As we celebrate the feast day of Saint Maria Troncatti, we invite you to revisit this article featuring a moving story shared by Bro. Cosimo Cossu, SDB, who knew her personally.
(ANS) – Not everyone has the grace or good fortune to meet a saint during their lifetime, much less to share years of life and mission with one. Even fewer can say that they were among the beloved friends of a canonized saint or that they witnessed the rite by which that person was officially declared a saint. Yet it is something truly unique to be able to say that, even unknowingly, one was an instrument of God’s plans, helping a saint’s life reach its full and complete fulfillment. Such is the story of Bro. Cosimo Cossu, SDB, a Salesian Brother, friend, and spiritual son of the new saint, Sister Maria Troncatti, FMA. In a video produced by ANS, he recounts the story in detail.
Born in 1941, Bro. Cossu is now 84 and serves at the Salesian Headquarters. As a young Salesian in his early 20s, however, he left for Ecuador as a missionary and found himself serving alongside Sister Maria Troncatti at the mission in Sucúa. This gave him a privileged view of the attitudes and daily witness of the holy Daughter of Mary Help of Christians.
Humble, charitable, and simple, but above all “in love with Jesus,” with whom she spoke daily, Sister Maria would arrive early for meditation in the chapel. This is how Bro. Cossu remembers her in the video interview.
“She was extraordinarily simple, but above all, and most importantly, whoever approached her—rich or poor, humble, women, children, people in rags—for her, they were Jesus! The secret of her canonization is all here. She had Jesus before her!”
Another typically Salesian trait was “her amiability.”
“Anyone who approached Sister Maria felt loved. From the beginning, from the time I knew her, during those three years she revealed this to everyone she encountered,” Bro. Cossu recalls.
In the video interview, the Salesian Brother also recounts in detail his role in convincing a reluctant Sister Troncatti to attend a retreat in Quito. It was for this appointment that she boarded the plane that crashed moments after takeoff.
“I should apologize to her because I made her die. But God used me so that Sister Maria could reach the altars,” Bro. Cossu says today, recalling the promise Sister Troncatti had made shortly before to Our Lady in Macas: that she would willingly offer her life for reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and settlers.
“God made use of your Cosmito so that you would offer your life,” the Salesian says, addressing his Saint Maria Troncatti directly.
In addition to the interview with Bro. Cossu, the video produced by ANS presents the entire life journey of Sister Troncatti in detail. The video is available in five languages: (Italian, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese).
An extended version of Bro. Cossu’s testimony is also available in the original Spanish.