Amabile Lucia Visintainer (1865-1942), who would take the religious name St. Pauline of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus, joined with two women to found the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, which cared for orphans and the children of former slaves (slavery ended in Brazil in 1888). Her feast day is July 9.

Amabile was born in the Province of Trent in Italy to a poor, devout Catholic family. From an early age, she was known for her piety and charity and desire to give her life to God. In 1875, her family relocated to Brazil, seeking a better life. Amabile received her First Communion at age 12, taught catechism to children, visited the sick and cleaned the local chapel.

In 1890, Amabile and a friend cared for a dying woman who had no family, which led to the founding of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. She was elected superior general for life in 1903 and began establishing convents in larger cities. The holiness of life and apostolic zeal of Mother Pauline and her sisters attracted vocations to the community, despite the poverty and challenges they endured. After conflict arose within the community, the Archbishop of São Paulo removed her as superior in 1909 and sent her to work with the sick. 

Pauline suffered ill health at the end of her life, including diabetes. Her illness led first to the amputation of her middle finger, and then the amputation of her left arm in a second operation. Just before her death, she wrote

Be humble. Trust always and a great deal in divine Providence; never, never must you let yourselves be discouraged, despite contrary winds. I say it again: trust in God and Mary Immaculate; be faithful and forge ahead!

She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1991 and canonized by him in 2002. In his homily celebrating Mother Pauline’s life during her beatification, he said, “The charism that Mother Pauline left to her Congregation consists in the sensitivity to hear the cry of reality with its needs, and in the willingness to serve, in the Church, the most needy and those who live in situations of great injustice, with a spirit of poverty, humility and interior life.”

She is the first female saint from Brazil and the patron of diabetics. The work of her congregation continues in South America, Africa and Europe.