Savina Petrilli (29 August 1851 - 18 April 1923) was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious who founded the Sisters of the Poor of Saint Catherine of Siena upon receiving the encouragement of Pope Pius IX. Petrilli devoted her order to the alleviation of the poor while catering to those people who came to the congregation seeking help. She opened her first international house in Brazil after her order was established though managed the house in Siena where she lived until her death from cancer in 1923. Her beatification was celebrated on 24 April 1988. Her feast in the liturgical calendar is assigned to 18 April. Life Savina Petrilli was born on 29 August 1851 in Siena as the second daughter of Celso Petrilli and Matilde Venturini; her sister was Emilia. At the age of ten - in 1861 - she read an account of the life of Catherine of Siena that instilled in her a strong devotion to her. Petrilli had her First Communion at the age of twelve in 1863. Petrilli later made a vow to God in which she pledged to remain a virgin at the age of seventeen in 1868. She served as part of the Marian movement from the age of fifteen and was appointed its president in 1873. In 1869 she was received in a private audience with Pope Pius IX who invited her to establish a religious congregation devoted to Catherine of Siena upon learning that she was from Siena. Petrilli then confided her plan to establish an order to her sister Emilia who was on the verge of death. She - alongside five others - made her solemn profession as a professed religious on 15 August 1873 - the date of her order's establishment. The new order received the approval of the Archbishop of Siena Enrico Bindi. She and her new professed sisters moved to a new house in the name of the Sisters of the Poor of Saint Catherine of Siena on 7 September 1874 with the approval of the archbishop. The congregation opened their first house in Onano in 1881 and their first mission in Brazil in 1903. The papal decree of praise of Pope Leo XIII for the order was issued in 1891. The constitution of the order was approved as being implemented for a brief period on September 5, 1899 and approved in full after Pope Pius X