PALLOTTA, MARIA ASSUNTA, venerable. – Born at Force (Ascoli Piceno) on 20 August 1878, died at Tung-Eul-Ken on 5 April 1905.
After a laborious and devout childhood, she entered the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary on 5 May 1898 as a lay sister. Having requested the missions in China in order to devote herself to the care of lepers, she departed in 1904, but was assigned to care for an orphanage at Tung-Eul-Ken, in northern Shan-si. However, she died there of typhus the following year. Her profound interior life and exact observance earned her a reputation for holiness; prodigious signs accompanied her death: a sweet fragrance emanating from the body, numerous conversions of pagans, and a considerable number of cures. Her tomb soon became a destination for pilgrimages by Christians and pagans. The cause of her beatification was opened in 1923.