Pope Francis proclaimed this Sunday the canonization of ten new saints, including the nun María Francisca de Jesús Rubatto (1844-1904). It’s about the first saint of Uruguay.
“Holiness is not made of a few heroic acts, but of lots of everyday love“, remarked the pontiff from Saint Peter’s Square during the mass in which there were more than 45,000 faithful present, according to the Vatican, including the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella.
The nun proclaimed saint this Sunday was born on February 14, 1844 in the Italian town of Carmañola, in the province of Turin; but she, by her own choice, lived and developed her pastoral work in Uruguay, where she died on August 6, 1904.
“The Church greets you, Sister Maria Francesca de Jesusfounder of the Tertiary Capuchin Sisters of Loano, the first Blessed of Uruguay”, John Paul II had highlighted at the time during 1993 when he beatified her in Vatican Square.
The Italian nationalized Uruguayan María Francisca de Jesús Rubatto was proclaimed Saint by Pope Francis. Photo: Vatican
Mother Francisca chose the area of La Teja, Belvedere, Paso de la Arena and Barra de Santa Lucía, where, according to the Uruguayan Church, she carried out social and pastoral work together with the workers who went to the slaughterhouse on Sunday mornings. In fact, she pointed out that she took the train at four in the morning to accompany them.
His greatest preaching was dedicated to the care of the sick and children, and also of abandoned youth.
Rubatto was made a saint after the Vatican approved a miracle attributed to her intercession on March 24, 2000 in Colonia, Uruguay, when there was the unexplained recovery of a young man suffering from head trauma with severe subarachnoid hemorrhage, severe comaintracranial hypertension and diffuse axonal damage.
Along with Rubatto, nine new saints were also proclaimed, including charles de foucauldthe French priest who was a missionary in the Algerian desert, and Titus BradsmaCarmelite priest murdered in a Nazi concentration camp.
The French are also Cesar de Bus (1544-1607), founder of the congregation of the Fathers of Christian Doctrine, who worked for the revival of Christianity in a time of upheaval due to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation; and the sister Marie River (1768-1838), a teacher, founder of the congregation of the Presentation of Mary.
The first Indian layman to be a saint is the martyr Lazarus Devasahayam Pillai (1712-1752), a Hindu convert to Christianity. Arrested, tortured for three years, and then executed, he refused to recant his faith.
The others are the Italian priests Luigi Maria Palazzolo (1827-1886) and Giustino Maria Russolillo (1891-1955); and the Italian nuns Maria Domenica Mantovani (1862-1934) and Maria di Gesu Santocanale (1852-1923).
With information from Telam
