Maria Domenica Mazzarello, FMA (9 May 1837 – 14 May 1881) was an Italian Catholic nun who co-founded the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco.

She was born in Mornese, in what is now the province of Alessandria, northern Italy, to a peasant family who worked in a vineyard.

When she was fifteen she had joined the Association of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate, known for her charitable works, and run by the parish priest, Domenico Pestarino; it was a precursor to the founding of the Salesian Sisters.

After she recovered from her illness, in the month of October, Mary was walking in her village and was suddenly astounded to see before her a large building with a courtyard and many girls playing and laughing.

The Daughters took in a few young girls and housed them, schooling them in the faith and handing down to them their knowledge of dress making.

He went to Mornese with his boy band under the guise of raising funds for his Oratory, but his true intention was to investigate the possibility of founding a female counterpart of the male Salesian religious order from the Daughters of Mary Immaculate.

A source of the community's good spirit, sense of humor, optimism and charity, Mary Mazzarello was the natural choice for the first superior.

[4] After much formation, struggles, the well-intentioned but misdirected advice of others, and difficulties with the townspeople (whose school for boys which they had raised money for and built was turned over to the Daughters for their work by Bosco), the day of their profession arrived.

[4] As the feminine branch of the Salesian religious family, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians sought to do for girls what the priests and brothers were doing in Turin for boys.

[6] Mother Mazzarello accompanied them to their port of call in Genoa, Italy, and then took a boat to France so that she could visit the sisters there.

Mother Mazzarello was not one to let events such as that discourage her so she took the sheets that they brought with them stuffed them with straw, and made makeshift beds for all of them.

The next morning, more out of a concern for worrying her already exhausted companions, she was able to get up, see the missionaries off, and then journey with her remaining Sisters to their house and orphanage in St.

Her native air strengthened her and since she felt stronger she insisted on keeping the community schedule and doing her usual work.