Description

Oil Dedicated to Venerable Antonietta Meo

Venerable Antonietta Meo (December 15, 1930 – July 3, 1937), nicknamed Nennolina, an Italian girl who died of osteosarcoma. Currently, the youngest person the Roman Catholic Church considers canonizing as a confessor.

Meo born as the second daughter of Michele and Maria Meo, an upper middle class household in Rome, and had an older sister named Margherita. She attended Catholic schools as an active. Charismatic girl who led playmates in many games even after falling ill, being well-liked for her kindness. Her teachers said she stood out because of her charm, humor, and joyful personality.

Meo diagnosed with osteosarcoma at five after she fell and injured her knee, and the injury didn’t heal. When her leg amputated. She bore the ordeal “cheerfully.” She received an artificial leg, letting her keep playing with other children. Catholic theologians have called her a “mystic” because the six-year-old wrote “extraordinary” letters to Jesus Christ in her last months. “Dear baby Jesus, you are holy, you are good,” she wrote in one of the letters. “Help me, grant me your grace and give me back my leg. If you don’t want to, then may your will be done.”

At first, she dictated letters to her mother; later, she wrote poems and letters herself and left each at the foot of her crucifix. One letter said partially, “Dear Jesus, I love you very much. I want to abandon myself in your hands […] I want to abandon myself in your arms. Do with me what you want. […] Help me with your grace. You help me, since without your grace, I can do nothing.” She wrote or dictated over 100 letters to Jesus or the Virgin Mary, describing “holy visions” in many of them. After Mass, people sometimes saw her approach the tabernacle and say, “Jesus, come and play with me!”