Anna Moroni (1613–1675) was an Italian

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

. Anna Moroni originally worked as a washer woman in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. However, she had difficulty in keeping her assignments, reportedly, because of her beauty, as beautiful women were discriminated against by women employers, who normally hired the female servants. Outside of

domestic work A domestic worker is a person who works within a residence and performs a variety of household services for an individual, from providing cleaning and household maintenance, or cooking, laundry and ironing, or care for children and elderly ...

prostitution Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...

was almost the only way for a poor woman to support herself in Rome. After an illness in 1646, she became very religious and was given Camillo Berlinsani as her

confessor In a number of Christian traditions, including Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism and Anglicanism, a confessor is a priest who hears the confessions of penitents and pronounces absolution. History During the Diocletianic Persecut ...

. In 1662, she was given permission by the church to open a home and school to teach handicrafts to poor girls and women who had failed to marry or find employment as domestic servants and were left with prostitution or beggary to support themselves. Her school was unusual in Italy, where schools for girls were normally founded and managed by nuns rather than secular women like Moroni. Her school was protected by the church and was in the 18th-century transformed in to an order.

References

* Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani – Volume 77 (2012) 1613 births 1675 deaths 17th-century Italian educators Italian women educators People from the Papal States {{edu-bio-stub