"They were normal girls … ", this is what Sister Graziella says when she talks about the simple life in the Santa Caterina boarding school, between school, housework and some recreation: music, theatre, gym and outdoor games.

Interview with Sister Graziella, edited by M. Gasparini and C. Ferracane (video also available in Mediaspace)

Sister Graziella was born in Padova in 1929.
At the age of twelve she was orphaned by war: her father was one of the 1297 Italian soldiers who lost their lives on 24th May 1941, off the coast of Siracusa, after the English fleet sank the Italian transatlantic liner "Conte Rosso" which was carrying Italian troops from Naples to Tripoli.

At the age of sixteen she joined the community of the Franciscan Elizabethan Sisters and took her vows on 2nd May 1949.

On 13th November 1952, at the age of twenty-three, she arrived to S. Caterina where she remained until 1963.
On September 9, 1970, she returned to S. Catherine as Mother Superior and remained there until 1976. 

Today she lives in the Institute of the Franciscan Elizabethan Sisters, in Via S. Eufemia in Padova.