Blessed Maria Gabriella Sagheddu was born in Dorgali, Sardegna (Italy), in 1914. At twenty years of age she entered the Trappist monastery of Grottaferrata. In 1938, she offered her life for the union of the Christian Churches and died of tubrculosis in 1939. She was beatified by John Paul II on January 25, 1983, in the basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls at the end of the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity.