St. Agostina Pietrantoni
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St. Agostina Pietrantoni was a Sister of Charity who devoted her life to serving patients in a tuberculosis ward despite facing significant challenges, including her own illness and hostility from patients. Her deep prayer life was integrated into her daily actions, as she focused on glorifying God and saving souls through her work. Her unwavering dedication provides a powerful lesson on the importance of finding purpose and offering one’s efforts for the love of Christ.
St. Agostina Pietrantoni
- 1. St. Agostina Pietrantoni who set an example for us by loving Christ in all that she did
- 2. Agostina was a Sister of Charity, and she worked in the tubercular ward of the Santo Spirito hospital in Rome.
- 3. Luckily, she had learned the art of hard labor growing up in the Italian countryside, where she helped take care of her nine brothers and sisters and her chronically ill father (who was almost crippled with arthritis), tended the cattle, hoed the fields, made shoes, helped with the olive harvest, and lugged gravel for making roads.
- 4. Although leaving her family behind to join the convent made her cry, her love for Christ compelled her, and she entered religious life at age 21.
- 5. When she was assigned to work at the hospital in Rome, her challenges only increased. The state authorities had tried to secularize the hospital: they had removed all crucifixes and forbidden the sisters from speaking about God with their patients (so Sr. Agostina had to let her actions do her talking).
- 6. Then she contracted tuberculosis, though she recovered after receiving viaticum. From then on, she asked to work in the tubercular ward, so she wouldn’t infect the other sisters. The tubercular ward was the most difficult. The majority of patients were men, and criminals at that. They spat at her, insulted her, and even beat her, but she continued serving them, undaunted.
- 7. Her lesson for us was that she had a deep prayer life, but it wasn’t separate from her activity. Her whole life formed a seamless act of love to Christ. For instance, she would write little notes to the Blessed Virgin and “mail” them by putting them behind a picture of Mary near her ward. They were prayers for her patients, e.g. “Most Holy Lady, convert that wretched man whose obstinate heart I am not able to change, and I promise to do two or three extra night duties in your honor.” That was her attitude.
- 8. Everything she did had one, unifying purpose: to glorify God and save souls. And that gave her peace, courage, and boundless energy. (She once commented to the sisters, “We will lie down for such a long time after death that it is worthwhile to keep standing while we are alive. Let us work now; one day we will rest.”)
- 10. Reflection Questions Do you have a lot to do, or is your schedule overloaded as Sr. Agostina’s was? Can you find a unifying principle for all your activities? Why is it important to offer all your work for the love of Christ?
- 11. Source: catholic.net For more about St. Agostina, visit http://vinformation.famvin.org/door-of-faith-st-agostinapietrantoni/