Clelia Merloni | |
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| Born | 10 March 1861 Forlì, Kingdom of Italy |
| Died | 21 November 1930 (aged 69) Rome, Italy |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 3 November 2018, Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome, Italy by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu |
| Feast | 20 November |
Clelia Merloni (10 March 1861 – 21 November 1930) was an Italian Roman Catholic nun and the founder of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Merloni was destined to follow her father into the business world but renounced his anti-religious sentiment and instead went down the religious path. Internal complications led to Merloni's fall from grace and she went into self-imposed exile where she received a dispensation to break from her religious vows.[1] She later rejoined the congregation as a nun not long before her death.
The beatification process commenced in 1988 under Pope John Paul II and she was titled as a Servant of God. Pope Francis confirmed her heroic virtue on 21 December 2016 and named her as Venerable. Francis later confirmed a miracle attributed to her in 2018 and she was beatified in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome on 3 November 2018.
- ^ "Servant of God Clelia Merloni". Santi e Beati. Retrieved 18 July 2016.