Sister Annunziata Marchese MSC, an eyewitness to the canonisation of Mother Cabrini
The following words are a written testimony left to us by Sr. Annunziata Marchese, MSC, in 2021 in Codogno.
Sr. Annunziata was born on February 1, 1925, and passed away on March 12, 2023. She spent the last years of her life in the Sacred Heart community in Codogno, Italy.
In the video at the end of her testimony, she told us more about her missionary life.
Sant'Angelo, July 7, 1996
I was welcomed (in Rome) into the Institute of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart that I found eagerly awaiting that event that the church had organized - the glorification of the Foundress. I, however, carried a burden of sadness in my heart - the tragedy of that war that had shattered the world was still alive in me. The echo of air raids, war bulletins and news of martyrs on the fronts persisted and of relatives and comrades who never returned. I had seen around me the specter of hunger, the hardships and trials inflicted by a war that seemed to never end. I had asked myself how the powerful leaders of nations could decide to wage war. Why so much absurdity? History seemed to me a jumble of hatred, revenge, cruelty and violence. Certainly, the war of ’40-’45 marked the generations of those years! I was one of them!
But a date arrived - July 7, 1946. I was in Saint Peter's, the first time I had ever crossed its threshold.
The temple, the center of Christianity, was bathed in a sea of lights. A cheering crowd filled the basilica. A flood of people had arrived from the Lodi area. The papal procession was a sight that filled me with awe. The notes of Perosi echoed majestically beneath the dome of Michelangelo. Mother Cabrini was granted the glory of Bernini, because "the Lord crowns the humble with victory".
An event of Light!
There, in that temple, on that day, I felt the beating heart of the Church. It felt as if I were on another planet. It was the first canonization following the horrors of the war.
Immersed in that celebration, I saw a much broader historical vision unfolding before my spirit. The story now appeared to me like the setting for God's saving action.
Although it bears the marks of human selfishness, the thread of Providence weaves its way into the fabric of human events and makes itself present through its saints.
They make their own history that blends like yeast, like prophecy, into universal history, offering love, self-giving and service.
The saints are the most beautiful things this earth can possess.
The saints are God's sentinels who, from the most diverse vantage points of human situations, proclaim the Gospel through their lives to humanity that is often groping in the dark and in need of God.
That is why they are the true benefactors of humanity.
Mother Cabrini, depicted on a large canvas, was eloquent.
The words of Pope Pius XII who described Cabrini’s story "a wonderful work" unfolded a luminous vision of life before my spirit.
I left St. Peter's filled with enthusiasm, confirmed in my commitment to dedicate myself to Christ, while sensing that consecrated life is at the heart of the Church.
This fragile woman, a daughter of this Lodi region, took as her own Paul’s motto "I can do all things through him who strengthens me" and with the strength of God she bowed before the miseries of our people in the diaspora and accomplished what political systems often fail to plan, much less carry out.
Beyond all forms of nationalism, she could claim "My nationality lies in the hearts of the poor, of the poor who are the people and the soul of my faith".
The glorification of Mother Cabrini, experienced as an ecclesial event, made me realize that war is an absurdity while the Gospel logic, when it informs and wins over consciences, generates the saints, humanizes human coexistence and causes fraternity, justice and peace to flourish.
But another reflection took shape in me that day. In Mother Cabrini I saw the fulfilled woman. Women’s issues had not yet erupted, they were submerged but did exist.
In this apostle of two worlds I sensed that, beyond all the discussions over the role and ministries of women in the Church, she was called to make God’s tenderness, compassion and love present in the world.
It is up to women to give the Church that face, that feminine dimension that has been lacking in past centuries.
Perhaps in Mother Cabrini’s time these concepts were not explicit, much less discussed, but the saints lived them out and converted them into life.
For us today things are clearer and we are grateful to John Paul II for helping us discover the female genius that is the richness of womanhood and the secret to her constructive presence in the Church and in every sphere of human existence.
Like Mother Cabrini.
Sr. Annunziata Marchese
Witness of Canonization
1946
Watch the video with subtitles in SPANISH and PORTUGUESE
COMMENTS