Maria Gargani was born in the evening on 23 December 1892 in Morra de Sanctis as the last of eight children to Rocco Gargani and Angiolina De Paola. Her devout father instructed the children in
catechism and it was from him that Gargani's faith grew over time. Her education was spent in her hometown before finishing it in
Avellino where she was the guest of an uncle; she obtained a
master's degree in 1913 that would allow her to begin work as a teacher. Gargani began teaching in
San Marco la Catola in
Foggia from 1913 to 1928 and lived there alongside her married sister Antonietta. It was also there that she first met the priests Benedetto and Agostino Daniele who both became spiritual guides for her as she discerned her vocation. It was in 1914 that this manifested and she recorded that she wept as she discerned her call to follow
God due to the seriousness of the task. Gargani later entered the
Secular Franciscan Order after having discovered
Francis of Assisi. Francis represented to her a model of love that served as an influence on her religious convictions. Not long after this she began teaching catechism to children while also preparing them for the reception of their
First Communion and she even purchased a machine to project images to explain to them the life of
Jesus Christ. Gargani also began collaborating with
Catholic Action around this time. From 1928 to 1945 she began teaching in
Volturara Appula. In 1915 her advisor Agostino Daniele was summoned to serve in
World War I as a chaplain and so entrusted her to the spiritual care of the
Franciscan Capuchin priest Padre Pio while advising Gargani to maintain correspondence with the friar. Gargani made first contact with the friar at the beginning of August 1916 via letter which began several decades of friendship and correspondence that lasted until Pio's death in 1968. The first letter Pio wrote to her was dated 26 August 1916. Pio became a spiritual guide for Gargani as well as a source of moral support. The two met for the first time face-to-face in the Capuchin
convent at San Marco la Catola in mid-April 1918. In 1934 she received diocesan permission to form a group of companions in the former convent of Santa Maria della Sanità - this became the foundation for the
religious congregation that she would establish not long after. Gargani later established the Sisters Apostles of the Sacred Heart on 11 February 1936 with the permission of the
Archbishop of Lucca Antonio Torrini; the first convent for the order opened that 21 April. In 1945 the order moved its headquarters to
Naples while that 18 April - with other companions - she made her profession as
Maria Crocifissa del Divino Amore. From 1946 until her retirement she taught in Naples. On 21 July 1951 - in the
Santuario della Beata Vergine del Rosario di Pompei - she met the priest Antonio Fanucci who became her new
spiritual director. Her order later received diocesan approval from Cardinal
Marcello Mimmi on 2 June 1956 and she made her perpetual profession a month later on 22 July.
Pope John XXIII granted her order full pontifical approval on 12 March 1963. Gargani died in mid-1973 in her room in Naples; her remains were later exhumed and relocated to the order's motherhouse on 17 May 1992. ==Beatification==