Susanna Maiolo (born 8 November 1984) is a Swiss-Italian woman who twice attempted to attack Pope Benedict XVI.
The second attack, on 24 December 2009, happened during the procession to the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass inside St. Peter's Basilica, where she knocked the Pope and French cardinal Roger Etchegaray to the floor, breaking the cardinal's leg and hip, and leaving the Pope uninjured.
[2] Then, on Christmas Eve, 24 December 2009, during the Entrance Procession to the Midnight Mass, inside St. Peter's Basilica, she knocked the Pope and French cardinal Roger Etchegaray to the floor, breaking the cardinal's leg and hip, and leaving the Pope uninjured.
Authorities said that Maiolo is mentally unwell and she was held for a week's evaluation at a psychiatric hostel in Subiaco near Rome.
[5][6][7] The Pope's personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, visited her at the clinic on 1 January 2010.