“We are all instruments in the wise hands of God,” explained Pope Francis on June 6, 2024, evoking the memory of the sisters who educated him as a child in Argentina. The Pope paid tribute to them during an audience granted jointly to members of two congregations founded in the 19th century: the Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice and the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy, gathered in Rome for their respective General Chapters.
Francis welcomed the sisters’ willingness to come and meet “the Successor of Peter” to recall their “dedication to the service of God and the Church.”
The sisters who taught Pope Francis as a child
He paid tribute to the vocation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy, a congregation dedicated to serving the poor and children, with around 900 members. Founded in Savona in 1837 by the then 26-year-old Benedetta Rossello (1811-1880), who later became Sister Maria Giuseppa, this religious institute has spread to Africa and Latin America.
The Argentine pontiff shared a personal memory of his childhood.
“It was in one of your schools, in Buenos Aires, in the Flores neighborhood, that I received the Sacraments of Christian Initiation many years ago,” recalled Pope Francis. "How can I forget dear Sister Dolores, from whom I learned so much and whom I continued to visit for a long time afterwards? For this, I am deeply grateful to the Lord and to all of you, as my current service to the Church is also the fruit of the kindness I received, at a tender age, from your religious family," the 87-year-old pope said.
Sisters who treated the wounded of both sides at war
He also recalled the turbulent history of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Felix of Cantalice, founded in Warsaw in 19th-century tsarist Poland by Sofia Camilla Truszkowska (1825-1899), who became Sister Angela Maria.
"Faced with the escalation of armed conflicts, she and her sisters decided to care for all the wounded, regardless of their allegiance. This led to accusations of treason and the suppression of their work by the civil authorities,” recalled Pope Francis. “Providence, however, later intervened to revive and, perhaps thanks to their courageous sacrifice, to spread their apostolate even further, across the ocean to America, always driven by the impulse of service, this time for the assistance of Polish migrants."
The congregation, now mainly present in the USA and Poland, numbers around 1,300 sisters, committed to education and caring for the sick and poor.
The Pope encouraged the nuns of these two congregations to persevere “in fidelity to the vows you have professed and in docility to the action of the Spirit. Surrender yourselves to him and give everything, always, with generosity."
