Sister Maria Troncatti's Communication Skills

Sister Maria Troncatti, FMA
Communication that generates dialog, listening, and reconciliation

by Sr. Marcia Koffermann, FMA

(ANS – Rome – October 16, 2025) – The life of Sister Maria Troncatti, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, canonized on October 19, is marked by a profound gift of communication that transcended words and became gesture, presence, and offering of life. The mission of Sister Maria Troncatti, FMA, among the Shuar people and settlers in Ecuador was not limited to assistance or evangelization in the strict sense, but was essentially a work of mediation, dialog, and bridge-building in a context permeated by cultural tensions, conflicts, and mutual distrust.

Communication as encounter

From her first contact with the Amazonian peoples, Sister Maria Troncatti became close to them, learning to listen to their cries. By treating the wounded daughter of a Shuar chief, under threat of death if she failed, she not only saved a life but also won the respect of an entire community.

This initial gesture expresses a form of communication that arises from listening to the concrete needs of others and translates into solidarity in action. Her authority among the indigenous peoples did not come from imposing discourse, but from the credibility she gained thru her care, compassion, and constant presence. Sister Maria Troncatti understood that dialog is not imposed but is built on trust.

The fact that she was called “mamacita” by the indigenous people expresses this recognition: she had become a maternal figure, someone who interceded and cared, regardless of ethnicity, culture, or tradition. Her communication was deeply embodied, marked by consistency between words and actions.

Listening that pacifies and transforms

The high point of her communication mission came during the years of greatest tension between settlers and the Shuar. When the climate of hostility threatened to explode into violence, Sister Troncatti became a mediator, literally placing herself between the two sides. Her famous phrase, “If you really love me, lay down your weapons at my feet!” was the result of attentive listening to the historical wounds of each group and a sensitive reading of the moment. It was not just a moral appeal, but an invitation to break the spiral of violence and embrace the logic of peace.

When she asked God that, if necessary, she would be the victim so that reconciliation could become possible, Sister Troncatti communicated in a radical way that peace has a price: the surrender and renunciation of one’s own interests in favor of the common good. Her testimony had concrete effects: weapons were laid down, hearts were disarmed, and a process of reconciliation began that, according to reports, lasted for decades.

Reconciliation as the fruit of evangelical communication

Sister Maria Troncatti’s ability to reconcile opposites was rooted in communication inspired by the Gospel. For her, speaking of God meant conveying, thru her life, that every human being has a unique dignity and that recognizing the value of others is the first step toward peace. Her communication was not neutral: it was engaged, committed to justice and the promotion of life.

Testimonies about her life highlight that, more than her words, it was her actions that drew people in and inspired them. She was able to create spaces for dialog because she positioned herself as a “bridge” – someone who belonged equally to everyone, without taking sides, but always favoring reconciliation. When mediating conflicts she did not simply seek an agreement, but an inner transformation of relationships, so that peace would be lasting.

St. Maria Troncatti teaches us that true communication is born of listening and of gestures that pacify hearts and rebuild relationships.

The life of Sister Maria Troncatti reveals that the communications aspect of mission is not limited to conveying messages, but implies a profound ability to listen, understand, translate, and bring different worlds together. Her experience shows that true dialog is born of empathy, presence, and commitment to the life of the other. In times of polarization and hate speech, her story illuminates paths to communication that not only informs but transforms.

A communication legacy for today

By being canonized, St. Maria Troncatti becomes for all of us today a model of evangelical communication: a woman who builds bridges where there are walls, who speaks less with words and more with gestures, and who believes in the power of dialog to bring about reconciliation. Her life challenges us to strengthen the culture of dialog and non-violence, making communication an instrument of peace, capable of creating new possibilities for fraternal coexistence.

For more information, visit the website created especially for the canonization of Sr. Maria Troncatti: https://www.mariatroncatti.org/ 

Ecuador Province's Documentary on Sr. Maria Troncatti

Ecuador Province’s Documentary 
on Sr. Maria Troncatti, FMA

(ANS – Rome – October 14, 2025) – While the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians Provinces of Lombardy (Italy) and Peru have produced some very useful informative and popular aids in view of the canonization of Sr. Maria Troncatti, the FMA Province of Ecuador – which had the grace of welcoming and experiencing the maternal, missionary, and reconciling presence of Sr. Maria – could not do less.  That province has produced an agile but very effective documentary that recounts her life and apostolate in a compelling manner.

The audiovisual portrays the life and missionary commitment of Sr. Maria Troncatti, FMA, who from 1922 dedicated her life to service in Ecuadorian Amazon, accompanying with deep faith and love both the settlers who had settled in the region and the indigenous Shuar people, offering not only medical and educational care, but also a living witness to the Gospel.

In the video, lasting about 20 minutes, the transforming power of her gestures, her expression of faith, and her radical choice in favor of the poorest are recounted. Through graphic elements, animated historical photographs and various scenes, the significant moments of her mission are recreated, emphasizing her ability to respond to real situations in accordance with Gospel values.

The documentary was presented for the first time on the eve of her liturgical feastday, August 24, in the city that saw her at work as a missionary more than any other, Sucua, at city hall: a place that preserves the memory of the Salesian Blessed’s missionary dedication.

The preview was attended by Daughters of Mary Help of Christians from different communities of the country, Bishop Nestor Montesdeoca of the vicariate apostolic of Mendez, Dr. Sebastian Rodriguez, mayor of the canton of Sucua, Salesians of Don Bosco, other members of the Salesian Family, local officials, young people, religious sisters of the vicariate, and friends of the Salesian work.

On the occasion, the FMA provincial, Sr. Lupe Erazo, emphasized that Sr. Maria Troncatti, nourished by grace, was “a tireless messenger of the Gospel, an expert in humanity, and a profound connoisseur of the human heart,” capable of transforming prayer into apostolic energy and concrete service to others. “We can say that she lived the Salesian ‘I will go’ generously, devoting herself unreservedly to the mission entrusted to her,” Sr. Lupe said.

This short documentary, Sister Lupe added, “is much more than a collection of images and memories: it is an invitation to contemplate closely the heart of a woman who knew how to respond to pain with tenderness, to conflict with peace, and to adversity with faith.”

The audiovisual production ultimately aims to make known the life and witness of a woman who followed Christ in the style of Don Bosco and St. Mary Mazzarello and continues to be a sign of hope for the Church and society today.

The documentary Sister Maria Troncatti, a life in mission is available on the YouTube channel of the FMAs of Ecuador in two languages, Spanish  and Italian.

For more information, visit the site specially created for the canonization of Sister Maria Troncatti: https://www.mariatroncatti.org/ 

Sr. Maria Troncatti, Artisan of Peace

Sister Maria Troncatti

Artisan of peace and reconciliation

Sr. Maria Troncatti in front of the Pius XII Hospital
with the SDB provincial and Bp. Dominic Comin

(ANS – Rome – October 2, 2025) – “Craftswoman of peace and reconciliation” is the third element of the motto chosen for the canonization of Sister Maria Troncatti, FMA, scheduled for October 19.

Highlighting this dimension of the Salesian sister, in a video promoted by the Historical-Spiritual-Liturgical Commission specially created for the canonization, is Bishop Pedro Gabrielli, SDB, bishop emeritus of the vicariate apostolic of Mendez, Ecuador.

The prelate was born on March 17, 1931, in Pove del Grappa (Vicenza), Italy. He arrived in Ecuador in 1958 and was sent to the jungle, where he worked passionately for the indigenous Shuar people and the settlers of Morona Santiago. He met Sister Troncatti in the 1960s, when she was working intensively at the Pius XII Hospital. He admired her great sense of motherhood and her self-sacrificing dedication in defense of the physical and spiritual health of everyone.

He remembers, first and foremost, “the sensitivity she had in all the activities we did at Sucua, with the teachers, with the patients, with the people.... In a word, she made herself co-responsible for all the activities that the mission promoted, for social growth and promotion.”

At the time, the social context was tense, particularly in relations between the indigenous people and the settlers, who fought over the land, the main source of livelihood for everyone at the time: “Relations, unfortunately, were not the most desirable nor the best,” he recounts. “Sister Troncatti wanted peace, and for peace, tranquility, and collaboration, I believe she gave her life, offering her existence so that there might be greater harmony and peace between the two ethnic groups.”

On July 4, 1969, a large fire was set in the Salesian house, probably by some settlers. Everything was burnt, but fortunately there were no victims.

How did Sister Troncatti react? “She reacted like a real mother,” recalls the bishop emeritus. “We left the house with what we had on us, because the flames of the fire were raging everywhere. . . . She acted with incredible promptness: she ran away in the night, despite her swollen feet and physical discomfort. She went to open the only clothes shop there was in Sucua to buy us immediately something with which to protect ourselves from the cold of the night.”

She showed an equal love and care for all, Bishop Gabrielli testifies: “For me, Sister Maria Troncatti was a true blessing. She was the benefactor, the nurse, the helper of everyone, both colonists and Shuar; everyone turned to her. Therefore, expressing one’s love and gratitude to Sister Maria Troncatti necessarily meant considering the relationships she cultivated. Sister Maria Troncatti loved the settlers and desired their good, their health, their lives. At the same time, she loved the Shuar because they were the heart of the mission, her children, and they were the object of her care and accompaniment.”

Mother Troncatti also sought help from outside so that they could help her, and she favored the work of many young volunteers of Operation Mato Grosso within the mission, for the development and growth of the indigenous population.

“She was at the service of everyone: if she could do something for the Shuar, she did it; if she could do something for the settlers, she did it. So attentive was she to all the needs that when she saw that some Shuar were not receiving treatment at the Pius XII Hospital she directed because it was too different from their environment, she immediately had two tents erected on either side of the hospital, where even the proudest natives could find hospitality.”

The video with the interview with Bishop Gabrielli, entirely in Spanish, is available here.

The Motherly Heart of Sr. Maria Troncatti

The Motherly Heart of Sister Maria Troncatti

Salesian Sister to be canonized on October 19

(ANS – Rome – September 25, 2025) – The historical-spiritual-liturgical commission established by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in view of the canonization of Sister Maria Troncatti (1883-1969), scheduled for October 19, has drawn up a program to get to know the figure of the now-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 Sister 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, profound listening to their difficulties. Just as a mother gives more attention for her weaker child, so Sister Maria had an eye of predilection for the neediest and most 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 gave 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’m happy to stay with my poor people of the forests. They’re always sick in the hospital; they always come from far away to visit me.”

Anyone could find the beloved “abuelita” (grandma) at the door 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, at the end of her life at that time, had foretold to her the land where she would live Da mihi animas cetera tolle. Sister Maria, who was assisting her as a nurse, had been perplexed, but a few days later she received the message from Mother General Catherine Daghero: she would be a missionary in the Ecuadorian jungle. Don Bosco’s words in the letter from Rome of 1884 would mark her presence among those people: “It is not enough to love… but they must realize that they are loved.”

Sister Maria, with her motherhood, with great humility, with listening and loving-kindness, won the hearts of all. Her concern was always able to 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 – which occurred in Sucua, Ecuador, on August 25, 1969, in an airplane accident – with the best wishes for his feastday before her departure to Quito.

“I’m truly happy; for me it is a dream come true, in such a short period of time,” says Bro. Cossu in an interview, referring to the now imminent canonization. “Never would I have thought that I would live to see 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 Sucua mission, he adds, “She was the guardian angel in the most difficult moment experienced not by the mission, but by the entire population of Sucua.”

The secret of her holiness, he concludes, was 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/