The Servant of God Maria Petra Giordano, OP, a contemplative nun of the Monastery of Santa Maria del Sasso in Bibbiena, has been declared Venerable
ROME — Pope Leo XIV authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints on 18 June 2026 to promulgate several decrees advancing causes for sanctification, including the recognition of the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Maria Petra Giordano, OP.
The decree marks an important step in the cause of Sister Maria Petra, a professed nun of the Order of Preachers. By recognizing her heroic virtues, the Church now presents her to the faithful as Venerable, praying that soon she will be declared Blessed.
Born Nicoletta Giordano in Naples on 4 July 1912, she was the eldest of nine children. After her father refused to join the National Fascist Party, the family suffered hardship and moved to Rome. There, while helping care for her younger siblings because of her mother’s illness, Nicoletta deepened her Christian life and became active in parish life.
Her Dominican vocation took shape at the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, where she joined the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Drawn to contemplative life, she entered the Monastery of Santa Maria del Sasso in Bibbiena, near Arezzo, on 4 November 1934, at the age of 22.
In the monastery she received the name Maria Petra and gave herself to a hidden life of prayer, silence, fraternity and service. Over more than seven decades of religious life, she served her community as mistress of novices and prioress, and later helped in the work of updating the Constitutions of the Nuns after the Second Vatican Council.
Sister Maria Petra died in Bibbiena on 21 June 2006, with a reputation for holiness. Her cause for beatification and canonization was introduced in the Diocese of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro in 2014, and the diocesan phase concluded in 2016.
The decree is a significant moment for the Order of Preachers and especially for the Dominican nuns, whose hidden life of contemplation remains at the heart of the Order’s mission of preaching.
In the same audience granted to Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the Holy Father also authorized decrees recognizing the martyrdom of the Servants of God Juan Torres Torres and 19 companions, diocesan priests killed in hatred of the faith in Spain in 1936, and the heroic virtues of the Servants of God Júlio Maria De Lombaerde, Mary Teresa Tallon, Maria Agnese Tribbioli and Clara Andreu y Malferit.
As of June 2026, the Order includes 1,952 nuns in 173 monasteries across 45 countries, organized in 16 federations and two associations. Among them are 1,845 solemnly professed nuns and 107 simply professed nuns, with 51 postulants and 49 novices now in formation. Their hidden life of prayer, penance and contemplation remains a vital source of grace for the Order’s mission of preaching.
