St. Virginia Centurione Bracelli
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.
— Jas 1:27
A noblewoman of Genoa married against her will to a gambler. After his death, a widow at twenty, she decided to serve the poor. During a famine she opened her house to abandoned girls and founded shelters. From an unhappy marriage came a work of love.