Paula Frassinetti

About Paula Frassinetti

Paula Frassinetti was born in Genoa on 3 March 1809. Her mother died when Paula was nine, and she took on household responsibilities for her father and brothers. The Holy See's later biography describes her early religious formation in the family, through her brother Giuseppe, a priest. These memories come to us through a retrospective church account; they need not be embellished with imagined private conversations.

When Paula was nineteen, Giuseppe invited her to stay at Quinto, where he served as parish priest. There she gathered young women for conversation about religion and gradually formed a group drawn to a shared life of service. On 12 August 1834, Paula and six companions made their commitment at San Martino in Albaro. They began living together at Quinto and opened a school for children with very little money. The founding story is notable for a practical response to local educational need as well as for religious commitment.

In 1835 Luca Passi invited Paula’s group to take up the Work of Saint Dorothy. The community adopted the name Sisters of Saint Dorothy and focused on educating girls and young women in need. Its work reached beyond the first school at Quinto.

The congregation reached Rome in 1841 and worked in schools and parishes. In January 1866 its mission extended to Brazil, and Paula sent sisters to Portugal that June. The expansion took its founding educational purpose into new settings beyond Genoa.

Paula died on 11 June 1882 and was canonized by John Paul II on 11 March 1984. The papal decree recalls the congregation she founded and the work begun in Genoa and developed in Rome. Its educational purpose remains her most concrete legacy.