Pierina Lorenzina Giovanna Betrone was the daughter of Pietro Betrone and Giuseppina Nirino, the owners of a bakery in Saluzzo (Cuneo) and then managers of a restaurant in Airasco (Turin). Pierina was the second of six daughters born of her father's second marriage. She joined the association of the Company of the Daughters of Mary in the parish of San Massimo in Turin. After a visit to the tomb of
Don Bosco in Valsalice, Pierina decided it was time to embark on a religious vocation. Her reading of
The Story of a Soul attracted her to
Thérèse of Lisieux's "little way". On 28 February 1930, Betrone joined the
Capuchin Poor Clares in Turin, taking the name
Maria Consolata. (The Blessed Virgin Mary is venerated in Turin under the name of Consolata, i.e., Consoler of the Afflicted.) Betrone is known for her prayer: "Jesus, Mary, I love you: Save souls". Betrone spent her life attempting to bring to perfection this Very Little Way. In 1995, Cardinal
Giovanni Saldarini started the canonical process of beatification for Maria Consolata Betrone. "A mystic is always placed in the context of his historical time...There is revealed a spirituality of reparation, perfectly in harmony with that desire for penance which animated the beginnings of her vocation." On 6 April 2019 Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognising the heroic virtues of Betrone giving her the title Venerable. 6 April is also the date of her birth. ==References==