I wish to share an experience I had: the end of the Gianellian Sisters’ presence in Genoa. It was here, in the old Provincial House, that I was welcomed as an aspirant on October 17, 1957. I had just turned thirteen and arrived from Stradella, accompanied by Mother Marcella Botti.

Amidst the greenery of the orchards, the vineyard, and the well-tended gardens, the Gianellian complex—which included the Provincial House, the residence for the teaching sisters, and the new school building—seemed to me full of light and fresh air. Life there was simple and familial.

The Gianellian Sisters had established themselves here in 1900. A provincial headquarters was needed to manage departures to America and arrivals from there; Furthermore, there was an urgent need for more spacious facilities for both the novitiate and the school.

In the city, our sisters had initially established a formation house and a school, adapting to various temporary locations—in Carignano, Via Serra, and Via Mondonuovo—while entrusting to St. Joseph the search for an ideal site.

In 1897, work began on adapting Villa Ajroli, located in the parish of San Fruttuoso. The layout placed the church in the center, the wing for the professed sisters to the right, and the Aspirancy, the Novitiate, the kitchen, and the dining rooms to the left.

In the building located southeast of the village are the residences of the teaching nuns, and the classrooms are temporarily located in the same building, awaiting the start of the project for a new building.

We are talking about more than a century of history, of projects created to meet the needs of the area.

Recently, the friars had already left the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Mount. We also left at the end of July. And in these cases, it is always the poor who suffer first, many of whom received a hot meal, bread and food, words and gestures of friendship every day.

We opened the church to the people for Holy Mass on Sundays and holidays. The pandemic and the reduction in the number of nuns had interrupted these openings.

I regret that people feel abandoned, like a flock without a shepherd. Despite their indifference toward Christian values, they are affected by the loss of these presences and traditions. We have left the building available for social and pastoral services for those who need it, giving us hope that the spirit of Saint Anthony Gianelli will continue to dwell here. Our saint, who was so concerned with attending to the needs of people here on earth, will not be forgotten in Heaven.

Until the very end, I enjoyed this house with gratitude, love, and respect, feeling close to the sisters who were sanctified here by doing good to others, but also with a longing for the simple and welcoming beauty of the past, so starkly contrasted by its current state of disrepair.

Renewed by faith in Divine Mercy, I embarked on a path of ever-greater fidelity.

Sister Lucia Moscatelli

Piacenza, August 6, 2026