(ANS – Turin) – The “Women’s Saturday Evenings” series opened in Turin on May 2, 2026, at the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians, marking the beginning of the Marian month in preparation for the feast day on May 24. As in previous years, on the three Saturdays leading up to the feast of Mary Help of Christians, three women are invited to the Basilica to share testimonies about Our Lady. This year, the reflections on “Mary, Mother of the Church” are being led by three religious sisters—chosen for the first time by Pope Francis and later confirmed by Pope Leo—who hold positions of responsibility within the Vatican.

“Their presence in the Basilica,” explained Rector Fr. Michele Viviano at the opening of the May 2 evening, “allows us to experience the Church, even in its highest institutions, as close to and walking alongside the people of God. At the same time, through their gentle service, they help us better understand how Mary is Mother of the Church and how much today’s society needs mothers and women who model themselves after Mary.”

As part of the initiative, each guest is introduced by a journalist from the Diocese of Turin and Susa media outlets, and the choirs that open and close the evenings with Marian hymns are also entirely female.

At the first gathering, held before a packed basilica, the reflection was led by Sister Simona Brambilla, a Consolata Missionary and Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life—the first woman to serve as Prefect of a Dicastery in the Roman Curia.

Sister Brambilla, who served as a missionary in Mozambique and completed two terms as Superior General of her religious institute—founded by St. Joseph Allamano, founder of World Mission Day—centered her moving testimony on the origins of “Our Lady of the Rejected,” patroness of distant Mongolia.

In Mongolia, where there are only 1,600 Catholics (0.5% of the population) gathered within the Apostolic Prefecture of Ulaanbaatar, led by Cardinal Giorgio Marengo—a native of Turin, also a Consolata Missionary, and recently appointed by Pope Leo XIV as President of the Central Asian Bishops’ Conference—a non-Christian woman named Tsetsege discovered a wooden statue of the Madonna wrapped in cloth while searching through a garbage dump for food for her children.

The Sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Missionaries of Charity, later explained to her that the statue represented the Immaculate Virgin and taught the poor woman the Hail Mary. Though not yet Christian, she brought the statue to the Catholic community in her village.

As Sister Brambilla recounted, the Sisters later spoke to Cardinal Marengo about the “Madonna of the garbage dump.” Deeply moved by the story, he recognized it as a sign that Mary is “always ready to meet us even in places of despair, rejection, suffering, and abandonment.” Cardinal Marengo then decided to consecrate Mongolia to Mary in the Cathedral of Ulaanbaatar, where the statue had meanwhile been transferred and covered with a mantle sewn together from many small pieces of fabric sent by Christian communities throughout the country.

The statue later became a symbol of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Journey to Mongolia in August 2023, during which, Sister Brambilla continued, he also met Tsetsege, who had since converted to Catholicism.

“Our Lady of the Rejected as a symbol of faith springing forth even in the harshest places” was a story Sister Brambilla emphasized in response to numerous questions. It demonstrates how Mary, “Mother of the Church, most loving Mother, is the womb that gives birth to faith even in remote places such as a garbage dump. This teaches us that vocation is a gift from God and that from one small, poor woman can arise a sign of hope for an entire nation.”

The next events in the “Women’s Saturday Evenings” series will take place on Saturday, May 9, with Sister Raffaella Petrini of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State; and on Saturday, May 16, with Sister Yvonne Reungoat, Mother General Emerita of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and member of the Dicastery for Bishops.

Marina Lomunno