Blessed Antonia Messina was born on 21 June 1919. She was the second of ten children born to a poor family. After four years of school she took over housekeeping to help her bedridden mother, Grazia. She joined Catholic Action at the age of ten. While gathering firewood on 17 May 1935, she was murdered by a teenage would-be rapist. She fought him away with all her strength and chose to die rather than to submit to him. Her body was examined and it was found that she had not been sinfully violated. Her feast is celebrated on 17 May.