Anna Maria Canopi  Anna Maria Cànopi, O.S.B., (April 24, 1931 – March 21, 2019) was an Italian Benedictine abbess and spiritual writer. Cànopi was born in 1931 in Pecorara, now in alta Val Tidone, Province of Piacenza, then part of the Kingdom of Italy. As a young girl, she became drawn to monastic life. This led her to enter the Benedictine Abbey of Viboldone, near Milan. In 1973 Cànopi was chosen to lead a small group of nuns who were to establish the new Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, which was to be located on San Giulio Island, on Lake Orta. Under her leadership, the monastery flourished and was later raised to the status of a territorial abbey, with Cànopi being elected as the first abbess of the community. Cànopi is widely known as an author of several books on biblical and monastic spirituality, and is considered a prominent scholar in patristic literature. She contributed to the publication of the Italian official edition of the Bible by the Catholic Church. She also wrote the text of the "Via Crucis" ("Way of the Cross") by Pope John Paul II in 1993.