1847 - 1916

At the age of nineteen, Giulia Valle, of Aosta, Italy, entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joan Antida Thouret, subsequently taking the religious name Nemesia. She soon formulated a prayer for herself that became the rallying cry of her spiritual life: “Jesus, empty me of myself, let me be clothed in you. Jesus, for you I live and for you I die…” After taking her vows, she served as a teaching nun, and thereafter as superior of her convent in Tortona. Faced with the grave responsibilities of the latter office, she would tell herself, “Concentrate on the one goal: God alone!” Having suffered at the early age of four the loss of her mother and repeated separations from the rest of her family thereafter, Sister Nemesia was to carry with her in religious life a pronounced empathy for those suffering from loneliness. In 1903 she was appointed novice mistress at a convent of her congregation in Borgaro. This latter office brought upon her many humiliations, in that her gentle methods of counseling novices were criticized by her superior. Sister Nemesia died on December 18, 1916.