Mother Francisca Rubatto and the art of availability

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The importance of paying attention to the breath of the Spirit

Calloni recalls that Rubatto wrote to his sisters: “You must be missionaries of the little people”, that is – emphasizes the postulator – of those people who are worthless according to the logic of the powerful and the world. His availability -remarks the cappuccino- makes him answer yes to what reality required of him.

The first need of the people was to be accompanied. Mother Francisca saw, from the port of Genoa, the great ships that departed with so many men, especially those that went to Latin America, to countries like Argentina, Uruguay, among others. Calloni explains that, in this context, Mother Francisca makes her sisters available to migrants who are moving to new lands in search of opportunities. “An availability that impacts today’s world”, declares Calloni.

According to Father Calloni, Mother Rubatto’s main message for Christians in the 21st century is availability, readiness to respond to what reality demands of us. Another sign of this attitude of Rubatto – the friar evokes – is the invitation made by the general minister of the Capuchins to the Sisters to go to a work in the northeast of Brazil, which he had recently started: to be directors of a school for girls .

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“Remain and become abundant fruit”

Eighteen months after they arrived and Mother Francisca had accompanied them, seven nuns are killed and four friars. A crime perpetrated by 270 indigenous people who were part of the San Antonio de la Providencia neighborhood. “Availability, once again, does not stop. It’s not that, at a certain point, he says: ‘My sisters are no more, that’s enough,’” says Calloni. Instead, they decide to stay.

From the style of the first Uruguayan saint, a lesson emerges that the postulator highlights: we must not be afraid to go where Providence calls us. I think this is the great message that Francisca leaves behind -Calloni states-, the availability that comes to this heroism of giving these daughters in that way.

The mystique of simplicity

Calloni underlines that Mother Francesca never tires of visiting her Sisters. The last trip she made – Calloni recalls – was supposed to last just over a month, but it lasts two years. Rubatto makes a stop in Uruguay, where she stays, “as a milestone for this Church that makes her flourish as a saint,” he indicates.

Behind Mother Francisca there are so many examples of Christians who follow her and are able to bear witness, even in lands that are often difficult and do not immediately welcome the Christian message, adds the postulator. For Father Calloni, the first Eastern saint is a simple woman, who has not produced vast theological writings, but she always asked her sisters – Calloni insists – “Be the nuns of the people”.

The road to canonization

According to the official biography of Mother Franciscafound on the website of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, on March 24, 2000 in Colonia, Uruguay, there was the unexplained recovery of a young man suffering from head trauma with severe subarachnoid hemorrhage, severe coma, intracranial hypertension and diffuse axonal damage.

The diocesan investigation took place in Montevideo, Uruguay, from May 11, 2005 to August 21, 2006. The Medical Consultation, on January 24, 2019, ruled unanimously on the inexplicable absence of neurological results.

The Congress of Theological Consultants ruled on October 29, 2019, again unanimously and affirmatively, on the miracle and its attribution to Blessed María Francisca de Jesús. The Ordinary Session of Cardinals and Bishops, meeting on February 18, 2020, reached the same conclusions.

Finally, Pope Francis ratified, on February 21, 2020, the opinion of the Cardinals and Bishops, authorizing the promulgation of the Decree.