She was baptized "in necessity" at the request of her mother with water from Lourdes; she received formal baptism on the following 13 August in the name of "Benedetta Bianca Maria".

For the 1950 Holy Year convoked by Pope Pius XII, she and her aunt Carmen travelled on pilgrimages to Assisi, Rome and Loreto.

In October 1953 – at the age of seventeen — she travelled to Milan where she went to enroll in a physics course in order to appease her father, but she instead discovered that her true calling was to medicine; she also realized that her vocation was to engage with others as a doctor to help those who needed aid the most.

Her illness progressed to the point where she was admitted into a nursing home on 12 July 1955 for a femur condition and for the subsequent rehabilitation.

In November 1955, she was permitted to retake an oral examination from the previous summer, but she did so in writing instead and passed with excellent results.

In 1957 her studies reached the point where she could diagnose herself: it was soon discovered that she had fallen victim to the rare Von Recklinghausen's disease, which would leave her blind and deaf.

The number of people who visited her increased steadily as word of her holiness and gentle understanding of love of God spread.

Her health took a dramatic decline after her pilgrimage to Lourdes, and on the night of 22 January 1964 said to her nurse: "Emilia, tomorrow I will die.

Porro died in the morning of 23 January 1964 after receiving Communion and Reconciliation, and was buried in the cemetery of Sirmione; her remains were later transferred to the Church of Saint Andrew in Dovádola.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints decreed the process was valid and allowed for the opening of the so-called "Roman Phase" on 5 June 1981.

Pope John Paul II declared her to be Venerable on 23 December 1993 on the account of her model life based on exercising heroic virtue to a high degree.

[6] Pope Francis confirmed the miracle attributed to her intercession in a decree issued on 7 November 2018; she was beatified on 14 September 2019.