Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa made the most of her name
[1813-1855]
Maria lived in a shack by the hospital and spent her days volunteering there. In her free time, she created an organization called Handmaids of Charity, which distributed money to poor women and educated deaf children.
This was in Brescia, an Italian city that was then occupied by Austria. In 1849, in an attempted uprising, a Bresciani mob slaughtered a hospital room of disabled Austrian soldiers. The revolutionaries moved to the wing where Maria was tending to the sick and pounded on the door, demanding entry and blood, but when it swung open they came face to face with the young saint wielding an enormous crucifix. Ashamed, they slunk back into the shadows.
The Austrian General Haynau, the brutal Hyena of Brescia, killed over 1,000 citizens as retribution. Maria died a few years later, after collapsing from physical exhaustion.