(ANS – Rome) – The historical-spiritual-liturgical Commission established by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in view of the canonization of Sr. Maria Troncatti (1883-1969), scheduled for October 19, has drawn up a program to get to know the figure of the Blessed, her message and her relevance better – starting from the motto “Mother, missionary, craftswoman of peace and reconciliation’.” Thanks to this material, today we deepen precisely the first aspect highlighted by the motto for canonization: the spiritual motherhood of Sr. Trocatti, fruit of her encounter with Jesus and her becoming an “auxiliary” among the people.
Hers was a true mother’s heart. All those who needed her were welcomed without distinction, Colonists and Shuar found in her a word of consolation, a maternal gaze, a deep listening to their difficulties. Just as a mother has more attention for her weaker son, so Sister Maria had an eye of predilection for the most needy and disinherited: women, children, orphans, people in difficulty were the object of her care. Caring for the sick, educating and saving children was her mission. In the course of her life, she had given everything to others and kept nothing for herself.
Her true wealth was relationships with people. Even as an older woman, like a real mother, she was visited by her beloved “children”.
‘I can no longer work’ she said ‘but I am happy to stay with my poor savages: they are always sick in the hospital; they always come from far away to visit me.’
Anyone could find the beloved “abuelita” (grandma) on the threshold of the Pius XII Hospital– which she had strongly desired – sitting, now with swollen legs, ready to welcome everyone. As a Salesian missionary she had learned to love Christ passionately, demonstrating the same passionate love in concrete gestures of every day to the people to whom she was sent.
In 1922, in Nizza Monferrato, the young student Marina Luzzi, now at the end of her life, had foretold to her the land where she would live the Da mihi animas cetera tolle. Sister Maria, who was assisting her as a nurse, had been perplexed, but after a few days she received the message from Mother Caterina Daghero: she would be a missionary in the Ecuadorian jungle. Don Bosco’s words in the letter from Rome of 1884 would have marked her presence among those people: “It is not enough to love… but they themselves must realize that they are loved.“
Sister Maria, with her motherhood, with great humility, with listening and loving-kindness, had won the hearts of all. Her concern was to be able to always bring relief. She could not remain indifferent to any kind of suffering, but immediately brought help and comfort as a “true mother.”
It is her motherhood that the young Salesian Cosimo Cossu experienced, recipient of the last letter written by Sister Maria on the eve of her death – occurred in Sucúa, Ecuador, on 25 August 1969, due to an air accident – with the best wishes for his feast day before her departure to Quito.
“I am truly happy, for me it is a dream come true, in such a short period of time,” says Bro. Cossu in the interview, referring to the now imminent canonization. “Never would I have thought that I would see, while still alive, this day in which Sister Maria is placed by the Lord as an example and guide, a teacher for each one of us.”
On Sister Troncatti’s motherhood, then, the Salesian has no doubts: “From the beginning of her apostolic life in Ecuador, she was a mother to all the people she met, especially to the most underprivileged.” And recalling the arson attack suffered by the Salesians in the Sucúa mission, he adds: “She was the guardian angel in the most difficult moment experienced not by the mission, but by the entire population of Sucúa.”
The secret of her holiness, he concludes, was in her ability to recognize the face of Jesus in every person she met.
The video with the interview with Bro. Cossu is available here.
For further information, please visit the site specially set up for the canonization of Sister Maria Troncatti: https://mariatroncatti.org/