Amalia Streitel

Amalia Streitel (24 November 1844 – 6 March 1911) was a German Roman Catholic nun. Streitel established the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother and assumed the new name of "Maria Franziska of the Cross" after she had become a nun.
In 2010 she was proclaimed to be Venerable after the recognition of her life of heroic virtue. The miracle that is required for her beatification is now under investigation.

Amalia Streitel was born on 24 November 1844 as the first of four children to upper-class parents.

Streitel was educated to be a teacher of the two subjects of language and music but she started to feel drawn to religious life at the age of seventeen. Her parents opposed her vocation but relented when she reached the age of 21. She entered a Franciscan convent in Augsburg where she served as a teacher. She made her profession and assumed the habit in 1867.

From 1872 until 1880 she directed a German orphanage. She was transferred to a Carmelite convent in Wuerzburg in 1882 where she became drawn to a life of contemplation and solitude. Despite this she came to understand that her true vocation was to bring a sense of spiritual renewal across the world. She assumed the name of "Maria Franziska of the Cross" around this time.

She relocated to Rome in 1883 in order to help a priest and the order that he had established. The two had different personalities and charisms and it led to a split between the two. On 4 October 1885 she established the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother - it received the papal approval of Pope Pius X on the date of her death. It melded the charisms of the Carmelite and Franciscan orders.

Streitel died on 6 March 1911 whilst looking at the Crucifix. Her order continues its work in Europe and has expanded to Africa and South America.

The beatification process commenced with two local processes in Civita Castellana and also in Wurzburg. This occurred despite the fact that the cause did not open on a formal level until 13 June 1947 under Pope Pius XII. The two processes - in order for the cause to proceed - received formal decrees of ratification in 1952. The Positio - documentation and an account of her life - was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 2004.

The declaration of her life of heroic virtue was announced on 27 March 2010 which allowed for Pope Benedict XVI to confer upon her the title of Venerable.

The miracle needed for her beatification was investigated and was ratified in 2004. The Medical Board that advises the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the miracle in mid 2010.