Rome (Italy). On 24 September 2025, Mary Help of Christians Community of the General House, together with the Superior General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Chiara Cazzuola, and the Councilors present, experienced the monthly anniversary of Mary Help of Christians in a very special way with the Eucharistic Celebration presided over by the Postulator for the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family, Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, and concelebrated by Fr. Gabriel de Jesús Cruz Trejo, his collaborator who, in view of the now imminent Canonization (19 October 2025), brought the reliquary with a precious relic of Sister Maria Troncatti.
The General Secretary, Sister Maria Luisa Nicastro, introduced the moment as follows, “In welcoming the relic of Sister Maria Troncatti, we recognize and praise the action of Grace which made her an extension of the merciful love of Christ. He still today makes Himself present to heal, console, and send. In communion with the institute, to the intercession of Sister Maria Troncatti, soon a Saint, we entrust peace, to those who suffer in body and spirit, the holiness of each of us and of the Institute.”
The relic is a phalanx of the hand of Sister Mary. In the homily, taking up the Word of God of the day, Fr. Pierluigi shared the symbolic value of the hands of this great missionary.
Like the priest Ezra, “Sister Maria also lived her life holding out her hands towards the Lord, with supplications and abandonment and extending them towards others as a sign of help, consolation, and healing”. And like the disciples of the Gospel, “Sister Maria was also a missionary of the Gospel. She proclaimed the Kingdom of God; she healed the sick. She went from village to village; she performed healings in soul and body. It is very important that we learn to read the lives of the Saints, and our daily lives, always in the light of the Word of God, because the Gospel must become flesh.”
Fr. Pierluigi then reread some passages from Sister Maria Troncatti’s life looking at her hands which welcomed, helped, cared for, blessed. “Hands that care for and heal,” as in the first meeting with the Shuar, when she is asked to extract a bullet from the body of the chief’s daughter. Initially, she places a hand on her forehead which is burning with fever. Then, invoking Mary Help of Christians, she manages to heal her. “As if pushed by an unknown hand, the bullet leaps out and falls to the ground.” Fr. Pierluigi comments, “These hands will have to remove many bullets, not physical ones, but those bullets that express violence, revenge, hatred; she is a woman of reconciliation. Her hands are reconciled hands and therefore become an instrument of reconciliation.”
They are “praying hands” because throughout her life, “she always accompanies her strong and decisive action with prayer, and the holy rosary always flows in these hands… they are hands that intercede; they are hands that entrust themselves to Mary Help of Christians. Her ‘botiquín’ thus becomes a clinic for souls. It is not enough just to take care of bodies; one must touch and achieve the total healing of the person.”
They are also “miraculous hands”. The Postulator observes that this aspect also emerges from the photographs of the ‘by now’ Saint, where she holds her hands on the heads of the sick. And recounting the episode of a man burned by fire, who comes out completely healthy, without any marks or scars on his skin, he concludes, “God healed him through the miraculous hands and daily prayers and the maternal heart of Sister Maria.”
Sister Maria herself, whose hands will have to put out the fire of hatred and revenge, is in turn the protagonist of such an episode when as a child, during the summer at Col d’Aprica, she is burned by the flame of a small fire lit with the other shepherd children, from which a man passing by on the mule track providentially saves her. The risk for her is that she will no longer be able to use her hands. “After a few hours, however, her hands and arms become healthy and beautiful again, without any trace of burns, while the scars on the legs will remain for life.”
The Celebrant comments, “I would say that this will become a little sign of her entire life, because she will have to put out many fires: of hatred, of violence, of revenge… This woman, through her hands, becomes a woman of peace, a woman of reconciliation. The intercession we must ask for is that it may also extinguish some ‘little fire’ in us, that she may help us to become women of peace and reconciliation.”
And finally, they are “hands that are abandoned in God”. “The photo that represents her with her hands crossed under the crucifix is very beautiful, indicating a whole life handed over in the purest Salesian charism: union with God in the liturgy of life, in apostolic industriousness.” Fr. Pierluigi recalls Sister Maria’s ability to console her Sisters in the dramatic time of tension that is created in Sucúa. “Little daughters, do not fear and do not be afraid about everything that has happened; let us abandon ourselves in the hands of God.”
“This is holiness – adds the Postulator – passing from our hands to total delivery into the hands of God.”
“The words of farewell to the sisters – ‘Confide in the Virgin Help of Christians, and you will see that this anguish will not last long; very soon tranquility and calm will come! I assure you!’ – may help us to value the presence of the relic in this light: a woman who with her hands was hardworking, prayerful, totally given to God and others,” he concluded. (complete text)
The previous evening, in the Goodnight to the Community of the Generalate, Mother Chiara had announced the arrival of the relic, underlining the importance of the moment as one of the stages towards the date of Canonization. After Saint Mary Domenica Mazzarello, Sister Maria Troncatti is the first FMA who will be canonized. Mother wanted to underline her ability, as a missionary and nurse, to heal the spirit through the healing of the body; “a kind of very concrete evangelization.”
The relic will remain in the Generalate until the Eucharist on the morning of October 2 for the veneration of the FMA and all those who wish.
Merci Seigneur pour le don de la Sainteté de notre Sr Maria Troncatti. Que sa passion pour le Seigneur et pour les plus pauvres, nous aident à raviver notre donation à Dieu et aux jeunes les plus démunis. Par son intercession, nous prions pour la paix dans le monde et spécialement à l’Est de notre pays en RDC.
Que gracia tan hermosa para la Iglesia y para nosotras las Hijas de María Auxiliadora, que está experiencia nos ayude a reavivar el fuego de la pasión por el Señor y la santidad, allí donde nos encontremos ” Todo es Misión”. Para la mayor Gloria del Padre. Que nuestra Reina Auxiliadora continúe paseándose por cada una de nuestras Inspectorias.
Felicitaciones querida Madre General y hermanas de nuestro hermano país del Ecuador. Feliz fiesta
Grazie,! Sr Maria Troncatti sia la mia guida nell’apostolato con i giovani e nella mia vita di preghiera e di offerta quotidiana!