Blessed Chiara Corbella Petrillo
Blessed Chiara Corbella Petrillo (1984–2012) was an Italian laywoman and mother whose brief but radiant life became a profound witness to faith, love, and trust in God amid suffering. After marrying her husband Enrico in 2008, Chiara became pregnant with their first child, Maria Grazia Letizia. Early in the pregnancy, doctors discovered that the baby had anencephaly—a fatal condition— and would not survive long after birth. Despite the diagnosis, Chiara and Enrico chose to carry the pregnancy to term, and their daughter lived for about 30 minutes after birth. Their second child, Davide Giovanni, was diagnosed with a different but equally fatal condition—he did not have kidneys; he too was lovingly carried to term and lived briefly after birth.
Chiara’s third pregnancy seemed normal, and their son Francesco was born healthy in 2011. However, during this pregnancy, Chiara was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. She chose to delay treatment to protect her unborn child. After his birth, she began therapy, but the cancer had already advanced. Chiara died on June 13, 2012, at the age of 28. Her serenity, joyful faith, and love for her children—both living and deceased—deeply moved all who encountered her. Her cause for canonization is now underway, and she is remembered as a model of sacrificial love and hope in the face of great loss.
In reflecting on choosing to carry Maria to term, Chiara declared:
If I had aborted her, I do not think that I would have remembered the day of the abortion as a day of celebration, a day in which I had been liberated of something. It would have been a moment that I would have tried to forget, a moment of great suffering. But the day of Maria’s birth I shall always recall as one of the most beautiful days of my life, and I shall tell all my children that the Lord wishes to send us that they have a special sister who is praying for them in heaven.
On March 12, 2010, Chiara wrote the following letter to her son Davide who lived for about 30 minutes:
A small creature who has received a much bigger gift from God …to knock down the big Goliath inside of us, to break the parental power to decide over and for him. He showed us he was growing and that happened only because God wanted it so; He discouraged our desire to have a son who belonged to us, because he existed only because and for God’s will.
He unmade the wish of who demanded he was the son of consolation, the one who would have made us forget the pain of Maria Grazia Letizia. He disappointed the trust into the statistics of those who stated we had the same right as everybody else to have a normal and healthy son. He uncovered the magical faith of those who thought they knew God and later they asked him to be” the Candyman” ;
He showed us God really does miracles, but he doesn’t follow our limited logical thoughts because the Lord is more than our simple desires.
He changed the idea of those who don’t ask God for the salvation of their soul but only of their body.
He demolished the idea of asking the Lord for an easy and happy life which doesn’t resemble to the life of the cross Jesus bore for us.
Davide was so small, but he lashed out with great strength against our idols, and he shouted loud to the face of whom didn’t want to see, he forced so many people to run for cover in order not to admit having been beaten.
Personally, I thank the Lord because I have been beaten by little Davide; nobody could convince me what we were experiencing was a misfortune, hence a consequence of having unconsciously moved away from God.
I thank God because my Goliath is finally dead and my eyes are finally free to look beyond and to follow God without fearing who I really am.
A letter written by Chiara and her husband Enrico to their 3rd child Francesco on his first birthday included the following note:
Thanks to Maria and Davide, we are more in love than ever with eternal life, and we have stopped being afraid of death. Therefore, God has taken from us in order to give us a bigger heart and to be opened to receiving eternity during this [earthly] life.
Additional Source: Nursery of Heaven, by Cassie Everts and Patrick O’Hearn