Teresa Grillo was born on 25 September 1855 in
Spinetta Marengo (now part of
Alessandria) as the last of five children born to Giuseppe Grillo and Maria Antonietta Parvopassau. Her mother came from an aristocratic line while her father was the head doctor at the civil hospital in Alessandria and who died in her childhood in 1867. Her
baptism was held on 26 September 1855 and she was baptized as "Maddalena". Her
Confirmation was celebrated in the diocesan cathedral on 1 October 1867 at a
Mass that Bishop Giacomo Antonio Colli presided over. Grillo made her
First Communion in 1872. She attended school in
Turin (her mother decided to move there since Grillo's older brother Francesco was attending college there) and later enrolled at a
boarding school in
Lodi on 13 November 1867 (just after her father died) that the Ladies of Loretto managed. It was there that Grillo graduated in 1873 before she returned to Alessandria where she married Captain Giovanni Battista Michel on 2 August 1877 (the couple did not have children). The couple lived first in
Caserta before moving to
Acireale and
Catania. The couple later moved to
Portici and their final relocation was to
Naples where her husband died during a
parade on 13 June 1891 due to
sunstroke. Her husband's sudden death caused her to sink into a deep depression that made her ill but it was her
priest cousin Prelli who guided her through it. It was around this point that while reading into the life of
Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo she experienced a sudden conversion in which she resolved to do whatever she could in order to aid the poor. Grillo at first used her own home to shelter the poor but was forced to sell it in 1893 due to the increasing number of poor people seeking shelter. Grillo sold this house despite the opposition of her relations and instead purchased an old building that she remodeled and renamed as the Little Shelter of Divine Providence. In due course other women became attracted to this work and rallied to her side. These women helped become the basis for the
religious congregation that Grillo founded on 8 January 1899 with the permission of the
Bishop of Alessandria Giuseppe Capecci (she had written her order's first Rule in 1898). Her mother died in 1899. Grillo later entered the
Third Order of Saint Francis on 14 January 1893 and around that time donated her wedding garment to the
Capuchin church in Alessandria to be used as a sacred vestment. Grillo made her profession as a Franciscan third order member on 23 January 1894. In 1902 she and six other sisters visited
La Spezia where the group founded both a
kindergarten and sewing workshop. Grillo made her initial profession in
Brazil on 6 October 1901 during her first visit there and then made her full profession in Alessandrina on 3 November 1905. Her order spread outside Italian cities to Brazil first on 13 June 1900 and she made her first visit to Brazil in 1901 and again in 1903 to
São Paulo. Grillo visited Brazil again in 1906 and again in 1914 while in 1909 was present in
Messina for
the earthquake. Grillo departed for Brazil once again on 7 January 1920. The order later spread in 1928 to
Argentina after
Luigi Orione - whom she befriended - asked in 1927 for it go move there. The religious did this and so in 1928 visited Argentina and made her last visit to Brazil at the same time. Grillo visited
Latin America six times with her final visit to the continent being in 1928. Her order received the decree of praise for her order from
Pope Pius XI on 5 July 1935 and later full pontifical approval from
Pope Pius XII on 8 June 1942. The first General Chapter for the order was held on 10 June 1936 in which Grillo was confirmed as the order's
Superior General. Grillo also knew and befriended
Clelia Merloni; she supported her initiatives and encouraged Merloni after the latter was ousted from
her own religious order. The two would meet whenever Grillo was in
Rome. Grillo died at her order's
motherhouse in Alessandria in 1944. ==Beatification==