Santina Campana was born in Alfedena (AQ) on 2 February 1929.
She died in a sanatorium at the age of only 21, after spending almost two years and ten months in the novitiate in Rome, among the Sisters of Charity, from October 1945 to July 1947.
On 7 September 1946, she received the novice’s habit. Her intention upon entering the novitiate was to obey, love and smile.
This is an excerpt from a letter she wrote home to her parents during those days: “I have begun the holy novitiate. I cannot express to you what joy, what grace the Lord has undeservedly bestowed upon me, allowing me to live in his house, snatching me from the snares of the world and leading me to paradise before my time.
Everything is peaceful, everything makes me think of heaven, where we will all be reunited in true joy that no one can take away from us, and we will form a crown of stars around you.
I thank Jesus for the many blessings he has bestowed upon our family!
‘Sister Santina, novice among the Sisters of Charity’
In 1947, due to pulmonary haemoptysis, she was forced to leave the novitiate to be admitted to the Villa Rinaldi sanatorium in Pescina (AQ). From her bed of pain, which she called her white throne, she drew afflicted souls to her and consoled them: “Take courage, suffering passes, but having suffered remains”.
In the sanatorium, in great pain, she took her first and last religious vows: before the consecrated Host, Santina, in great pain and aware of the seriousness of her illness, was able to repeat aloud, sentence by sentence, the formula of the Religious Vows, read to her by the Superior.
For a few minutes, Santina remained enraptured and absorbed in what was happening. She understood that everything had been accomplished as she had ardently desired: to die as a nun without going on a mission, because on her deathbed she was equally fulfilling the epilogue of a different mission, that of offering her physical and moral suffering for the Pope, the bishops, the priests and the Missions, as she had always desired!
A strange feeling of deep joy overwhelmed all those present, nuns and medical staff, including her mother and brother.
She was first buried in the bare earth in the cemetery of Pescina, and her tomb immediately became a destination for pilgrimages.
Her motto was: “God alone as my goal, Jesus as my model, Mary as my guide, the Angel as my help, I always in sacrifice”.
In 1979, Pope John Paul II approved the introduction of the cause for beatification of the servant of God.
In the study room of the novitiate – I am referring to the 1960s – two small pictures hung on a side wall: one with a photo of a novice, a certain Giuseppina Arena, and the other of the young novice Santina Campana.
Our novice mistress invited us to mirror ourselves in them, to draw on their ardour and admire their marked propensity towards a conscious, generous and fascinating gift of themselves to God.
Pescina, 24 September 2025
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the death of the Servant of God Santina Campana, the parish of St Joseph, led by parish priest Don Vincenzo Piccioni, organised a conference entitled Model of Hope on 24 September, in the presence of Bishop Giovanni Massaro. The round table was attended by, among others, the president of the Diocesan Catholic Action, Claudia Di Biase, the postulator general of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity, Sister Anna Antida Casolino, Dr Sergio Sabatini, and the vice-postulator of the cause for beatification, Don Ennio Grossi.
