Maria Pia Mastena

Blessed Maria Pia Mastena - born Teresa Maria - was an Italian religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church. She was the founder of the Religious Sisters of the Holy Face. Mastena fostered a deep devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and tried to promote that devotion to others in her religious career as a nun. Mastena first desired the contemplative life, but she was denied this after she entered the convent, since it was not a cloister. Instead, she dedicated herself to teaching in several Italian cities after leaving another convent and another religious order when she deemed contemplative life was not what God wanted for her. Her labors were dedicated instead to consolidating a new religious congregation, which began to grow after World War II until Mastena's sudden death in 1951. Mastena was beatified on 13 November 2005.