Saint Maria Troncatti

She was born at Corteno Golgi, in the province of Brescia, on February 16, 1883, into what the Salesians describe as a large family of mountain farmers. ³⁹ Her schoolteacher gave her the Salesian Bulletin, the magazine Saint John Bosco had founded, to read, and from it, the Holy See's biography says, she grew passionate about the Salesian missions as a child. ³⁹

Her father at first disagreed with her vocation; the Salesians say he gave his consent once she reached twenty-one, the legal age. ⁹ She entered the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, was formed at their mother house at Nizza Monferrato, made her first profession there in 1908, and took her perpetual vows on September 19, 1914. ³⁶⁹

During the First World War, according to the Salesians, she took health-care courses at Varazze and worked as a Red Cross nurse in a military hospital. ⁹ They also tell of a violent storm in which she promised Our Lady that if her life were saved she would go to the missions, and say she then asked to be sent among the lepers. ⁹

The Holy See's biography says that in the spring of 1922 she was told Ecuador would be her mission, and the FMA say it was the mother general, Caterina Daghero, who assigned her. ³⁶ She first set up a small dispensary, a botiquín, at Chunchi, and after three years went on into the Amazon forest. ³ The FMA date her arrival at Macas, with another sister, a novice and a group of Salesians, to December 1925. ⁵ The Salesians' own account has her landing at Guayaquil only in 1925, and reaching Chunchi after that. ⁹

The Salesians say she won the trust of the Shuar at Méndez by saving the daughter of a chief, wounded by a bullet, with a penknife. ⁹ The sisters settled in Macas, a settlers' village surrounded by Shuar homes. ⁹ There, for forty-four years, she was "Madrecita" to everyone; the FMA say the Shuar called her "Madrecita buena", good little mother. ⁶⁹

The Salesians list what the work made of her: nurse, surgeon, orthopedist, dentist and anesthesiologist, and above all a catechist. ⁹ The Holy See calls her pioneer, nurse, catechist and counselor to young and old. ³ She nursed the people through frequent epidemics of smallpox and measles. ³ In 1954 the hospital at Sucúa opened in new buildings, with her as its director; the Salesians name it the Pius XII hospital. ³⁹ She trained nurses and organized the education of girls. ³⁶

The FMA describe who came to the door of her dispensary: people who had been poisoned or wounded, girls fleeing quarrels at home, women struck by violent or drunken husbands, and infants who had been rejected or orphaned. ⁵ The Salesian Father Giovanni Vigna, who had some medical knowledge himself, remembered her "tenacious" care for hopeless cases and her "unlimited" trust in God, and described her bargaining for children whose families had given them up. ⁵ Years later, the FMA say, many of those she saved called themselves "Sister Maria's kin". ⁵

"A glance at the Crucifix gives me life and courage to work," she said. ³⁶ In 1965, at eighty-two, she wrote to her sister Catterina on a postcard, "See how well I am doing… I am happier than ever to be a missionary!" ⁵

The Holy See says she suffered greatly from the conflict between the settlers and the Shuar. ³ The mission at Macas burned in 1938, and in 1969 the mission at Sucúa was destroyed by fire. ³ At such times, the biography says, her word was that they should do God's will well, since he had permitted this and he would help them. ³

A sister who lived with her told the FMA that the atmosphere grew heated from 1967, with settlers shouting for the priests and sisters to die. ⁵ On the evening of July 4, 1969, fire destroyed the Salesian mission, and the Salesians had to jump from a balcony to escape. ⁵ She said then, "I will be very happy to offer my life so that peace may return to this population." ⁵

The FMA record that Shuar men came to her with spears and carbines, saying they would act against the settlers if anyone harmed her. She answered: "We have taught you to be charitable and to forgive offenses. If you truly love me, lay your weapons at my feet!" Their leader shouted, and they laid their weapons down. ⁵

On August 25, 1969, she was leaving for a retreat. ³⁹ The Holy See says the small plane had just taken off from the airfield at Sucúa when it crashed a short distance from the runway; the Salesians say she "was about to fly to Sucúa" and that the plane went down shortly after take-off. ³⁹ She was carried back to the mission dead. ³ The Holy See's biography says her offering for reconciliation between the Shuar and the settlers was fulfilled. ³

The Salesians say the radio of the Shuar Federation announced it with the words "Our Mother, Sr. Maria Troncatti, is dead." ⁹ The FMA say a rainbow appeared on the day of her funeral, and they read it as the seal of the peace that followed. ⁵ Her body lies at Macas. ⁶⁹

She was declared Venerable on November 8, 2008, and beatified on November 24, 2012. ³⁶ In 2019 she was remembered at the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon among those who gave their lives for the region, for having offered hers for peace between the settlers and the Shuar. ⁶

The miracle for her canonization was the cure of a Shuar farmer and carpenter named Juwa, whose skull was fractured by a fragment of a grinding stone in February 2015. ⁸ After surgery he was left paralyzed on one side and unable to speak; his family entrusted him to her, and the FMA report that after a dream of her at the turn of March and April he began to speak and walk again. ⁸ Pope Francis approved the decree on November 25, 2024. ⁴⁸ Leo XIV canonized her with six others on October 19, 2025, naming her among the "evangelizers and missionaries". ¹

The next day he told the pilgrims that she had combined "medical expertise with a passion for Christ", and called her work "an example for us of a charity that does not give up in the face of difficulties". ²

None of the sources consulted for this page names a patronage for her, so none is given here. ²³⁵⁹ Leo XIV presented her as a Salesian saint "who dedicated her life to serving the indigenous peoples of Ecuador". ²

Saint Maria Troncatti's feast day is August 25, the anniversary of her death. ³⁵⁹ The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians keep it as her liturgical memorial, and the Salesians list it every August 25. ⁵⁹ The first was kept in 2026: at Sucúa a novena ran from August 15 to 23, the faithful prayed the Rosary on August 24 at the site of the crash, and on August 25 the bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Méndez celebrated Mass. ⁷

She went to Ecuador as a nurse, and the Salesians say she became a surgeon, a dentist and an anesthesiologist as well. ⁹ The sources describe the work rather than any plan behind it: whoever came to the door was treated, and children nobody else would keep were kept. ⁵⁹

She lived for decades between two peoples who were often at odds, and the FMA say she taught both of them to forgive. ³⁶ When the Shuar offered to defend her with weapons, she asked them to lay the weapons down. ⁵

After the fire at Sucúa in July 1969 she said she would gladly give her life so that peace might return, and seven weeks later she was dead. ⁵ The Holy See speaks of her offering as fulfilled. ³ It does not say how, and neither does this page.

At eighty-two she wrote to her sister that she was happier than ever to be a missionary. ⁵ She had been one for more than forty years by then, in the same forest. ³⁵