The beginnings
Giovanna was born in Bolzano Vicentino on May 23, 1868. Her mother was Luigia Teresa Francescato and her father Stefano. Her parents were shepherds and Giovanna was born in a stable as they were about to reach the high pastures. Due to her frail constitution, Giovanna was entrusted to some relatives who lived in Breganze at the age of three. Her parents thought that she could grow up serene with adequate care and the stability of a house. Giovanna spent her childhood and youth with Maria, her mother’s sister and her husband Antonio Baggio, who had already had the joy of being her godfather on “the happy day of her baptism” (Mem. I, 1). Giovanna was the daughter of a childless couple.
Breganze is a beautiful village lying on the hills to the northeast of Vicenza. Rich in vines and orchards, it is equipped with a series of craft shops and small factories that make it a very popular centre of trade and exchanges. It has a Cathedral and it enjoys the presence of numerous religious and civil associations. Giovanna was fully integrated into this environment and she attended the Church assiduously. However, she had a crisis of faith at the age of twelve when she began to feel “distraction and indifference to things of religion” (Mem. I, 2).
The dreams
Precisely in the midst of an existential crisis, the Lord came to her in an unpredictable way through two dreams worthy of note. In the first dream Giovanna sees a friend, recently deceased, who has collapsed a large tower with a small hand gesture saying: “This is how the things of the world are!” That dream shakes her deeply and impels her to seek the essential, what does not pass away, and to “begin a new life” (Mem. I, 2).
The second dream occurred at the age of fifteen. Giovanna was at a wedding party: “It seemed to me to be in a house in which the master had set up a banquet of men only. Being appointed as an attendant, when I entered I saw, among all, one seated higher, beautiful, shining, all resembling an image of the Sacred Heart [of Jesus]. Looking at me with an eye of complacency, he put his hand on my head saying: “If you want to be a true daughter of mine, you will have to consecrate to me the lily of your virginity” (Mem. I, 3). When she woke up, she felt a great joy! And from that day on, a precise desire to consecrate herself to God dwelt in her.
The steps
A short time later, in 1885, Giovanna decided to knock on the door of the Sisters Teachers of Saint Dorothy. Two events that occurred there revealed to her a singular calling from God. In the first, she clearly perceived that the Lord did not want her there but “in Breganze, united with other daughters” (Mem. I, 4). In the second, the Sisters of Saint Dorothy resorted to the intercession of St. Joseph for discerning whether Giovanna could stay with them: “All the Sisters prayed for me because they had to decide whether to stay longer, since because of my poor health they did not think to keep me with them. On St. Joseph’s Day, I returned in fact to the house of my uncles in Breganze” (Mem. I, 4). From these two events, we can clearly grasp a singular vocation to which Giovanna responds to by accepting with docility the appeals of the Spirit to follow a “path that she would never have imagined”.