Homily for Memorial of Bl. Maria Troncatti, FMA

Homily for the Memorial of
Bl. Maria Troncatti, FMA

1 Thess 2: 9-13 [1st reading of the day]
Aug. 25, 2021
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“We treated each one of you as a father treats his children” (1 Thess 2: 11).

If we change “father” to “mother,” we have in that line an apt summary of Bl. Maria Troncatti’s missionary life among the Shuar natives of the forests of eastern Ecuador.  She labored among them from 1922 till her death in 1969, never returning to her family in Italy, and indeed for the first 20 years or so completely cut off from civilization.

For the Shuar she was the madrecita buena: catechist, nurse, emergency doctor, educator, friend, defender, peacemaker, and teacher of family life and the rights of women.  She was a woman of intense prayer.

“For this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly” (2:13).  Bl. Maria lived a long and faithful life of 86 years seeking souls and leaving all the rest, setting for the whole Salesian Family a glorious example.