Anita Cantieri was born in Lucca (Italy) on March 30, 1910. Her parents, Davino and Annunziata, were countrypeople of modest means; they had 12 children.

Shortly after her birth on April 3^rd, she was baptized; received the sacrament of confirmation on October 3^rd 1915 and her First Communion on 7^th of May 1916.

At the age of twelve, she decided to give herself completely to God, feeling the call to a religious vocation. On May 24, 1930 she entered on trial the Carmelite Sisters of St. Teresa in Campi Bisenzio (Florence).

She remained in the convent for 14 months, but had to leave in August 1931 because she suffered from physical ailments of an unspecified nature. A few years later she was welcomed into the Carmelite Secular Third Order, in which she took the name of Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Humble, silent, smiling, she tried to live her motto-program: «Love, suffer, be silent: all this is my life synthesized». In the last period of her life, even though reduced to  immobility by being confined to bed by her illness, Anita became the promoter and animator of numerous parish and apostolic initiatives.

She died on the 24^th of August, 1942.

The decree on her heroic virtue was promulgated on the 21^st of December, 1991.