MADRE MARIA AMATA FAZIO, VISITANDINE MYSTIC
“If your eye is single, your whole body will be healthy,” says Our Lord, as quoted by St. Matthew (6:22). And that word “single” has the same meaning as “simple,” that is focused, as Our Lord Himself told Martha to be, on the ONE necessary thing.
Our Holy Founder, St. Francis de Sales, said the same thing in so many of his writings. And one of our contemporary Visitandine mystics interiorized his words and taught them to her sisters. Her name is Madre Maria Amata Fazio, VHM, Superior of the Visitation Monastery in Palermo, Italy. She died in 2005, and a book was published about her life and spirituality in 2008: “Silentium Dei: Il Pozzo di Giacobbe or God’s Silence: Jacob’s Well” by DiGirolamo Crispino.
Here is a comparative sampling of St. Francis de Sales’s and Madre Fazio’s insights
(pp 5-8 Crispino) into the “single/simple eye,” into SIMPLICITY (SEMPLICITA`):
St. Francis de Sales
“The soul which has attained perfect simplicity has only one aim – to rest upon the bosom of the heavenly Father and there to abide like a loving child…Simplicity cannot endure any addition of creatures or any consideration of them. God alone finds place in it.” (1)
Madre Fazio
“True simplicity of the soul corresponds to the degree to which one has raised one’s soul to God…Our life will be as simple as it is filled with God…To obtain true simplicity means to refer all to Christ. Through Him (by contemplating on the true Face of Christ / il vero Volto di Cristo) our lives acquire an interior unity. That unity comes from the Unique One, who is Christ.”
**********************************
St. Francis de Sales
“Holy simplicity does not run after its words and actions but leaves the result of them to divine Providence on whom it absolutely depends. It turns neither to the right nor to the left, but simply pursues its path straight and direct.” (2)
Madre Fazio
“In whatever is complex and convoluted hides a deep-seated pride. The proud man surrounds himself with a ‘court’ of multiplicity. True modesty shows itself in a fleeing from the ‘plurality’ of things and turning to the One Thing Necessary (L’Unum Necessarium) – Our Lord.
************************************
St. Francis de Sales
“Simplicity is nothing else than an act of pure and simple charity, having one only aim and end, which is to acquire the love of God; and our soul is simple when in all that we do or desire we have no other aim.” (3)
Madre Fazio
“When we are aflame with a love of Christ alone (L’Unico Amore: Cristo), we become transparent, loving, and free.”
*************************************
St. Francis de Sales
“I beg you, do not look about you so much; keep your gaze fixed on God and on yourself…Do not look at anything except this, I mean with a fixed, settled and deliberate gaze; only glance at all the rest.” (4)
Madre Fazio
“Upon true simplicity follows heroism. We become ready to sacrifice unconditionally to the Highest Good / BENE PIU` ALTO [Matt.16:25]. Every heroic act is a victory over the multiplicity and variety of all that distracts us and wins our attention and loyalty.”
“So,” Madre Fazio concludes, “all the experiences of life that open and enflame our hearts [with love of God] result in our becoming truly SIMPLE.”
Then will we have become, simply and truly, who we are and will have become it well, as St. Francis de Sales wisely counsels us to do.
Sources:All cited in “On Living Jesus” (OLJ) by Fr. Andrew V. Masters, SVD and Gerard J. Quinlan
1)and (2) Conf XII on Simplicity, pp 212, 220 / OLJ #0921, #0924
(3) Conf III, On Simplicity and Religious Prudence / OLJ #0929
(4) Let/Rel p 24 / OLJ #0928
Who was Mother Maria Amata Fazio?
Born in Palermo Italy in 1915, Ms. Fazio earned a teaching diploma in 1934 and entered the Institute of the Servants of the Poor, founded by B. Giacomo Cusmano. Yet the yearning she always felt toward the contemplative life led her to apply for and obtain a transfer to the Order of the Visitation Monastery in Palermo in 1948. She made her novitiate in Annecy, cradle of the Order,and then she returned to Palermo, where she was soon elected Superior.
Mother Maria Amata was Superior for a total of 15 years, between 1951 and 1993 and was also Federation President from 1978 through 1984.
Of course there were external challenges and interior sufferings. In 1996 she was stricken with paralysis, needing a wheelchair, and thus she was put into a state of constant prayer and suffering. She passed away peacefully February 23, 2005, in the odor of sanctity.
Other books of Mother Maria Amata’s:
(This post was a collaborative effort of Sr Mary Roberta & Sr Susan Marie)