saint Dorothy. On May 19, 1841, Frassinetti established a house in Rome. The work of the institute expanded beyond Liguria and Rome, to other parts of Italy as new houses, boarding schools, and orphanages were established.<ref name=radio>{{Cite web |url=http://en.radiovaticana.va/in2/articolo.asp?c=593571 |title=Joseph S.J., P.J. "St. Paula Frassinetti", Vatican Radio |access-date=2013-04-01 |archive-date=2013-10-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017042216/http://en.radiovaticana.va/in2/articolo.asp?c=593571 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Later the sisters established a presence in Malta, Portugal, and Brazil. In the United Kingdom the sisters run an International Student's Residence and are involved in Parish Ministry.<ref name=malta>[http://stdorothysmalta.org.mt/aboutus.html "The Sisters of Saint Dorothy", Malta Dorothean Province]</ref>
She died on June 11, 1882, after a bout with pneumonia following several strokes.<ref name=sqpn>{{cite web | url=http://saints.sqpn.com/saintp56.htm | title=Saint Paula Frassinetti | access-date=2008-09-13 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081021165356/http://saints.sqpn.com/saintp56.htm | archive-date=2008-10-21 }}</ref>
Her body was reported to be found to be incorrupt in 1906.<ref name=sqpn/>
==Veneration== Frassinetti was beatified by Pope Pius XI on June 8, 1930, and the cause for her canonization was opened on April 10, 1935.<ref name="index">{{cite book |title=Index ac status causarum beatificationis servorum dei et canonizationis beatorum |date=January 1953 |publisher=Typis polyglottis vaticanis |page=184 |language=Latin}}</ref> She was canonized on March 11, 1984, by Pope John Paul II.<ref name=va>{{cite web| url=https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19840311_frassinetti_en.html |title=Paula Frassinetti |access-date=2008-09-13}}</ref>
==Legacy== There are about 1,200 sisters active in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.anchornews.org/news/october-2010/october_29_2010_1.php |title=Aubut, Rebecca. "Sisters of St Dorothy celebrate 100 years in the United States", ''The Anchor'', Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts |access-date=2013-04-01 |archive-date=2017-08-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815102126/http://www.anchornews.org/news/october-2010/october_29_2010_1.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Quotes== * ''"Work in full simplicity"'' * ''"We're in God's hands, and we are so very well"'' * ''"Our mission is to educate through heart and love''<ref>"Paula Frassinetti - Letters to the Congregations!, Paulinas Editions, 1997</ref> * ''"The will of God is my paradise"''
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book | last=Jones |first=Kathleen | title=Butler's Lives of the Saints | year=2006 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |location=New York}} {{ISBN|0-86012-255-7}}
==External links== {{commons category|Paola Frassinetti}} *[https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19840311_frassinetti_en.html Vatican Biography] *[http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-paula-frassinetti/ Saints.SQPN: Paula Frassinetti] *[http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=5323 Catholic Online: Paula Frassinetti] *[https://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/pfrassin Katolsk.no: Paula Frassinetti]
{{Subject bar |portal1=Saints |portal2= Biography |portal3= Catholicism |portal4= Italy}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frassinetti, Paula}} Category:1809 births Category:1882 deaths Category:Italian Roman Catholic saints Category:19th-century Christian saints Category:Christian female saints of the Late Modern era Category:Canonizations by Pope John Paul II Category:Religious leaders from Genoa Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Lazio Category:Incorrupt saints