Christians should look to Argentina’s soon-to-be saint to learn how to live charitably in an age of individualism, Pope Francis said.
In Blessed Maria Antonia de Paz Figueroa, known affectionately as “Mama Antula,” Christians can “find an example and inspiration that revives a preference for the least, for those who society discards and casts aside,” the pope told a group of Argentine pilgrims during a meeting at the Vatican on 9th February.
The charity of Argentina’s first female saint “imposes itself with great force in the midst of a society that risks forgetting that radical individualism is the most difficult virus to overcome,” he said. The pope was scheduled to declare the 18th-century consecrated laywoman a saint during a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on 11th February.
He also praised the future saint’s persistence in sharing the Ignatian spiritual exercises despite receiving resistance from Argentina’s ruling class in Buenos Aires. Mama Antula’s life is a message for Christians “not to give up in the face of adversity, not to give up in our good intentions to bring the Gospel to all, despite the challenges that this may represent,” Pope Francis said.
Picture: A painting of Blessed María Antonia de Paz Figueroa, known as “Mama Antula,” is displayed during a meeting between Pope Francis and Argentine pilgrims at the Vatican, 9th February 2024, ahead of the canonisation of Argentina’s first female saint. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)