Unfortunately those dreams did not come true. On April 29, 1984, Sandra Sabatinni suffered a serious car accident: at the precise moment she was getting out of the car she was in, she was hit by a vehicle coming in the opposite direction; Ella Sandra was preparing to attend a meeting of the Pope John XXIII Community. That morning she was accompanied by Guido, her boyfriend, and Elio, one of her friends, who was also injured. Ella Sandra remained in a coma and died a few days later, on May 2, at the age of 22.
Every minute counts to love
Blessed Sandra Sabatinni has been defined as ‘saint of the everyday’. There were no “great events” that surrounded her life, unless her greatness is measured by the love given. In a prayer written in 1982, Blessed Ella wrote: “Lord, make every action of mine determined by the fact of wanting the good of young people, every minute is an occasion of love that must be taken advantage of.” Her biographer, Laila Lucci, highlighted this aspect of Sandra in her extensive work entitled The saint next door; where he emphasizes that what is extraordinary is making one’s life something full of meaning, because at every moment one can love and love.
On March 6, 2018, Pope Francis approved the decree that recognized the heroic virtues of Sandra Sabattini. On October 24, 2021, her beatification ceremony was held. That day there was a procession of a relic of the new blessed, carried to the altar by Stefano Vitali, former president of the Community of Rimini, miraculously cured of a serious illness through the intercession of Sabattini. The relic was a bit of hair saved by her boyfriend, Guido, placed in a candy box that Sandra herself once decorated.