Rome (Italy). On 17 October 2025, at the opening of the celebrations for the Canonization of Sister Maria Troncatti, the exhibit was inaugurated in the Generalate of Rome: “The wings of Sister Troncatti: from the cross two arms in flight”.
“First of all, it is not a historical exhibit. We would like it to be an itinerary that introduces us in the heart of God that Sister Maria Troncatti brought her people to encounter. It becomes for us –and I believe for those who want to meet her – a vocational pro-vocation, because meeting the mystery of holiness is meeting the Mystery of God who calls, and calls now, in this moment,” explained the curator Fr. Erino Leoni, SDB, Vicar of the Lombardy-Emilian Province of San Carlo (ILE), together with Mr. Paolo Zini, Salesian coadjutor, and Sister Marisa Canobbio, Vicar of the Holy Family Lombardy Province (ILO).
The exhibit, set up in the Generalate, is composed of 30 panels that make 10 prisms: 10 chronological stages of Sister Maria’s life, a story that speaks through places, images, words, and events. There are 10 pro-vocations towards the vocation of every visitor – to life in Christ, to the Salesian Charism, to holiness – which can be read according to the chronological or symbolic line, through three colors.
Three words-images accompany along the way: the wings, the cross, the arms.
The wings are the sign of the Angel encountered on the way; they are the sign of someone who flew to give herself from Val Camonica to the most distant villages of the Amazon rainforest; they are the emblem of that plane that crashed and kept, like a treasure chest, the total offering so that reconciliation between enemies could take place.
The cross stands in the middle and unites north and south, east and west, heaven and earth, friends and enemies. It is the sign of the care of God, Who causes the sun of His love to rise on the just and sinners alike and gives Himself to all. It is the sign of the motivation for which Maria gave herself. In the face of this love that reaches everyone, she can only do the same. Crucified for each person, crucified for Him.
The arms are the concreteness of love. Arms that carried the strength of the bag of few medicines (“boteghin”) for the care of the body. Arms that always carried the tender and strong presence of Mary Help of Christians in the Rosary that healed the heart. Arms that never retreated, open arms that were wings and cross.
There are three colors that guide the visit: aqua green, blood red, ocher yellow.
The blue-green unites the sky and the sea within which the wings spread out. Not midnight blue or the blue of the day, but the subtle union of green and blue that transparency veils and reveals the Mystery that dwells in everything, because in everything Maria “kept in mind” He Who dwells in everything.
Blood red: the color of total gift, but also of the earth from which the first man, Adam, was formed. Earth and blood. That is how we are made: of earth, of fragility, of weakness, but also of blood, of passion, of the offering of life. In her littleness, Maria was a gift offered on the cross of her charity.
Golden yellow: seed sown that decomposes in the soil to bear much fruit. Hands that scatter seed in the furrows of life, in the most diverse circumstances: at home, among the sick, with her sisters, among the pots and pans or in the garden, in the forest or in the hospital. Seed sown without hesitation. Seeds that, decomposing underground, become abundant ears of corn, now 30, now 60, now 100, for the life that never dies.
The path originates in the small town of Corteno Golgi, in the Brescia mountains, where Maria Benvenuto – this is her baptismal name – was born into life and faith from a simple, yet solid family. In Nizza, Monferrato, she matured the gift in the religious vocation of Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, and then faced the time of trial in Varazze, where she learned to heal the body and heart of the military and saved herself from the flood, clinging to wood. The house in Nizza Monferrato to which she returns, becomes the house of prophecy of missionary sending to Ecuador. On the journey, Maria experiences poverty and weakness, strength and courage, passion and ardor. The forest, that enters further and further into the human heart, becomes “her home” and “she makes herself a home” for its inhabitants.
From Macas to Sucúa will be an uphill journey in which she will encounter division, struggle, war, and choose to remain with her Lord, present in His brothers and sisters. If the forest has been “home”, the 50’s are the time of the construction of the hospital, “so that no one may be lost”. The first cure for everyone is precisely that of “feeling at home”, no longer “foreigners or guests, but family members of the saints.”
The time of “the end”, marked by the plane crash, on 25 August 1969, is not the time of extinguishment but of the fulfillment of her life. Sister Maria unites with the Eucharistic offering and is born to eternal life, symbolized by the rainbow that spreads in the sky on that very day, a sign of an accepted offering, of a possible path of reconciliation and peace between the peoples she loved.
“From Sucúa to Quito it is necessary to fly over. (…) Only self-offering can bring peace. And thus, the Eucharistic school became an offering; a Restorative, peaceful offering, an offering of reconciliation. Vocation is a constant flying over, living as brothers and sisters in the bloody offering of oneself.”
It is the conclusion of the intense and exciting journey in which the visitor enters as if into the jungle, held by the hand of the new Saint – and by a narrative voice via QR code – into the mystery of her life, her yearning for holiness that still speaks to the life of each one today.
The panels are created with bibliographic and photographic contributions from the General Archive of the FMA Institute (AGFMA) of Rome, the FMA Historical Archive of Nizza Monferrato, the FMA General Postulation, the Casa Suor Maria Troncatti Archive (ACSMT) of Sucúa, the Historical Photographic Archive on the City of Varazze (varagine.it), and the Parish of St. Maria Assunta of Corteno Golgi. The graphic design is by Andrea Cugini and Andrea Marconi.
On 2 November, the ILO Lombardy Province organized a day of formation on Sister Maria Troncatti, aimed at delving into her holiness and preparing possible guides for the exhibition, conducted with passion and competence by Fr. Erino Leoni and open to the FMA, members of the Salesian Family, lay people. The event was a great success, gathering around seventy people in the hall of the provincial headquarters in Milan.
On 4 November, Fr. Erino presented the exhibit in Rome to the Generalate Community and to those who wanted to participate. On 5 November, Sister Marisa presented it to the Animators of the Temporary Professed Sisters of Italy, in Rome for their meeting. It will be possible to visit the exhibit in the Generalate until 30 November.
A copy of the exhibit is also set up in the Duomo Vecchio of Brescia, Sister Maria’s diocese of origin. Inaugurated by the Bishop, Monsignor Pierantonio Tremolada, on 1 November, it will be open to visitors until 30 November.
