Marie Angelina Petissi

List of Deceased Sisters

Date of Death 12/06/2015

Sister Marie Angelina (Angela Petissi)

“The designs of His Heart are from age to age,

To rescue their souls from death, and to keep them alive in famine.”

(Ps 32 –Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus)

Sister Marie Angelina was born at Mairano (Brescia) in Italy on January 2^nd 1921, in a large and deeply Christian family. There she cultivated and lived her faith and allowed herself to hear the call of the Lord to be a Religious and a Missionary within the Society of Mary.

It was in 1949 that, in order to follow this call that resounded within her, she left her family in Italy to enter the house of formation at Sainte Foy-lès-Lyon where, with other companions, she made her postulancy, novitiate and first religious profession on September 8th 1952.

Sister Marie Angelina returned to Italy right after profession to say goodbye to her family, her parish, and her friends in order to go to Marseille, under the protection de “Notre Dame de la Garde” and to leave for Oceania, at the end of 1952. She was ready to leave forever.

Sister Marie Angelina, like our first Sisters, left “forever”, but later had the joy of seeing her family and friends again at the time of her first home visit in 1967.

It was New Hebrides (Vanuatu) that awaited her. She was happy to serve the Lord in the manner of Mary, giving herself without counting the cost to the mission that was confided to her in these faraway islands.

Without having received any particular preparation, Sister Marie Angelina put her talents at the service of the young people of the islands in the different missions to which she was sent. In charge of the community kitchen, she was especially concerned with the little children who were boarders, without forgetting to give her attention to the young girls who had to leave their islands to look for work in the town. In the afternoons Sr Marie Angelina devoted herself generously to the development of the women in the « CLUBS » which the women themselves had created with very little material means. In this way she offered her expertise contributing as an SMSM to building the future of Vanuatu and the Church. Her affectionate smile accompanied all her activities and her devotion.

The poverty around her was great and Sr Marie Angelina didn’t hesitate to ask for aid from the Chinese shopkeepers who lived in Port-Vila. They willingly offered 25 Kg sacks of rice each month for the boarders. Her greatest desire: to share with her community and with those in need, the gifts that were freely received.

Sr Angelina lived her “gift of self” to Vanuatu from 1952 to 2005, the year of her definitive return to Italy for health reasons. At Casa Immacolata, she gave service to the extent that she was able. Especially during the last three years, when her health had deteriorated to the point that she could no longer communicate with words, she continued to do so, immobile in her chair on her bed, by her smile and some gestures.

On June 6th she received the sacrament of the sick along with the Sisters of the community. She was very ready to meet her Lord and the Virgin Mary on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, June 12th 2015 at 4 o’clock in the morning.

From now on she rests in peace at the cemetery of her parish with Sister Marie Chiara where the people remember well her visits to them in the past at the time of her home visits.

With Sister Marie Angelina we sing the Magnificat for her « VIE DONNEE ». (Life given)

Thank you Angelina, pray for us.

The Sisters of the community of Casa Immacolata