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Maria
Adeodata Pisani 1806-1855 Maria Adeodata Pisani was born in Naples on the
29th December 1806, the only daughter of Baron Benedetto Pisani
Mompalao Cuzkeri and Vincenza Carrano.
She was baptised on the same day in the Parish of St Mark at
Pizzofalcone, and named Maria Teresa.
Her father had the title of Baron of Frigenuini, one of the oldest and
richest barony in Malta, whilst her mother was an Italian. Unfortunaltely, her father took to drink and this
soon led to marital problems, so much so that whilst Maria Teresa was still a
small child her mother left the conjugal house and entrusted the child to her
husband’s mother, Elisabeth Mamo Mompalao, who lived in Naples. The grandmother took good care of Maria
Teresa, but when she died her grandchild was only 10 years of age. After her grandmother’s death, she was
sent to a famous boarding school in Naples, known as the ‘Istituto di Madama
Prota’, where the aristocratic ladies of the area used to get their
education. Maria Teresa stayed in this college till she was 17
years of age, and here she received her religious and social education. In the meantime, her father continued to
create problems and in 1821, due to his involvement in the uprising in Naples,
he was sentenced to death. Since he was a British citizen, his sentence was
suspended and he was expelled from Naples and deported to Malta.
In 1825, Maria Teresa and her mother came to live in
Malta. They settled in Rabat where
her father was also living his dissolute life, but they never lived together
with him. Although her mother had
been trying to find a suitable man to get her married, Maria Teresa always
declined such proposals. She
preferred to lead a quiet life, going out to Church daily, and when the occasion
presented itself to help the poor she met on the streets. The people who knew her started to
comment about her pious behaviour.
She was never put off by her father’s behaviour and whenever she met him
she would ask for his blessing. On one occasion, she was impressed by a sermon she
heard at the ‘Ta’ Giezu’ church in Rabat.
She went to pray in front of the picture of Our Lady of Good Counsel, in
the Augustinian’s Church in Rabat, the church where she usually went for her
daily mass and evening prayers.
There for the first time she felt the calling to become a nun and
dedicate her life to God in prayer. Her parents immediately opposed her wish to become a
nun, and her mother forced her to wait for a year before making any final
decision. Maria Teresa waited
obediently for a whole year, but her resolve did not change.
On the 16th July 1828, she joined the
Benedictine Community in St Peter’s Monastery in Mdina. In choosing this kind of life, she had
chosen a life of prayer, work, silence and obedience. After six months as a postulant, at the beginning of
1829, in a special ceremony of investiture as a novice took place, surrounded by
her parents and relatives, and she changed her name to Maria Adeodata. During the one year she was a novice,
she impressed not only her companions in the noviciate but also the nun who was
in charge of the novices. This nun
confessed that she never found any fault in Adeodata, and that instead of
teaching her, she used to learn from her. On the 4th March 1830, the required
Notarial Act of Renouncement was performed, which was the last formal step required
to be admitted as a nun. In this
Act, she renounced to her titles and distributed the vast inheritance she had
inherited from her paternal grandmother, keeping just enough for herself to be
able to help others during her lifetime. The solemn monastic profession took place on the
8th March 1830, and for the next 25 years she lived as a cloistered
nun in St Peter’s monastery. During
this period, not only the nuns in the monastery but many persons outside
benefited from her acts of charity and her saintly life. She held various official
responsibilities within the monastery, but the ones she treasured most were that
of looking after the chapel, which gave her more time to be near the Blessed
Sacrament and that of porter, which kept her close to the poor people who used
to come daily to the monastery seeking help. For four years she was in charge of
novices, and from 1851 to 1853 she was elected as Abbess. During the two years’ mandate she had to
face difficulties from a few members of the community, since she tried to bring
about some changes in community life in order to help the community live more in
accordance with the Benedictine rule and monastic way of life. Some nuns were also jealous of her since
so many people revered her for her saintly way of life. She was renowned for her spirit of self-sacrifice and
self-denial. The best she had,
whether food or clothes, were always given to those in need, whilst she was
happy to live on leftovers and worn out clothes. During her life in the
monastery she also wrote various works, the most famous of which is “The
mystical garden of the soul that loves Jesus and Mary”, which collects together
personal spiritual reflections
written in the form of a diary between 15th August 1835 and
3rd May 1843. She also
wrote her reflections about spiritual direction, and a good number of prayers
some of which were meant to be used in the community. Although her native language was
Italian, she did her best to learn how to speak and write in Maltese, and she
wrote some prayers in Maltese for common use in the Monastery. Throughout her life as a nun, she was a
shining example to all in her observance of the Rule of St Benedict, obedience
to her superiors, her acts of charity, her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and
to the Blessed Virgin, and her total commitment to love God.
During the last two years of her life, heart trouble
slowly eroded her health which was never all that good. Yet she continued to force herself to
live a normal life within her community, always striving for perfection and
leading others through her example. On the 25th February 1855, at the age of
48, she realised that the end was near.
Against her nurse’s advice, she dragged herself to the Chapel for the
early morning conventual mass, and after receiving communion she had to be
carried back to her bed, where she died soon afterwards surrounded by her
community reciting prayers. As soon as news of her death reached the people
outside the monastery, the same phrase was repeated throughout Malta: “the Saint
has died”. She had a simple
funeral, and she was buried in the Monastery’s crypt the following day. Many people claimed miraculous cures and other graces
from God through Adeodata’s intercession.
In 1892, the Canonical Process for her Beatification and Canonization was
initiated. In 1897, the miracle
which was later to be presented to the Congregation for Causes of Beatification
and Canonization for official examination and eventual acceptance took
place. This miracle happened in
Subiaco in Italy, and it involved a Benedictine Abbess who was so sick that the
last rites were administered to her, but after prayers through the
intercession of Adeodata she got
better and the doctors looking after her could not explain such a recovery. Due to economic reasons, the Canonical Process for
Adeodata’s Beatification was stopped in 1913, but in 1989, the Benedictine
Community at St Peter’s Monastery presented a petition for the resumption of the
Canonical Process for Adeodata’s Beatification and Canonisation. Source:
Archdiocese of Malta - Public
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