Rome (Italy).In the 10th CommTalkS video, the initiative of the Communication Sector of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians with the aim of creating a shared vision of the culture of communication and offering support for animation, Sister Maria Chiara of the Annunciation, Discalced Carmelite, tells of her encounter with the Servant of God Mother Rosetta Marchese (1922-1984), VII Superior General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, which took place in Milan during the hospital stay of both of them.
Sister Maria Chiara, who currently belongs to the Monastery “Blessed Virgin of the Rosary” in Crotone, Diocese of Crotone-Santa Severina, is an FMA past-pupil, having attended the middle school at Mary Help of Christians House in Milan, via Bonvesin de la Riva. She then matured her choice of religious life and, in 1965, entered the Carmel of Milan.
In 1975, hospitalized for a small intervention at the House of Care Capitanio of the Sisters of Maria Bambina, when she learned that another religious patient, Sister Rosetta Marchese, who in those years was Provincial of Immaculate Conception Province of Milan, asked to meet her. Although she had never seen Sister Rosetta before, Sister Maria Chiara recalls, “with great precision and emotion”, the encounter she had with her. It was an encounter that she has always defined “as a moment of light and grace for my life… a perfume of holiness.”
In 1984, the religious moved to Calabria and for all these years she has not known anything about this Sister who left in her a memory of light. In 2020, in a Salesian Bulletin brought to the monastery of Crotone by the sister of a Sicilian Sister, she read the article, “Salesian mystic” by Sister Emilia Di Massimo, FMA, and learned that the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Mother Rosetta Marchese had been opened.
This interview is born from her meeting with the Vice Postulator, Sister Francesca Caggiano, to whom she recounts her encounter of grace with the Servant of God.
The video is available with subtitles in Italian, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish (from the YouTube settings). All the CommTalkS remain available on Youtube Channel CGFMANET and can be retrieved from the side banner on the home page of the Institute’s website.
Grazie Signore per la testimonianza di sanità vissuta da Madre Rosetta Marchese, nella concretezza del quotidiano, una santità che sa farsi vicinare ai bisognosi. Fa che anche noi, sue Sorella sappiamo vivere la santità quotidiana nei piccoli gesti di amore, di fede e di speranza nelle comunità e nelle missioni.
Gratidão a Deus pelo dom da santidade linda de Madre Rosetta! Tive a alegria de escrever-lhe varias vezes, quando ainda foi eleita conselheira visitadora, para lhe dizer de que fui sorteada para rezar pela vida e pela missão dela. E ela, prontamente me respondia as minhas cartinhas. Eu por ser muito jovem ,aspirante)não tive a delicadeza em conservar para sempre as cartinhas da Beata.
Durante sua doença eu sentia forte a sua presença espiritual, na época eu era juniora.
Beata Me. Rosetta, interceda pela nossa fidelidade e pelas novas vocações.