Thecla Merlo
First Superior General of the Daughters of St Paul. Teresa Merlo was born on February 20, 1894 in Castagnito (Piedmont), Italy. Her parents were Hector Merlo and Vincenza Rolando. She was the second of four children. She spent the early years of her life with her family and parish. At the age of 21 years old, she met Father Alberione in the church of Sts Cosmas and Damian on June 27, 1915. He invited her to assist him in the foundation of the new feminine Congregation.
memories of the past
Recalling her memories of the past, Mother Thecla Merlo wrote: “Fr Alberione told me that for now we would work in the sewing shop, but that later we would form a congregation of Sisters who would work with the good press.”
In 1918, the women were invited by Father Alberione to move to the small city of Susa and take charge of the diocesan newspaper. He explained that this would involve the direction, composition, and printing of the paper. The women would learn the typographical skills from their brothers in the Society of St. Paul. The women named their little workshop the “St Paul Typography” and placed it under the great Apostle’s patronage. Soon the group began to be called the Daughters of St Paul.
The difficulties which the little group encountered from society and from the Church’s hierarchy were immense. Women religious operating printing presses and composing books and newspapers? Unimaginable! The year the sisters made their perpetual profession, Father Alberione wrote: “For the Daughters, the vocation to the good press is one still to be created. God creates it, raises it up, confirms it, and brings it to fulfillment with his grace. It involves something new and therefore entails greater difficulties.”
The little group continued to grow and develop with tremendous vision and trust in God’s will. In 1928, they were allowed to wear a religious habit and opened their first branch houses in Salerno, Bari, and Verona, Italy. In the next four years, under Mother Thecla’s guidance, the young congregation expanded to twenty-five communities in Italy and established new foundations in Brazil, Argentina, and the United States.
Embracing apostolate of evangelization using the means of social communication the press, radio, film, TV and other modern means, Mother Thecla wrote: “Our Congregation will always be young, because it will make use of every new means to do good.”
Tecla’s desire was to serve God. She was convinced that in Alberione, God was directing her life. In Ariccia, on June 28,1961, Feast of the Blessed Trinity, she offered her life in order that all the Daughters of St Paul might become saints. She died in the Queen of Apostles Clinic, Albano (Rome) on February 5, 1964.
Mother Thecla Merlo who wished she had “a thousand lives to dedicate to the Gospel,” was a woman of faith. She exhorted the sisters “give wings and feet to the Gospel that it may travel far and wide”. She courageously led the Daughters of St Paul to the forefront of evangelization with each new form of media as it was developed.
