Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI
Friday, 22 August 2025
Istituto Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice
Quito (Agenzia Fides) – “I must be a missionary” is the promise that characterized the entire work of Italian nun Maria Troncatti, a missionary of the Salesian Sisters, who will be proclaimed a Saint by Pope Leo XIV on October 19, 2025, World Mission Sunday.Maria was born on February 16, 1883, in Corteno Golgi, in the Italian province of Brescia, into a large family of cattle farmers. According to the website of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, she grew up working in the fields and caring for her younger siblings. Reading the Bulletin of the Salesians awakened in her the desire to consecrate herself to God. She joined the Order of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and took her temporary vows in Nizza Monferrato in 1908.During the First World War, she worked as a nurse with the Italian Red Cross in Varazze. One event shaped her life: As a survivor of a tragic flood, she promised Our Lady that if she were rescued, she would become a missionary. The promise was fulfilled: in 1922, Sister Maria went to Ecuador as a missionary.Accompanied by the missionary bishop, Domenico Comin, she and two other nuns reached the Amazon rainforest in the heart of the Shuar Indian territory. There, she gained the trust of the people by using a simple pocketknife to save the daughter of a tribal chief who had been wounded by a bullet. From that moment on, she was known to everyone as “La Madrecita”.For forty-four years, Sister Maria lived among the Shuar in the Apostolic Vicariate of Mendez, with Macas, Méndez, Sucúa, and Sevilla Don Bosco. She not only preached the Word of God to the indigenous people, but also served them as a nurse, surgeon, orthopedist, dentist, and pharmacist. She devoted herself primarily to the empowerment of Shuar women and supported the establishment of Christian families based on free choice rather than arranged marriages.Among other places, she worked at the “Pio XII” Hospital in Sucúa and in numerous medical centers in the jungle. Always and tirelessly on the move, she was a mother to thousands of people.On August 25, 1969, her earthly life ended: A plane carrying her to Quito crashed shortly after takeoff. The Shuar Federation’s radio station announced the news: “Our mother, Sister Maria Troncatti, has died.” Her remains now rest in Sucúa. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed her Blessed. And in a few days, she will be proclaimed a Saint.In preparation for the October ceremony, the first session of the Tribunal responsible for the canonical recognition and preservation of Sister Maria’s relics was held at the Vicariate Pastoral Centre in Rio Blanco, Macas, as reported by the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. The ceremony was attended by Sister Lupe Erazo, Superior of the ‘Sacred Heart’ Province of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Ecuador, the religious sisters of the Amazonian communities, as well as the priests and deacons of the Apostolic Vicariate of Méndez.The day began with the reading of a biographical summary by Angéllica Almeida, head of the Salesian Historical Archives. Then Néstor Montesdeoca Becerra, SDB, Bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Méndez, presided over the inaugural session of the Tribunal during which the Official Rescript of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints containing the ‘nulla osta’ for the canonical recognition of the remains was made public.Subsequently, the members of the Tribunal travelled to Sucúa, where the relics were removed from the altar dedicated to her in the chapel where her remains rest. These were taken to the place where Deacon Luciano Griggio, a conservation technician, began the appropriate treatment for their conservation. (F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 22/8/2025)
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