Antonietta Meo

The Venerable Antonietta Meo (December 15, 1930 – July 3, 1937) was an Italian girl who may become the youngest saint who is a confessor (not a martyr) ever canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. 2Life and death Antonietta was raised in an upper middle class household in Rome as the younger daughter of Michele and Maria Meo. She was nicknamed "Nennolina." She attended Catholic schools and stood out as an active, charismatic little girl who led her playmates in all their games, even after she became ill, and was popular with them because of her kindness. Her teachers said she was a child like other children, but stood out because of her personal charm and her sense of humor and the joyousness of her personality. She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer, at the age of five after she fell and injured her knee and the injury didn't heal. When her leg had to be amputated, she bore the ordeal "cheerfully." She was fitted with a heavy, artificial leg so she could keep playing with other youngsters. Catholic theologians have called her a "mystic" because the six-year-old wrote "extraordinary" letters to Jesus Christ in the last months of her life that displayed understanding and actions beyond the normal for a child of her age. "Dear baby Jesus, you are holy, you are good," she wrote in one of the letters. "Help me, grant me your grace and give me back my leg. If you don't want to, then may your will be done." At first she dictated letters to her mother; later she wrote poems and letters herself and left each at the foot of her crucifi