Becoming the youngest warrior of God to be venerated, Antonietta Meo was born December 15th, 1930 in Rome, Italy and died at the age of six years old on July 3rd, 1937 in Rome, Italy. Her feast day is July 3rd. Nicknamed "Nennolina", Antonietta grew up in an upper middle class home and was raised by her parents, Michele and Maria Meo. She is described as being charismatic, leading her friends in all the games, being popular thanks to her kindness, personally charming, having a great sense of humor, and having a joyous personality. Antoniette was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an extremely serious bone cancer. A year before her death, she fell and damaged her knee. It wouldn't heal. Even after the leg was amputated, she was remarkably cheerful. She was given a heavy, artificial leg so she could continue to play with her friends. She has been called a "mystic" by Catholic theologians because at the age of six, she wrote letters to Jesus near the end of her life which showed understanding of her faith and actions well beyond the normal child of her own age. Antonietta wrote in one of her more than one hundred letters to Jesus or Mary, "Dear baby Jesus, you are holy, you are good, help me, grant me your grace and give me back my leg. If you don't want to, then may your will be done.". At the beginning, her mother wrote the letters for her as she dictated them to her, but later, she wrote the letters and poems herself. She wrote later, "Dear Jesus, I love you very much. I want to abandon myself in your hands. I want to abandon myself in your arms. Do with me what you want. Help me with your grace. You help me, since without your grace, I am nothing.". In many of these letters, Antonietta told of and described Holy Visions she had. After Mass, she could sometimes be seen walk to the Tabernacle and say, "Jesus, come play with me.". She looked at the loss of her leg as a sacrifice to Jesus so that sinners might be converted. To her father Michele after the amputation, she said, "I am very happy that Jesus gave me this problem so that I may be his dearest one, pain is like fabric, the stronger it is, the more it's worth.". She told her spiritual director, "For an instant I lie down on my wound, so as to offer more pain to Jesus.", and to her mother, she told her, "When you feel pain, you have to keep quiet and offer it to Jesus for a sinner. Jesus suffered so much for us, but He hadn't committed any sin: He was God. How could we complain, we who are sinners and always offend him?". She was very eager to receive the Sacraments. Antonietta was baptized, made her First Confession, received her First Communion, was confirmed, and prior to her death, she received the Last Rites in June of 1937. She was determined on writing one last letter to Jesus, this occured only a few days prior to her death. She finished that last letter, even after being interrupted because she had to vomit. In her last letter, she asked Jesus to care for her loved ones, and asked Him for strength to carry her cross. The letter ended with, "Your little girl sends you a lot of kisses. She told her mother when her time to go home had come, "In a few hours, I will die, but I will not suffer anymore, and you shouldn't cry. I should have lived a few days longer, but Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus said, 'it's enough!'". Afterwards, her mother saw her daughter in a vision in a glorified state, reassuring her that her daughter made it to Heaven. Her canonization efforts began shortly after her death, and she already has one miracle accredited to her. Antonietta's case was referred to the Congregation for the Promulgation of Saints in May of 1972. Pope Benedict XVI approved a decree on December 17, 2007, seventy years after her death, praising her "heroic virtues" and gave approval for the canonization process to begin. Her first and as of yet, only miracle healed an Indianian woman who was suffering from Hepatitis C after praying to Antonietta Meo. A shrine with relics of Antonietta's life is in the Basilica Santa Croce, in Gerusalemme located in Rome, which is also the church where she was baptized and spent much of her time in prayer. Antonietta's body was carried inside the Basilica Santa Croce in 1999.