1900 - Clelia Nanetti

July 9, 1900

Taiyuan, Shanxi

Clelia Nanetti. [CRBC]

Born in Italy on January 9, 1872, Clelia Nanetti grew up in a loving Christian family. One description of her childhood states that the loving atmosphere “helped her mature into a lively, ardent and charming person. Intelligent, she was quick to learn things, yet very impulsive. She had to work hard to discipline herself on this point.”[1]

After completing her schooling, Nanetti desired to stay home and lead a quiet life, but her family was eager to see her marry into a well-to-do family. It seems the intervening years had seen her parents become worldlier and less spiritual. They encouraged her to attend parties and balls in the hope of meeting an attractive man. She went to some of them out of obedience to her parents, but they were unaware that she had already decided to give herself to God alone.

In 1890, at the age of 18, Clelia asked her parents’ permission to become a nun. They were shocked and opposed her with all their might. Their opposition

“was so strong that she became bitter with hatred and despair. On the other hand, it only intensified her yearning for God and the mission of spreading His Name. Her brother, a Franciscan, helped her to find the right group, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, whose charism of bringing Christ to mission lands seemed to be the answer to her desires.”[2]

Nanetti entered the novitiate just after her 20th birthday and was given the name Maria Charia. Now free of the influences of her family, she experienced a complete transformation in her personality. One colleague described her as “frank, ardent, generous, joyful, always on the go and always ready to give a helping hand. It was always evident that she was giving herself totally, without thought of cost or sacrifice.”[3]

When the Boxers were about to launch their remorseless attack on the Christians at Taiyuan, the bishop instructed the sisters to escape. Clelia Nanetti protested in horror, “What? Escape?! No! Bishop! We came to give our lives for God!”[4] Despite her protests, carts were prepared to transport the orphans to a neighbouring village where they would be safer. The nuns were given the responsibility of travelling with them. It was noted:

“It was the only time the nuns showed themselves sad or moved. The little ones with streaming eyes clung to the missionaries, the only mothers their hearts had known. What did the nuns feel as they saw those orphans, to whom they had given so much affection and from whom they had hoped for so much, as they embraced them and exhorted them to perseverance?”[5]

Nanetti and the other sisters obeyed their orders, but when they found the gates of the village had been locked and there was no way to enter, they were secretly glad. They returned to Taiyuan to face the fiery trial. On July 9, 1900, Clelia Nanetti (a.k.a. Maria Charia) was the first of the seven Franciscan sisters beheaded at the governor’s palace.

1. CRBC, The Newly Canonized Martyr-Saints of China, 87.
2. CRBC, The Newly Canonized Martyr-Saints of China, 87.
3. CRBC, The Newly Canonized Martyr-Saints of China, 87.
4. CRBC, The Newly Canonized Martyr-Saints of China, 87.
5. Life of Mother Marie-Hermine, 58.