She renounced noble honors to give herself to the poor 

For centuries, the Canossa were an important noble family in northern Italy. In the year 1077 the famous Matilda of Canossa played a leading role as mediator during the serious diplomatic crisis between King Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII, who had excommunicated the emperor.

One of her descendants, Magdalena of Canossa, also of noble origins, was born on March 1, 1774, in Verona. From childhood, Magdalena had no shortage of trials: the death of her father, her mother's new marriage, harsh treatment from a French governess, illness. Starting at age 17, she tried twice to enter the Carmelite order, but soon understood that this was not her vocation. One day, in her palace, she received Napoleon, who was impressed by her candor. Because of the revolutionary upheavals  and subsequent war, she had to take refuge in Venice, where she visited hospitals and thus discovered her vocation in caring for the sick and wounded.

Returning to Verona, she witnessed the immense needs of the population of her city and understood that she could not love her neighbor from her social position as “a great lady" limited to distributing goods, but felt the call to dedicate her whole life to the needy. So she left the family palace and set up residence in the poorest neighborhood of the city to better serve the poor.

She gathered some companions and founded the Institute of the Daughters of Charity, dedicated to teaching catechism and caring for the sick. She also founded the Sons of Charity, to promote the Christian education of children. In the last years of her life, she was very ill, in particular she suffered from asthma attacks and severe pain. At this point she devoted herself to what she could do: constant fervent prayer. Shortly before dying she asked her Sisters to help her stand in order to recite three Hail Marys to Our Lady of Sorrows. At the last Hail Mary she died. It was April 10, 1835. She was beatified in 1941 by Pope Pius XII and canonized on October 2, 1988 by Pope John Paul II.