At 5:30 pm, last Sunday, 9 October, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, represented Pope Francis at the beatification ceremony of Mary Costanza Panas (1896-1963), Monastery of the Monastery of Saint Clare Capuxin in the city of Fabriano, in the province of Ancona in central Italy.
Concelebrated with the Cardinal, with the local bishop Francesco Massara, along with two cardinals, 9 bishops, 60 priests, in the presence of 80 nuns, 30 brothers and a large number of the faithful in the region. .
Sister Maria Costanza, alias Agnès, was born in 1896 in the province of Belluno, northeastern Italy, into a poor family of craftsmen. When Agnès was 6 years old, her parents immigrated to America to find work. Agnès is cared for by her uncle, Angelo, and her sister, Maria, who work as nurses. When she was 14 years old, her parents returned to Italy from America.
After finishing high school, Agnès worked as a teacher in Conetta, province of Venice. There she met Father Luigi Fritz of the Oblates and later became her spiritual director. The advice of her spiritual director aroused in Agnès the desire to become a nun, but when she asked her parents and her uncle Angelo that she wanted to become a nun, they were opposed because they believed in the religious habit and the religious life. is not suitable for her. Nevertheless, Agnès persevered in her vocation, largely thanks to the encouragement and support of Father Fritz. In October 1917, at the age of twenty-one, she applied to the Monastery of Saint Clare Capuxin in Fabriano, and the following year received her religious habit under the name Maria Costanza.
She adapted quickly to religious life, with a spirit of enthusiasm, joy, humility, fulfilling all duties, even the most humble. In 1927, Sister Costanza became a novice, and in 1936, at the age of 40, she was elected as matriarch of the monastery, a post she held for 12 years until 1952, and then from 1955 until her death. life.
In addition to the three usual vows, Mother Costanza has three other vows, which are "totally submit to God, give life to souls and always choose what is most perfect".
From an early age, Mother Costanza had a gift for literature and the arts. She wrote many valuable mystical and spiritual works, including "Come, brothers and sisters, let's go to the mountain of God" (Venite, descandamus ad montem Domini), and "Gospel of the nuns" ", "Twelve Months of the Year of the Sisters". In total, she left behind 88 handwritten works over 46 years, some of which have been published, others are kept in the archives of the Fabriano Monastery.
Many people have come to the Fabriano Monastery to ask for the counsel of Mother Costanza in difficult times, or in times of inner crisis.
Since the 1950s, Mother Costanza's health has declined, due to many diseases, especially arthritis, heart disease and severe asthma. She endured all these sufferings with serenity and patience. She especially dedicated the sufferings of this illness for Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council. Mother died in Fabriano on May 28, 1963, at the age of 67.
During the beatification process, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognized a miracle through the intercession of Mother Costanza that occurred in 1985: a baby in San Severino Marche with congenital anemia and cerebral hemorrhage, multiple organ failure, miraculously recovered after her grandparents begged the servant of God Maria Costanza Panas to save her.