Luisa Piccarreta

Luisa Piccarreta, (23 April 1865 – 4 March 1947) now a Servant of God and also known as the "Little Daughter of the Divine Will", was a Catholic mystic. She was born at 10 o’clock on the morning of the first Sunday after Easter, Sunday, 23rd April, 1865, in Corato, in the province of Bari in Italy to Vito Nicola Piccarreta and his wife, Rosa and was baptized that afternoon. Exactly 130 years later, Pope John Paul II will proclaim this day to be Divine Mercy Sunday.

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Her father was a tenant farmer for a wealthy family in town and he in turn employed his own workers for working the land. Her parents spent the winters in a house in Corato town and from Springtime to Autumn they moved to a small farm about 17 miles from Corato.

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Luisa was very afraid from the age of three, always dreaming of the devil. She would run to her mother for refuge. She was also a very shy girl and would hide when people came to visit her house. She even hid in a quiet corner when she attended Church. She asked Jesus the reason why she was like this and Jesus replied that it came from His jealousy of her – He wanted to take her away from everything and everyone!

The Early Years - Growing in the Spiritual Life

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At 9 years of age, on Low Sunday “in Albis” of 1874, she received her First Communion and Confirmation on the same day and from that time she began to hear the voice of Jesus in her "inner being". Jesus corrected and guided Luisa in her spiritual life so that she could become His "perfect image".

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At the age of 13 she meditated daily on the Passion of Jesus and one day she heard a commotion in the street outside the balcony of her room. When she looked out she saw Jesus being led to the Crucifixion and He looked up imploringly and said: ‘Soul, help Me’ Between the age of 13 and 16 she was given a terrible test of enduring a ferocious battle against the demons. 

A Victim Soul - God's Will be done

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At 16 years of age she accepts the state of victimhood. Luisa didn’t tell her parents about her intense inner life.  It wasn’t until about the age of 17, when she showed a mysterious loss of consciousness, and doctors couldn’t revive her that her family asked a devout priest, Fr Cosma Loiodice to bless her thinking she couldn’t be revived. She immediately came back into her body, and this phenomenon became a regular occurrence from 22 years of age, when she willingly agreed to be confined to bed, offering herself as a victim soul.

Mystical Marriage and 64 years in bed - God prepares Luisa for the Gift of living in Divine Will

Luisa goes on to experience four mystical marriages:

• Her first spiritual marriage was on earth at the age of 23 on 16th October 1888, when Catherine of Siena was present.  This marriage was similar to the mystical marriage  experienced by Catherine of Sienna, herself, and that which Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross experienced.

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• Her second spiritual marriage took place in Heaven 11 months later, at the age of 24, on 7th September 1889, in the presence of the Most Holy Trinity. Jesus took possession of her heart, by placing His heart ‘within’ her heart. On this occasion Luisa was first given the Gift of living in the Divine Will.

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• Her third nuptial was a spiritual marriage of the Cross;

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• Her fourth spiritual marriage took place at age 35, on 16th November, 1900, when Luisa was given possession of Jesus’ heart, placing her heart within His Heart, and she now becomes centred in the Divine Will, possessing it completely.   

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All this was to prepare Luisa for her Mission for the Triumph of the Divine Will to come and reign on earth over all generations, fulfilling the petition we have been praying for in the one and only prayer Jesus gave us, Pater Noster,  ‘Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’, that is for the return of the gift of living in the Divine Will.

For 64 years until her death Luisa stayed in bed basically not eating, drinking or sleeping. Luisa was nourished by receiving the Most Holy Eucharist during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which was offered daily in her room. This special blessing was given by Pope Saint Pious X and Pope Leo XIII his predecessor.

She wrote 36 Volumes entitled the Book of Heaven which were dictated to her by Jesus.  She writes her last Diary entry on 28th December, 1938.  On Thursday, 4th March 1947 she died following a short bout of pneumonia.  This was the only illness ever diagnosed in her lifetime.

On 20th November, 1994 she received the title Servant of God, and her Cause for Beatification was opened.