A wonderful four part series about a Visitandine from Italy was published in an Italian newspaper this past month!
You can read the original articles here as well as see the photos and pictures of the Sister and her surroundings:
Here is a summary of her life, in English:
Birth and Childhood
Maria Rosa Marcucci was born on December 9, 1876 and was baptized the next day. She seemed angelic from her childhood. Praying the family rosary every night, she was the child who never tired of it. She lived on a farm with her parents, brothers and sisters, but as her father was often not well, she was settled with a good family in the area and lived with them instead.She received her First Holy Communion at eleven years of age, wearing a black dress, very unusual for first communicants.
Shortly after her First Communion Maria Rosa she entered the Conservatory of Santa Elisabetta in Barga to begin her studies which will lead her to be an elementary teacher, thus starting her journey together with her sister Sister Marianna.
Maria Rosa began her studies in parallel with Marianna, then, in their time, passing both high school exams for elementary teaching . Maria Rosa was then entrusted with the first elementary class of the Municipality which was at the Conservatory . She had an exceptional charm. The little girls also looked for her after school and they also brought other friends with them to come and hear the religious stories of the teacher Maria Rosa.
Consecration
This Institute also had consecrated Oblates in their service. Maria Rosa became one of them with her sister Marianna.
On 25 July 1906, while the town was in motion to celebrate the feast of its Protector, a moving function was held in a secluded room of the Conservatory. In the dim light of two candles, with doors and windows closed, Maria Rosa and her pious companions kneeling before the Most Eminent Cardinal, in the joy of their hearts, made their vows and offered themselves to God. With the religious Oblation Maria Rosa received, with the holy habit, the name of Sister Maria Cristina and her Eminence gave the five new Oblates an appropriate speech, comparing the current ceremony to those that took place in the catacombs, and encouraging them to keep themselves like the primitive Christians, ready for sacrifice and death.
Father Felice Prinetti of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, who he had already gotten to know Maria Rosa, said about her: I would kneel before that soul: she is heroic without knowing it!
The director of the schools of the Conservatory, Emilia Guidi, born in Barga in 1853, who had taken Maria Rosa to heart became ill, and was getting worse and worse . The male triad who ran the Conservatory, together decided to entrust the substitution to Maria Rosa Marcucci herself, who accepted with great difficulty, it was not her aspiration, and perhaps she did it only to please the dear patient. Then, after her death on October 7, 1911, Rosina, advised by her spiritual director Father Prinetti, resigned twice as alternate director but without receiving a reply.
It had happened again that in the summer period of this year she had been in retreat at the Monastery of the Visitation in Pisa and there she had received a sort of divine message that told her that there was her rest and she thought it true, except that it was difficult for her to just the thought of leaving the Conservatory.
To the Visitation Monastery
But by July 1912 Maria Rosa decided to enter the Monastery of the Visitation in Pisa. She was 36 years old.
Her new name was also Sister Maria Cristina Crosifissa.Cardinal Maffi gave her the veil as a gift and in his speech he reminded her of the path that had led her to the present moment and he confirmed the name chosen for her oblation that took place at the Conservatory of Santa Elisabetta in that St. Christopher’s Day of 25 July 1906: Sister Maria Cristina.
Here, is how, with the words that will follow, Sister Maria Cristina’s novitiate began, expressions she wrote down and described in her first biography: I happily began my novitiate and I felt fully happy; as I understood the spirit of this Institute, I felt enraptured with admiration. … My internal occupation, in this first year, was almost always the study of the Directory. … My spirit took the turn I had glimpsed in all my past life, and came into possession of true peace and perfect rest.
Hers was an asceticism that was perfected every day, with the exercise of virtues and self-denial, detaching herself more and more from the passions of the world, in order to be able to sit ever closer to the cross of Christ on Calvary in the most complete immolation in the ideal of divine perfection. Her path was of a heroic will that she described thus to her confessor,Father Prinetti:
“My good Father, since you ask me, I come with all simplicity, to show you the wounds of my soul, because they are so painful, that I can no longer keep them hidden. I seem to hear Jesus’ constant lament for the offenses he receives, for the abandonments and betrayals, even of the souls consecrated to him. On the other hand, I feel, for these souls far from God, a tenderness, a concern, I would say almost maternal; I need to vent this tenderness and I do it with prayer, with tears, with sacrifices. … I don’t know how to give peace to souls that are lost, and that so many graces, of so much love, of so much Blood, Jesus will receive nothing but blasphemies for an entire eternity. … I would like the whole world to be a flame and that Jesus would be the only Sovereign, the only love of all hearts.
VOWS
With these intentions she undertook the vows that led her to true Profession in the year 1914 and after this important step to the position of Director of the Novices. At this time she already felt the illness that will prevent her from carrying out most of her duties in her role, in the capacity of Teacher and Assistant.
She also had the gift of intense listening, both with her sisters or with those who wanted to confer with her, which led her to deeply understand who was in front of her, illuminating with her advice and calming the pains with the comfort of her word ” full of faith.
To one of them who complained to her about the fact that certain human beings seem made on purpose to make the poor neighbor exercise patience, she gave an answer that is a masterpiece of … Christian spirit: You, dear sister – she replied – do not think how certain beings, they are necessary for our sanctification!
Sickness
In the following years, her illness, which had already given the first signs, worsened, so much so that one night, after Matins, she fell face down beside the bed and was unable to get up and did not even want to disturb the sister of the nearby cell, so staying until the morning, when the nun passed by who went around the cells saw her and she was taken to the infirmary. Later it was noticed by all the sisters and by the Mother Superior that she found it hard to genuflect, asking the question of what she had, she replied it was just a pain, but her pain continued, it is said to the bones, which will lead her to death, alternating better moments with others worse, using a crutch.However, she continued to be present with a spirit that is perceived as having something heroic. Meanwhile, at the Monastery there were always numerous requests for visits to Sister Maria Cristina, people of all ranks and levels.
Superior of Community
In 1931 Sister Maria Cristina also caught pleurisy which kept her suffering for a long time but without ever collapsing in the good presence among the sisters, indeed, always maintaining her positive and playful spirit. In 1933 her usual illness worsened, but there was also a subsequent improvement that made everyone hope that the miracle of healing would come true; she was fifty-seven years old. Meanwhile, in this same year, the Superior, Mother Sister Giovanna Graglia, who had governed the Community for thirty years no longer was able to be Superior of the Community and her former pupil Sister Maria Cristina was elected to replace her. Icilio Felici tells us in his book that she was “an incomparable superior”; her improved conditions allowed her to be present at every moment of the community but it was only a short period and then there was the new and continuous deterioration of her health. She was bedridden but she was never absent spiritually in mind and morally able to direct the Community, with words “that had the scent of Paradise”. In 1934, following her words, His will be done, due to the disease that was progressing, her resignation as Superior was placed in the hands of Archbishop Vettori and Sister Giovanna Maria Graglia had to resume her abandoned role.
Death
On September 17, 1935, “at 10.30 Sister Maria Cristina placidly rendered her soul to God, still adorned with the whiteness of innocence and enriched with priceless treasures of virtue and holiness”. (Icilio Felici) When the news spread, many people went to the church of the Monastery to pay the utmost homage to Sister Maria Cristina, where her remains were exhibited in the choir, and several of them asked the nuns to be able to let them touch the deceased with rings, images, and rosaries.
The Sisters of the Monastery of Pisa announced the passing away of Sister Maria Cristina, made public with the following words: From our Monastery in Pisa, February 17, 1935 After a long martyrdom endured with the sweet serenity of the Saints, today at 10 am, in the kiss of the Lord, our Honored Deposed Sister Maria Cristina Marcucci, a true angel of sweet virtue, who was the luminary of the Community, the comfort and the support of so many souls, who confidently resorted to her. In our great sorrow we adore the crucifying but always loving designs of the Divine Will, and we implore suffrages for the most elect soul of our dear extinct. The Religious of the Visitation S.ta Maria D. S. B.
God sends these humble and hidden souls who show us what true strength and true glory is. Nothing extraordinary in her, as St. Francis de Sales wanted, but a continuous ascent, an ever closer union with God, a progress in sacrifice. He calls contemplatives and active souls to interior life, to perfect submission to grace and trusting abandonment in God. The Lord guided her on a journey of immolation, thus uniting her to His mission as Redeemer for the salvation of souls. He led the chosen souls of his monastery. From the grate of the parlor where she could see herself bent under the weight of illness, but still smiling, the fruits of her prayer spread over many . And in a special way of the Holy Spirit, she was of the most ardent charity. Her correspondence carried words of faith and elevation. Her life was impressed with the delicacy of the Visitation.
After the Monastery of Pisa closed, Sister’s remains were eventually transferred to the Visitation Monastery in Lucca.Monastery of San Pancrazio in Saltocchio, where some have been able to visit her entombment.On a holy card nearby is this prayer:
O Jesus, spouse of the Virgins, you were pleased to adorn your Servant Sister Maria Cristina Marcucci with the most beautiful virtues since her childhood, filling her with favors throughout her life, deign to grant us the grace … if such is your Holy Will.
Sister Maria Crisitina is known by the local population as the Angel of the Visitation.
Note: Above story is taken from newspaper articles cited above, paraphrased or translated.