Anna Uberti (Maria Stefania UBERTI)

List of Deceased Sisters

Date of Death 03/11/2022

Sister Anna Uberti smsm

Born: 05/04/1941

Proffesed: 09/03/1966

Died: 03/11/2022

"... Grant us to live constantly by the Spirit of Nazareth, to live like you hidden in God, with Christ, our only love”. SMSM Prayer

Anna UBERTI was born in Gussago, Brescia, on April 5, 1941. She was the fifth of six children born to Firmo Giuseppe UBERTI and Maria CIGOLA. 

Anna received a basic Christian education in her family.  But it was in her parish that she heard about the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary from a facilitator of the Propagation of the Faith.  She was so passionate about these Missions that she left everything and became a missionary religious for life. Reserved, gentle but dynamic, she was a tall, slender 23-year-old woman, different from the other postulants with her red hair, when she arrived at Casa Immacolata on March 8, 1964.

On March 9, 1966, Sister made her profession with Sister M. Sebastiana PELI. In 1971, she graduated as a professional nurse with Sister M. Luigina ARMANELLI, with whom she studied at the nursing school of the St. John Lateran Hospital in Rome.  After a course in tropical medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1972, she finally reached her first missionary destination in Kiremba, Burundi. In 1975, Sister Anna was sent to Rutana where she was appointed head of the dispensary until 1977.

During these years, her life was dedicated to the service of the sick, especially the children who attended the dispensary, and to the service of her community.  Sister Anna was quickly appreciated for her human and professional qualities, her kindness and her gift of self, especially her dedication to the sick. She is still remembered today!

In 1986, she was appointed Provincial Councillor and Assistant to Sister Maria Maddalena LONARDINI and had to return to Italy. Once this service was over, her wish was to return to Africa. In Rwanda, young women were beginning to take an interest in smsm life. Sr. Anna was asked to prepare to welcome and accompany these new vocations in formation for missionary, Marist and religious life.   From 1990 and 1993, Sister Anna attended various formation courses at the Urbaniana University and the Salesianum in Rome, and visited some places of the first Marist missions in Oceania such as New Caledonia and Vanuatu, also going on pilgrimage to Wallis and Futuna, where the first pioneers lived. 

In 1993, she was sent to Butare-Rwanda as mistress of three Rwandan novices. The outbreak of civil war in Rwanda forced all three to leave the country and they were evacuated to Italy on 1 May 1994.  Brigitte Mukabayiro left the novitiate in the first year; Sr. Athanasie and Sr. Stéphanie made their profession in Brescia on March 25, 1995.  

After a period of personal formation in Montreal, Canada, Sister Anna returned to Burundi in 1996, this time to Rwarangabo, where she managed the Centre for the Prevention and Treatment of Malnutrition.  In 2008, Sr Anna was entrusted with the responsibility of Twitwararicane, a work serving children and young people who have lost their connection with their families. In 2011, she was asked to help at the Novitiate in Keur Aleka, Senegal. Sister Anna agreed to return to the service of formation, but she did not forget the sick and elderly whom she visited, also bringing them communion. These were the last of her forty years of missionary presence in Africa. 

Once again, Sister Anna turned the page and became a missionary in her home country. In 2013, she was appointed Local Superior of the Community of Saint Joseph of Brescia, where she remained until 2017, when she was sent to Marconia, in the province of Matera, to serve in parish pastoral care and devote herself mainly to visiting the sick.

In January 2019, with failing health, Sr Anna returned to Brescia where she continued to give service, despite the limitations imposed by her illness.   Gradually, Sister Anna's health deteriorated, but there was nothing to suggest that she would die suddenly on November 3, 2022. She left as she lived in silence, discretion and without disturbing anyone.

Thank you, Sr. Anna, for your witness of a life lived for the Lord in daily simplicity. The Lord has granted you what each SMSM asks every day in prayer for the Congregation: "a deep and simple piety" …  living “... constantly by the spirit of Nazareth … hidden in God, with Christ our only love."

The Sisters of Casa Immacolata - Brescia -Italy