The first years of her life

The banks of the river Adda, near Lecco.

Maria Anna was the fifth of Giovanni and Giovannina Comi's eight children.

She was born on April 21 st 1829 at Brivio, an old village in Brianza on the banks of the river Adda, near Lecco.

Her father was a very religious and industrious man, well known in the timber trade.

He possessed a solid, comfortable house with a spacious porch in a vast, noisy courtyard in the centre of the village.

Marianna was born in this house and she grew up with her brothers and sisters in the warmth of family affections, in an atmosphere of peace and serenity and according to the Christian traditions of the numerous family, already well established in the parish community of which Giovanni Sala was a wise and respected vestryman.

Brivio (Lecco). The Sala's home, where Maria Anna was born.

The commemorative plaque.

Marianna was taken to the font in the neighbouring church on the day of her birth and there she received the seed of Divine Life that would lead her to holiness.

During her simple and innocent childhood, she would study of the Truths of our Faith which had always had a strong hold over her vivid intelligence, with great interest, thus deepening her piety.

As a little girl, she liked to visit a little church called «The Oratory of St. Leonard», which was near the village and where the good people of Brivio venerated a Madonna to whom they took their sorrows, receiving in turn the comfort of Christian hope and often graces, as well.

She also went with one of her sisters to pray before the Madonna in a moment of great sorrow: when their mother was seriously ill.

While the young girls were praying, as recalled in a small votive family picture, the woman recovered, certain of having seen Our Lady by her side, blessing her.