Giuseppina Nicoli was born in Casatisma, Italy, in 1863, into a large, deeply religious family. From a young age, she showed a strong vocation for educating poor children, which motivated her to study teaching. The painful experiences in her family strengthened her sensitivity to the value of life. Her kind nature and spiritual guidance led her to join the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in 1883.

In 1885, she was sent to Sardinia, where she taught at the “Conservatory of Providence” in Cagliari. During the cholera epidemic in 1886, Giuseppina organized soup kitchens and provided assistance to poor families. She also founded the “Luisitos” association to educate abandoned children. In 1889, she was transferred to the orphanage in Sassari, where she organized catechism schools for children and created the “School of Religion” for university students to counter Masonic influence in the region.

In 1910, she was sent to Turin, where she served as provincial treasurer and later directed the house of formation. After developing tuberculosis, she returned to Sardinia in 1914. Although her health improved, she faced humiliations and was declared unfit to manage the orphanage. She accepted the situation in silence, demonstrating great humility. She was later assigned to the Marina Asylum in Cagliari, located in a poverty-stricken neighborhood. There, she dedicated her efforts to educating youth and assisting rural migrants. She founded Italy’s first section of the “Little Work of Louise de Marillac” and the first female Catholic Action group.

Giuseppina devoted herself particularly to the “is piccioccus de crobi,” young boys who worked carrying luggage. Charity was the guiding principle of her life. Even at the end of her life, when she was slandered, she forgave her detractors. She passed away in 1924 due to bronchopneumonia. Her virtuous life was recognized with a miracle attributed to her intercession: the healing of a young soldier in Milan.

Sister Giuseppina Nicoli. The Sister of the “Basket Boys” (1863-1924)

Sister Giuseppina Nicoli arrived in Cagliari on January 1, 1885; she was just 21 years old. In the short span of a year, she left her family, entered the Postulancy and the Seminary, and now found herself already on a mission. She had left everything behind to follow a vocation that had struck her suddenly: to give herself entirely to God to serve Him in the poor, especially the youth, toward whom she felt a spontaneous attraction.

She was born on November 18, 1863, in Casatisma (Italy), a village near Pavia, into a bourgeois family: her father was a judge, and her mother was the daughter of a lawyer. The fifth of ten children, Giuseppina was loved by everyone. Her sweetness was a natural gift: they called her “butter bread.” She completed her primary education with the Augustinian Sisters in Voghera and later earned her teaching diploma in Pavia, achieving the highest honors. Sister Nicoli pursued these studies with the secret desire to dedicate herself to the education of poor children during a time when the illiteracy rate was very high among the poor.

Her desire matured through the experience of suffering that marked her family due to the deaths of several of her siblings, especially her brother Giovanni, for whom she became a devoted personal nurse. In the school of suffering, she learned to better appreciate the value of life and was struck by the fragility of human things. Worldly life did not appeal to her. Guided by a priest from Voghera, Don Giacomo Prinetti, a leader of the “Charity” in Voghera, she began to deepen her path of spiritual perfection. He was the one who introduced her to the Daughters of Charity.

In October 1883, she began her postulancy at the Alfierri Carrù Institute in Turin and later entered the Seminary of the Daughters of Charity in San Salvador, also in Turin. After completing the Seminary, she spent three months at Casa Sappa in Alessandria, but at the end of December, she was sent to Sardinia, to Cagliari, where she arrived after a three-day sea journey on January 1, 1885. Forty years later, on January 1, 1925, a moved crowd accompanied her coffin to the Bonaria cemetery—exactly forty years of her life dedicated to the poor of Sardinia.

On that January 1, 1885, she found herself at the doorstep of the Institute of Providence in Cagliari. This Institute aimed to provide education for girls. It had been founded in the previous century by a Jesuit from Turin, Father Battista Vassallo. Sister Nicoli enthusiastically integrated into this environment, which became, for 15 years, the place of an educational experience that would mark her forever. Her gaze was not limited to what happened within the four walls of the Institute. In her growing desire to live out the charism of serving the Poor, her union with the Crucified Lord—whom she called “her spouse”—led her to expand her reach in the city. Although her health was not on her side, she spared no effort. At 30, she had her first episode of bloody sputum, marking the onset of pulmonary tuberculosis, which would slowly consume her over the next thirty years of her life.

In 1886, cholera broke out in the city, and in the little free time she had outside of school, she joined the Sisters of the Institution in aiding poor families, volunteering at the “soup kitchens” organized by the civil authorities. This outreach allowed her to encounter abandoned adolescents in the streets of “Castello,” the upper part of Cagliari. Sister Nicoli gathered them at the “Umberto I and Margherita” Children’s School, teaching them catechism on Sundays and organizing them into an association called “I Luigini” (The Little Louis). She encouraged them to live a life of mutual aid, educating them in a healthy awareness of social life. Thanks to her, many found the strength to change their lives.

This fervent activity was interrupted in 1889 when she was appointed Sister Servant of the Orphanage in Sassari, another institution modeled after the one in Cagliari. She was only 36 years old. Yet, it was there that her vitality as a spiritual and apostolic woman shone even brighter. Sister Nicoli revitalized the Association of the Daughters of Mary, gathered the Ladies of Charity, and guided them in serving the poor. She promoted the Sunday catechism school, which eventually gathered nearly 800 boys and girls, and, most importantly, founded the “School of Religion” for young women in high schools and universities, preparing them to be good teachers, deeply rooted in faith, with a focus on the inland regions of Sardinia. She was greatly aided by Father Manzella, who enthusiastically contributed his missionary support to the spiritual life of the Orphanage. To support prisoners, Sister Nicoli introduced the Sisters to prison ministry. Finally, she raised the educational standards of the Institute to counter the Masonic ideas prevalent in Sassari, which sought to weaken the influence of Catholics in the city.

In 1910, to everyone’s surprise and while still fully active, Sister Giuseppina was appointed Provincial Treasurer. Obediently, she left for Turin, though not without sorrow, even as she learned to sublimate her sacrifices. Eighteen months later, the Seminary Director fell ill, and she was chosen to replace her. She then devoted herself entirely to the formation of young women preparing to become Daughters of Charity. From this service, we have her spiritual notes, which she used to train the Sisters in the Seminary. She held this position for only nine months; she herself fell seriously ill and, on doctor’s orders, was sent back to Sardinia, where the milder climate could help her tuberculosis-affected lungs recover.

Thus, she returned to her beloved Orphanage in Sassari, where she regained her health but began an inner ordeal. Misunderstandings and slander from the Administration forced the Superiors to transfer her. She accepted this in silence, even the most humiliating accusation: that she was incapable of managing the Orphanage. Facing this humiliation, she repeated to herself: “It’s good for you, Giuseppina; learn to be humble.”

And so, on August 7, 1914, as the final stage of her life, Providence led her to Cagliari, to the “Children’s School of the Marina.” The “Marina” neighborhood, located near the port and the train station, was a hub of urban development but also home to an overwhelming number of poor families. Many lived in rags, without work, surviving through dishonest means. Since the children were poor, they were denied the right to education, and the lack of schooling fostered degenerate behavior. Additionally, the outbreak of World War I further complicated the situation.

Confronted with material poverty and destitution, Sister Giuseppina also uncovered the deeper wounds of moral and spiritual poverty. She addressed the need for education among the youth she gathered through the School of Religion and the classes at the Children’s School of the Marina. She also cared for the young men of the city; many worked in tobacco factories, and she organized them for spiritual retreats.

She also looked after young housemaids who came from Campidano to the city to work for wealthy families. Beyond moments of joy and rest they shared, Sister Giuseppina taught them catechism and gave them lessons in reading and writing. She established for them the charming Association called “Zitines”—named after its patron saint, St. Zita.

She was appointed by the Bishop as the spiritual leader of the “Dorotheans,” young women consecrated in the world, whom Sister Nicoli gathered at the Marina facilities and encouraged to serve in charity.

She also founded the first women’s Catholic Action circle in Cagliari and the St. Teresa Circle at the Parish of St. Augustine.

Her concern for the poor gave her no rest. In the neighborhood, there were too many families for her and her Sisters to care for alone. So, she selected the most enterprising young women and founded the “Little Ladies of Charity” for home visits to the poor—the first such initiative in Italy. With them, in 1917, she also worked to alleviate cases of scrofulous and rachitic children or those suffering from trachoma, opening a “Marina Colony” in Poetto, where hundreds of children were cared for.

But above all, Sister Nicoli’s name and fame were tied to the “basket boys,” well-known in the city for their distinctive work tool, “their basket.” These boys became her greatest concern and torment. Many of these barefoot, poorly dressed, and undernourished teenagers crowded near the city market, close to the Children’s School of the Marina. They earned a living by carrying luggage to the train station or port for travelers or transporting purchases for women at the market. They often knocked on the School’s door asking for food. Sometimes, they stole to eat. The city authorities didn’t know how to rid the squares and markets of these street urchins. They considered tagging them with a small numbered chain around their necks so they could be quickly identified if they committed a crime. The method seemed harsh while ignoring their tragic state of abandonment.

Sister Nicoli, on the other hand, during her free time from the School, approached these teenagers with the Sisters, showing the tenderness of a loving mother. She won them over: they responded to a deep, unspoken need. Though they often acted rudely and disrespectfully toward her, Sister Nicoli dreamed of a better future for them. Gradually, with patience, she drew them to trust her and to find the Lord. She renamed them “Marianelli” or “Mary’s Little Rascals,” placing them under the protection of the Virgin Mary. She taught them, prepared them for trades, instructed them in the Faith, and made an educational pact with them, restoring them to society with a sense of their own dignity.

Every day at 5 a.m., a Sister would walk under the arches of Via Roma or through the neighborhood streets, ringing a bell to wake these young boys for Mass, celebrated for them at the Chapel of St. Lucy, provided by the Bishop for this purpose. Afterward, they went to the Marina School for breakfast. About a hundred boys followed the Sisters in this way.

Despite all this good work, in 1924, the last year of her life, Sister Nicoli and her companions faced a public insult in the city’s newspapers.

At the time, Fascism had recently come to power, and the new Director of the Marina School was a member of the Fascist movement. He wanted the Sisters’ teaching to be under his control. They refused and were even prepared to break their agreement with the Administration rather than submit to his oversight. A series of newspaper articles then slandered the Sisters, claiming they enjoyed “lavish meals” while serving the children “thin, unnutritious broth.” In communion with the Visitator, who was well-informed of the situation, and with the Bishop, Sister Nicoli silently endured the slander until the Director of the Administration retracted and admitted his mistake.

On her deathbed, Sister Nicoli, with humble charity, called him to her side and forgave him with a warm smile.

She died on December 31, 1924, and her funeral was held on January 1, 1925.

Her Beatification process, initiated by the Bishop of Cagliari, Monsignor Ernesto Piovella, concluded in 2006. The beatification of Josephine Nicoli was celebrated on February 3, 2008, in Cagliari. The miracle for which she was proclaimed blessed concerns a young soldier from Milan, suddenly cured of a bone tumor with lumbar swelling.

Sister Tambelli, Sister Nicoli’s closest collaborator during her time at the Children’s School of the Marina, said of her that Charity was “the rule of all her thoughts, words, and actions.” On the path of humility, hiding from the applause of the world to immerse herself in the love of Christ, she entered into the mystery of Charity toward the Poor as an act of Love for the Lord, who has glorified her.

Author unknown.