Rome (Italy). On 27 April 2025, we celebrate the 17th anniversary of the birth into heaven of the Servant of God Sister Antonieta Böhm, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians.
Born on 22 September 1907 in Bottrop, Germany, she meets the FMA in Essen-Borbeck where she attends the oratory. On 5 August 1928, she made her first profession and in 1934, the year of her perpetual profession, she left as a missionary for Latin America. From 1934 to 1965, she was in Argentina, from 1965 to 1969 in Peru, and finally from 1969 to 2008 in Mexico, always and everywhere leaving the mark of her Salesian goodness and motherliness.
Of the 39 years she lived in Mexico, 29 were spent in the house of Coacalco, in the State of Mexico, known as Villa SPEM. Here she is vicar, in charge of the women’s academy, assistant treasurer, community nurse, assistant in the nursery school, and then Animator.
In 1973, she received from the previous superior, Sister Ersilia Crugnola, a statuette of Mary Help of Christians with the mission to “make her work”. When, in 1985, she left the responsibility of superior, she dedicated herself fully to the Marian apostolate.
In 1984, she started a social assistance project, which she calls the “Obra Sabatina”. Every Saturday, in honor of Our Lady, she distributes basic necessities to the needy people of the area, helping 200 families every week. The attention to the poor and the Marian apostolate are the two tasks that she carries out in the last 25 years of her life.
She herself recounts in a letter addressed to Mother Laura Maraviglia in April 1995, “My day is full of phone calls, correspondence, and listening to people, who are never lacking. I made myself a program: from 9:00 to 13:00, listening people; after lunch, I start again from 15:00 to 17:00; there are exceptions when they come from far. What a gift from God! Dear Mother Laura, help me to thank Jesus and the Virgin, for having granted me this gift in my old age, to bring souls to God, to the Virgin. It is a holy commerce.”
Hundreds of people every month ask for an appointment with her to receive the blessing with the statue of Mary Help of Christians. Sometimes they have to wait up to three months for an encounter, although her great charity knows how to make exceptions when people insist on the urgency.
In 1996, during the XX General Chapter of the FMA Institute, the Provincial of Our Lady of Guadalupe Province (MME) of Mexico South, Sister Teresa Zumaya Vargas, presented through a video recording, a Good Night in which Sister Antoinette recounts some graces obtained through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and affirms that Mary Help of Christians works day and night.
From that moment on, the correspondence and phone calls increased considerably. Letters arrive from all over the world asking for the blessing with the statuette of Mary Help of Christians. Many people who receive graces express the desire to give them a gift, but Mother Antonieta responds, “For me, no, but for the poor, yes.” With these donations, she buys basic necessities to distribute to the poor who participate in her “Obra Sabatina”.
In the last 25 years of her life, one could apply to her the phrase of Saint Paul, “I have become all things to all, to save at least some” (1 Cor 9:22), because she has no rest. Sister Alicia Guzmán testifies, “If mother was not in the parlor listening to people or writing letters in her room, she was always in the chapel praying.”
Sister Antonieta Böhm died on 27 April 2008, at the age of 100 years, in the fame of holiness. The diocesan phase of her canonization process ended on 28 April 2024.
On this 17th anniversary, the MME Province invites you to make a virtual pilgrimage to Mother Antonieta’s room in Spanish or with an italian translation.
On the Facebook page Madre Antonieta Böhm it will be possible to write prayer intentions and participate live in the Eucharistic Celebration, which will take place on April 27 at 12:00 (Mexico time), 19:00 (Italy time), transmitted from the chapel of Villa SPEM.
