Maria Sagheddu was born in Dorgali (Sardinia) on 17 March 1914 in a family of shepherds. From a young age, she displayed a strong, proud and determined character, and was not one to compromise. Around the age of 18, her life took a decisive turn. The death of her father and two younger brothers, and above all that of her younger sister Giovanna Antonia, aged 17, led her to question the meaning of life and to a profound experience of faith. She became a catechist in Catholic Action and, at the age of 21, decided to consecrate herself to God. Guided in her discernment by her confessor, she entered the Trappist monastery of Grottaferrata (Rome) in 1935. She thus embraced the Cistercian cloistered life centred on poverty, silence, manual labour, obedience and fraternal charity. She lived this daily life without fanfare, distinguishing herself through her humility, her readiness to ask for forgiveness and her spirit of service.
The community at Grottaferrata was one of the first in Italy to embrace the ecumenical ideal, thanks to the Abbess, Mother Pia Gullini’s contacts with Abbé Couturier of Lyon. In January 1938, during the octave of prayer for Christian unity, Sr Maria Gabriella asked to offer her life. She soon developed a severe form of tuberculosis which, after fifteen months of suffering offered for unity, led to her death on 23 April 1939, Good Shepherd Sunday.
A reputation for holiness soon spread, and communion with certain Anglican Benedictine communities grew. Various graces of conversion and mystical signs led to the initiation of her cause for beatification.
She was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II on 25 January 1983, in the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. The encyclical «Ut unum sint» (1995) presented her as an exemplary model for those who dedicate their lives to ecumenical work. Pope Francis would recall her in the apostolic exhortation «Gaudete et Exsultate » (2018) for her offering of her life in imitation of Christ.
Her body now rests in a chapel adjacent to the monastery of Vitorchiano, where the community of Grottaferrata has been based since 1957.
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Link to the page of Blessed Maria Gabriella on the website of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints
