Bologna, August 30, 2026 – Kept the city on edge for days. With her story, she moved everyone. And now little Maria Stella has left Sant’Orsola and has been entrusted to Social Services, awaiting to be welcomed by a family. Kept safe in intensive care, her health conditions have always been excellent and, last Friday, the little girl was able to ’say goodbye’ to the doctors and staff at Sant’Orsola who took care of her for 20 days. Now, she is looking for new parents, the little girl who on the evening of August 8 was found in the Life Cradle of the Minime Sisters of Santa Clelia Barbieri institute on via Tambroni, just steps from Antoniano and the historic center.
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Meanwhile, Maria Stella has not been forgotten. On the contrary. The little girl has always been in the thoughts of those who followed her story and cheered for her and, above all, in the minds and hearts of the sisters who took care of her when she was left in the Cradle.
The incident on August 8
That evening, shortly before 11 p.m., the nuns, alerted by an alarm in the form of a phone call, rushed to get her, rocked her, cuddled her, held her in their arms until the 118 rescuers took her to the hospital, to Sant’Orsola, where she was placed in intensive care, but only as an extreme precaution.
The little girl, immediately examined by the neonatologist, was actually well, her conditions were good from the start. And recently, the nuns also had the chance to visit her: “A great emotion – they say –. Only Sister Marta went, because we were told it was better to limit visits. And once inside, you had to wear a mask and take all the necessary precautions to protect the little one. Sister Marta was able to hold her, cuddled her a bit. Remembering the moment when we found her in our Cradle.” Not only that. “We care about her, we want to know how she is – continue the Minime Sisters of Santa Clelia Barbieri –. For this reason, with an unexpected kindness, the hospital kept us updated: they wrote to us if she had eaten, slept, a bit of her life, in short.”
The bond of the sisters with the little girl
A bond, that of the nuns with her, destined somehow to last forever. It was the Sisters themselves, that evening, who named her Maria Stella. In nine years (since 2017, when thanks to the Catholic Doctors, the Cradle of the institute on via Tambroni was inaugurated with the blessing of Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and president of the CEI) no baby had ever been left. Maria Stella was the first in all this time.
“We were trained for such an event – explain the nuns –, so when it happened, we were ready: one of us took her in her arms to rock her, another sister called for help, another tidied up the clothes. And so on.” The baby was wearing modest but clean clothes: a cap, a bodysuit, a blanket. “They keep calling here to ask about her, but now much less. In the first days, instead, the phone rang continuously. Many only asked how the little girl was, others if they could adopt her, but we immediately made it clear to everyone that this is not our responsibility. Our task is to assist the baby at the beginning, in the first moments when she is left here, and immediately entrust her to the rescuers.” Now that she has left the hospital, the foster care procedure will follow its course. Hoping that soon the little girl can have a new home and a family.
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