TESTIMONIES OF LIFE
Tecla Merlo, a mother forever
It all started for me, one Sunday at the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. I was only 11 years old at that time. I announced to my parents my choice to become a Sister. My father immediately forbade me to talk about it in the family because, even though we were a good Christian […]
“Reading” Thecla Merlo Today
“Reading” Thecla Merlo Today I want to tell you about my first “meeting” with Thecla Merlo. As a child I was always in love with books, but these were very few in my home. It is no coincidence that I bought my first book from the Daughters of St. Paul, in a small town in […]
You Owe Prima Maestra Everything
On 15 Sept. 1960, in preparation for the feast of St. Thecla, Fr. Alberione confided to the Daughters of St. Paul: “You owe Prima Maestra everything, and I too owe her a lot because she has enlightened and directed me in happy and sad circumstances, and has consoled me in the difficulties that have been […]
Always with you, Mary
Following in the footsteps of Sr. Thecla Merlo, I witnessed her Pauline Marian experience and I fell in love with it. I am a Daughter of St. Paul and I have arrived at the beautiful age of 96, almost 97…. I found among Maestra Thecla’s unofficial papers a familiar prayer that I have since carried […]
I thank God that I knew her
Venerable Thecla Merlo’s life was an example of a missionary of the Gospel and of one familiar with the supernatural. She exemplified joyful love for God. When speaking of her, it is as if one intones the “Magnificat”, giving thanks to God for the marvels accomplished in his servant. And I thank God that I […]
In Memory of Her
THECLA. She left us on 5 February 1964, and every year we commemorate her departure for heaven on that day in a special way. She traveled a lot over the years, from one city to another, from one continent to another. She visited our communities to support their various apostolic initiatives, which was not always […]
My Mother is Holy!
I never imagined I’d ever be writing a testimony about Maestra Thecla, even though she has always been someone I love very much and have felt close to me as a sister and a Mother and, more specifically, as a point of reference due to the many years I have spent in the service of […]
Maestra Thecla: Strength and Tenderness
“She who has knowledge, mental ability, a big heart, a spirit of sacrifice, an immense desire for holiness and a great thirst for souls…will see that the road ahead of her becomes always longer, wider and more beautiful when carrying out the apostolate of the editions” (cf. J. Alberione). Reflecting on M. Thecla Merlo, I […]
“Let’s Be Smart!”
Saying yes to the request to write a short article about Maestra Tecla, despite the fact that I had not known her personally and had never read anything specifically about her, proved to be quite an adventure for me. Certainly as a Pauline priest, and thus a member of the Pauline Family, I had often […]
I am fortunate
My life in the Congregation has been full, rich and I dare say “fortunate,” or perhaps “graced” is a better word. I have met a lot of people who “built” me not so much by what they said to me, but by the example of their lives, which helped to shape my own. And among […]
My Memories of Prima Maestra Thecla
For me, sharing my memories of Prima Maestra Thecla is like talking about a beloved family member who, in various ways, enriched my life, consolidated my Pauline vocation and helped me to “think big” in order to open me to the vast horizons of our mission. Universality was a dimension of the Pauline vocation that […]
Teresa Thecla Merlo “A Bridge To Reach God”
A picture of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, shown to me by a companion of Catholic Action, captivated me. She had received it as a gift from a Pauline sister from my city, Cagliari. Leaving the high school I was attending earlier than usual, I went to the Pauline bookshop and in the display window […]
Revisiting Prima Maestra
It was November 26, 1957, when I entered the community of the Daughters of St. Paul in Via Antonino Pio in Rome. The first few days were quite full as I tried to adapt to a lifestyle that was so different from what I was used to and to familiarize myself with the various areas […]
Sr. Veronica Doss Testimony
19-02-2021 Dearest Sr Anna Caiazza, Praise the Lord with me for His great mercy is without end. My heart is full of deep gratitude and praise to Him who gave me a second life and a second chance to praise Him, love Him and serve Him now and for all eternity. About a year ago […]
Follow her always!
When I arrived in Rome from Alba for my novitiate in 1954, I was placed for my three hours of daily apostolate in the so-called Centre. It was situated on the ground floor of the new Divine Master House, inaugurated in 1950. It was a large rectangular room, where the Sisters of the book centres […]
A Mother and Beacon
The word “mother” is non-temporal in character because it is a reality that goes beyond space and time. This is true of both physical and spiritual motherhood. A mother is a person who welcomes life in all its stages and expressions. A mother is a person who knows how to understand and love, even when […]
Three Characteristics of Maestra Thecla
Like many Daughters of St. Paul of my generation, I got to know Maestra Thecla through her writings and the testimonies of FSPs of the “first hour.” A particularly precious moment for me in this journey of discovery occurred in 1994 when, among the initiatives organized to celebrate the centenary of her birth, an international […]
My Experience with Maestra Thecla
April 1952: I was thirteen years old and had just entered the Congregation. The FSP community of Porto Alegre, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, was bursting with young girls, the majority of them from big Catholic families descended from Italian, German and Polish immigrants…. Everyone wanted to become a nun, even though […]
Letter to Sr. Thecla
I was asked to write an article–actually, a testimony– about Venerable Thecla Merlo. I accepted the request because it is hard for me to say “no” to people. But when I started to think about what to write, I realized that I could not offer a testimony because I know Sr. Thecla only through the […]
Maestra Thecla: A Fulfilled Woman
I think one of the greatest gifts I received from the Lord was the fact that the house in which I was born and raised was very close to the main houses of the Daughters of St. Paul and the Society of St. Paul in Rome. This had a deep impact on my life. In […]
The Warmth of Her Gaze
Memories of Prima Maestra Thecla Merlo When I was young, I lived on Volpi Hill on the outskirts of Rome. The lower part of the hill was marked by the Via Alessandro Severo compound of the Society of St. Paul and the upper part by the Via Antonino Pio compound of the Daughters of St. […]
My Remembrances of Prima Maestra Thecla
The Daughters of St. Paul opened their first book center in Youngstown, Ohio (U.S.A.), in 1946. Since the book center was in my neighborhood, I often went there to visit the Sisters and help them. This contact helped me discover my vocation. On 1 Sept. 1955, when I was 16 years old, I entered the […]
Woman Associated to Priestly Zeal
Many terms have been used to describe the action of Prima Maestra Thecla alongside Blessed James Alberione in building the Pauline Family. In my opinion, the most expressive of these is the phrase, woman associated to priestly zeal, the title of a fundamental book written by the Founder. In fact, when Fr. Alberione decided to […]
Prima Maestra, save us!
It was December 1991. Even though many years have gone by since then, something happened on that occasion that struck me so deeply it has always remained in my heart. I was in Kisangani, Congo, and the city was under siege. It had been invaded several days earlier by a horde of soldiers, dressed for […]
Onward! An Ascending Road
Life is often compared to a journey, whether it is viewed as heading toward a specific goal or as a chance to meet and get to know people and experience new situations capable of changing one’s life. I have to confess that when I was young I seized every opportunity that came my way to […]
A True Apostle
When I was asked to speak about Sr. Thecla Merlo, Co-Foundress and first Superior General of the Daughters of St. Paul, I was reminded of the words the Apostle Paul wrote at the beginning of the third chapter of his letter to the Colossians: “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. […]
Her “Yes” Accompanies Me
This accompaniment began in 1948, when I arrived in Rome as a young aspirant to the Congregation and found Prima Maestra waiting to welcome me with a big hug and smile. I lived in our huge Via Antonino Pio community during the years in which Prima Maestra was always among us: in chapel, for meals, […]
My most beautiful memories of Prima Maestra Thecla
I entered the Congregation in 1955, when I was 20 years old. As an aspirant, I initially thought that Maestra Thecla was just one sister among many. But then one of my companions told me that she was the Co-Foundress of the Institute so I began to watch her more attentively but from afar because […]
I carried you on my shoulders…
My first meeting with Prima Maestra Thecla took place even before I entered the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Paul because in all the encounters organized by the sisters of the Cagliari community, they spoke about Prima Maestra, her role in the Congregation and what she meant to each of its members. Even before […]
Observing Maestra Thecla Helped Me Grow as a Pauline
I got to know Maestra Thecla during the time I was a novice and junior professed sister in the Via Antonino Pio community, Rome (1958-1964). My earliest memories of her are of the conferences she gave us after Mass every Sunday morning in the AP conference hallthe only room big enough to hold our huge […]
Who Prima Maestra was to me
Prima Maestra Thecla was a Mother to me, to all the Daughters of St. Paul and to the whole Pauline Family. She was a great womanvery human, humble and simple; a woman of immense faith; a saint! Her eyes shone with the light of God and it seemed to me that her penetrating gaze was […]
“I’ll take care of things…”
For me, remember-ing Maestra Thecla is like remembering my mother because Prima Maestra was not only our Superior General, to whom we owed respect, obedience and docility, but she was also our mother-a mother who understood the strong and weak points of the persons entrusted to her by divine Providence. … ITA-Al_resto_ci_penso_io-3 SPA-Al_resto_ci_penso_io ING-Al_resto_ci_penso_io-1 FRA-Al_resto_ci_penso_io […]
Maestra Thecla and My Garden
I could compare my relationship with Prima Maestra Theclaa rapport of affection, trust and docility on my partto a beautiful garden filled with flowers of all different sizes and colors. During my years of formation (1949-1956), many little buds sprouted in the form of chance encounters during which the two of us would exchange simple greetings and smiles, […]
Talking about Prima Maestra…
I am a Daughter of St. Paul but not a sister of the “first hour,” like many of the FSPs who lived in direct contact with Maestra Thecla. I consider myself to be part of the “second half” of our 100-year history, grateful to have known Prima Maestra personally, even though this knowledge derived from […]
Speaking about myself so as to speak about her!
I entered the Congregation in Rome, Italy on 4 November 1933, after having gone with my relatives to visit the cemetery where my mother was buried. I was 11 years old at the time and in the mysterious plan of od, she had died giving birth to me. I didnt know the sisters with whom […]
Remembering Prima Maestgra Thecla
When I entered the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Paul in 1957, the Institute was experiencing a great influx of vocations and was under full missionary expansion
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Book displays and anoraks
When I lived at Via Antonino Pio, Rome, during the 1950s, everyone took Maestra Theclas presence in the community for granted. She was there
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Homily of the Congregation’s Centenary of Foundation
Homily on the 51st Anniversary of the death of Sr. Thecla Merlo 5 February 2015 Dear Brothers and Sisters! Dear Daughters of St. Paul! I willingly accepted the invitation of your Superior General to celebrate this holy Eucharist on the occasion of the opening of your Congregation’s Centenary of Foundation, which coincides with the 51st […]
Dearest sisters…
Dearest Sisters, With joy I leave this space to Signora Anna, who wrote a very moving letter to share with us what happened to her husband, who, through the intercession of Maestra Thecla, received the great grace of healing. It was just a few days before Christmas–the end of a difficult year for us. My […]
“My” Prima Maestra Thecla
I had already been in the Alba community for some time so I surely must have seen Prima Maestra and listened to her. But I hadn’t “met” her in the full sense of the word. I was one of the “Immacolatine,” the youngest members of the community. I spent my days attending classes scheduled to be […]
Maestra Thecla’s tenderness
19 March 1955, the Feast of St. Joseph, was an unforgettable day for me because it was the day of my first religious profession. On that day, I also had the chance to personally experience Prima Maestras tenderness toward her daughters… TenerezzaMaestrattecla-it-4 TenerezzaMaestraTecla-eng-2
My meeting with Prima Maestra Thecla
Our life is marked by innumerable encounters: some, even though fleeting, brighten our existence; others create friendship and communion, while still othersvery significant onesgive direction to our journey through life and make a deep impression on our minds and hearts. My first meeting with Prima Maestra falls into this last category because she left a […]
A thousand lives for the Gospel
The summer of 1915 had just begun when, in Alba, Piedmont, Italy, a fertile land of saints, a young woman prepared for an encounter that would change her life and also history. Her name was Teresa, and then became Thecla. Fr. Alberione chose her and opened unexpected horizons to her by asking her to participate in his project to flood the world with […]
Toward Supreme Self-Offering
With Maestra Nazarena Morando, Maestra Thecla was “an open book,” to the point that she asked M. Nazarena to serve as her corrector. And it was precisely to M. Nazarena that Prima Maestra confided her desire to offer her life for the Daughters of St. Paul. She wrote: Dearest M. Nazarena, I want to tell […]
Conqueed by her goodness
I got to know Maestra Thecla under extraordinary circumstances when I was nine years old. My mother had died and my father wanted to entrust me to the care of the Daughters of St. Paul, who had opened a house in Susa. In his letter asking if they would accept me, my age was mistakenly […]
Thecla, Woman of Faith
From the Testimony of Fr. Carlo DraGone1 I always admired and esteemed Maestra The- cla from the time I first met her, shortly after I entered the Society of St. Paul in 1925. I saw her as a prudent, capable and virtuous person and my esteem for her grew at our every en- counter. I had the chance […]
Maestra Thecla Merlo’s Faith
(Testimony of Sr. Nazarena Morando, fsp) When the Daughters of St. Paul were still without a name, an identity or a house, Prima Maestra believed. She surrendered herself to God with complete trust and was docile to the point of heroism. Her faith led her to accept the will of God and the dispositions and […]
Homily 2013
(Martedì della IV settimana) 1. La lettera agli Ebrei ci fa pensare alle situazioni di difficoltà che vive la società, alle quali non è estranea la Chiesa né la nostra Famiglia religiosa. E lo fa con una immagine sportiva: siamo allo stadio, c’è la gara e ci sono gli spettatori, cioè i santi, quelli che hanno raggiunto la meta […]
Why the Title “Co-Foundress” of the FSPs?
Ever since the FSP Special Chapter (1969), the title “Co-Foundress” has been used to define Maestra Thecla (cf. Chapter Documents, the Constitutions, etc.) and it is the official title used for her in her cause for beatification, which opened in 1967. When Fr. Alberione was alive, Fr. Stephen Lamera, the Postulator General of Prima Maestra’s […]
Associated Artists
The following testimony is by Sr. Giuseppina Balestra, one of the oldest members of our Congregation. For many years she served as Maestra Thecla’s driver and in this capacity accompanied her to many communities in Italy and other parts of Europe. Maestra Thecla’s charity toward the sisters was very discreet. More than once it happened that I was a […]
I love you all very much
Maestra Thecla, Sister and Mother Maestra Thecla was a woman who communicated with others on a profound level. She treated every sister as a unique individual, establishing bonds of communion by relating to each person objectively and as an equal, recognizing the individual’s positive qualities and showing her that she trusted her. Maestra Thecla created […]
The Trinity is my family
Maestra Thecla was fully aware that “it is Jesus who lives in me, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. To remain united to the Divine Master….” As early as October 1951, she wrote: “The Trinity is my family.” Guided by her spiritual director, Blessed James Alberione, Maestra Thecla opened her life to the […]
Act quickly…
Urged on by the need to do good, M. Thecla invited the Daughters of St. Paul to be very courageous. To her way of thinking, if an initiative could benefit the people, then the sisters should let nothing stop them from forging ahead in the spirit of the Pact: “By myself I can do nothing, but with God I can do […]
The people in her heart
Returning to Rome from her trips abroad, Maestra Thecla spoke enthusiastically about the customs, climate and natural beauty of the countries she visited, but at the same time she always underscored the sufferings and moral miseries of the people. “If only those multitudes of people could know the Lord!” she exclaimed. Aware that indigenous Daughters of St. Paul could approach their own […]
Lessons learned from her travels abroad
Between 1936-1963, Maestra Thecla made fourteen long journeys abroad by land, sea and air. These trips served to deepen her apostolic fervor. While the first ones were colored by amazement at what she saw, the later ones carved into her heart the profound need of human beings for salvation-a need she felt to the point […]
As clear as glass
In his homily for Maestra Thecla’s funeral liturgy, Cardinal Arcadio Larraona said, “You don’t know–you can’t know–how much [your Prima Maestra] suffered, worked and prayed…. At this point, you find everything done. But things didn’t get done by themselves. How much hard work, how many inspirations, how much correspondence [to grace], how many sacrifices, and […]
«To do good»: A lifelong yearning
The power idea that should spur us on is the thought of souls. We must be tormented by the yearning to reach people so as to bring them the word of truth and salvation. How many souls have never heard about God! And who will lead them to him if not we who have received […]
A woman who never “resisted” the Spirit
On 7 February 1964, Primo Maestro said to the Daughters of St. Paul: Prima Maestra was not only a superior; she is the Mother of your Institute. You will have other superiors who will carry out that office and who will follow the examples of Prima Maestra, but they will not be your Mothers. So […]
Testimony of Fr. Carlo Dragone
Sr. Thecla Merlo and the Test of Illness Testimony of Fr. Carlo Dragone, her spiritual director during the last months of her life Fr. Carlo Dragone, a priest of the Society of St. Paul (1911-1974), entered his Congregation in 1925. From 1957 onward, he was in contact with M. Thecla above all for apostolic reasons. […]
Homily of S. E. Rev.ma Card. Angelo Amato, Prefetto della Congregazione per le Cause dei Santi
OMELIA NELL’ANNIVERSARIO DELLA NASCITA AL CIELO DELLA VENERABILE MADRE TECLA MERLO1 S. E. Rev.ma Card. Angelo Amato 1. Nella voluminosa Positio che tratta delle virtù eroiche della Venerabile Madre Tecla Merlo2, confondatrice e prima superiora generale delle Figlie di san Paolo, si legge: «Tecla Merlo […] è stata una grande donna, una perfetta religiosa, una […]
Boundless Love
Only now do we grasp your stature, which was as commonplace as bread, and–like bread–very nutritious and necessary. Without you, we would not have developed as we did. Perhaps your death was necessary to bring this truth home to us. You never allowed us to stop and admire you when you were a simple, quick […]
I’ll be your mother…
Testimony of Sr. Nazarena Morando From the very beginning, Maestra Thecla was keenly aware of the principle that authority is service. She knew how to make herself all to all. She helped the sisters in their work: from the kitchen to the sewing room, from the typography to the bindery. She also helped to […]
We must have faith…strong faith!
Testimony of Sr. Rosaria Visco[1] In September 1947, Maestra Thecla called me [to her office] and asked me to launch the cinema apostolate in collaboration with the Society of St. Paul. Our work consisted of choosing films to reduce to 16mm. format so that they could be viewed in parish and public halls. It also […]
She hugged me with deep affection…
Testimony of Sr. Elena Ramondetti Maestra Thecla loved every sister very much. Each time we saw her, she was always very concerned about us. She would ask not only how things were going in our communities but she would also inquire about our health and about how we were doing personally. Her great desire was […]
Testimony of Sr. Assunta Cocchiara
Maestra Thecla’s Big Heart Testimony of Sr. Assunta Cocchiara Abbess of Santa Scholastica Monastery Cassino, Italy In February 1944, recounts Sr. Assunta, who at that time was Mother President of the Benedictine Sisters, [the town of] Cassino was destroyed. That same night, Montecassino and our monastery were bombed. The devastation was so great that […]
Homily of His Eminence Cardinal Arcadio Larraona
Homily of His Eminence Cardinal Arcadio Larraona at the Funeral of Prima Maestra Thecla Merlo […] None of you know or will ever be able to know how much [Prima Maestra] suffered, worked and prayed…. Today you find things done, but they did not get done on their own…. How much effort, how much work, […]