NEW SAINT- OLD FRIEND

 

Yesterday, Pope Leo canonized seven new saints, one being my “friend”  MADRE MARIA TRONCATTI, a Salesian Sister, who trained and worked as a Red Cross nurse in military hospitals in the First World War, and was a missionary in Ecuador for almost 50 years. (See Blogs Nov. 23,2012, Jan.2, 2013 & June 9, 2025)

She was part of an initially tiny group of Sisters engaged in evangelization and care for the Shuar people of the Amazon forest, looking after their physical needs as nurse, surgeon and dentist, and their spiritual needs as catechist, envangelizer and role-model. The work she began in an isolated and dangerous environment continues today. The new saint was killed in a tragic plane crash on 25th August 1969 at the age of 86, still doing her mission work.

She was much loved by the people who called her "Mamacita".

 The Holy Father said in his homily: “Today we have before us seven witnesses, the new Saints, who, with God’s grace, kept the lamp of faith burning. Indeed, they themselves became lamps capable of spreading the light of Christ.”

 “We see all this in the lives of the new Saints: they are not heroes or champions of some ideal, but authentic men and women ... May their intercession assist us in our trials and their example inspire us in our shared vocation to holiness. As we journey towards this goal, let us pray without ceasing, and continue in what we have learned and firmly believe (cf. 2 Tim 3:14). Faith on earth thus sustains the hope for heaven."

"Let us entrust to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the new Saints our constant prayer for peace in the Holy Land, Ukraine and other places affected by war. May God grant all their leaders the wisdom and perseverance to advance in the search for a just and lasting peace.”

Of St. Maria, the Apostolic Vicar of Méndez (Ecuador), Néstor Vidal  Bishop Montesdeoca affirmed that the holiness of the nun and missionary "was not demonstrated by spending all day praying, but by the fact that she knew how to reconcile, in her life and work, prayer, the Eucharist, and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary with pastoral, missionary, and catechetical work to proclaim the Gospel, but also with the educational work of educating boys and girls to be good Christians and honest citizens, especially those from the mission territory, especially among the Shuar, both in Macas and later in Seville Don Bosco and then in Sucúa."

He also emphasized the relevance of St. Maria's passionate missionary work, a promoter of human rights "at a time when it was not yet widely discussed" and advocated for women's rights, but above all, was "a promoter and prophet of the peaceful social integration of peoples." 

Her feast is now August 25.