TROIANI, COSTANZA DOMENICA. - In religion Mother Maria Caterina di s. Rosa di Viterbo, foundress of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, formerly of Egypt, b. at Giuliano di Roma (diocese of Ferentino) on 19 Jan. 1813, d. at Cairo, Egypt, on 6 May 1877.
Educated in the monastery of St. Clare of Charity at Ferentino, under the care of the Franciscans, she entered their Institute on 8 Dec. 1829. Her ardent desire to go to the missions led her to respond to the invitation of the apostolic vicar of Cairo, who wanted religious sisters for the education of girls. In 1854 she set out with a group of sisters, who, having reached Cairo, settled at Clot-Bey and devoted themselves to the school with universal satisfaction, so much so that they had to open others, and they were entrusted with the care of the Pious work of redemption of the negresses, established by the priests G. B. Olivieri and B. Verri, and with that for exposed and abandoned infants. Since the monastery of Ferentino no longer wished to send other sisters, and had in fact obtained a full separation from the mission of Egypt, the Cairo group became independent and was erected as a family of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. Maria Cristina devoted all her work to the new foundation, to the drafting of the rules and to their adaptation to the needs of the places; for this reason she is considered the foundress of the new family. In 1885 she was able to open a house also in Jerusalem. The universal regret at her death, the holiness of her life and the benefits bestowed by heaven led to the introduction of the cause of beatification, on 23 June 1944.
Bibliography2 works
Celestino Testore