"The Venerable Maria Adeodata Pisani O.S.B. 1806-1855, Baronessina di Frigenuini"
Maria Adeodata
Pisani, O.S.B., was born in Naples on the 29th December 1806, the only daughter
of Baron Benedetto Pisani Mompalao Cuzkeri and Vincenza Carrano. She was
baptised on the same day in the Parish of St Mark at Pizzofalcone, and named
Maria Teresa. Her father had the title of Baron of Frigenuini, one of the
oldest and richest barony in Malta, whilst her mother was an Italian.
Unfortunaltely, her father took to drink and this soon led to marital problems,
so much so that whilst Maria Teresa was still a small child her mother left the
conjugal house and entrusted the child to her husband’s mother, Elisabeth Mamo
Mompalao, who lived in Naples. The grandmother took good care of Maria Teresa,
but when she died her grandchild was only 10 years of age. After her
grandmother’s death, she was sent to a famous boarding school in Naples, known
as the ‘Istituto di Madama Prota’, where the aristocratic ladies of the area
used to get their education.
Maria Teresa stayed in this college till she was 17 years of age, and here she
received her religious and social education. In the meantime, her father
continued to create problems and in 1821, due to his involvement in the
uprising in Naples, he was sentenced to death. Since he was a British citizen,
his sentence was suspended and he was expelled from Naples and deported to
Malta.
In 1825, Maria Teresa and her mother came to live in Malta. They settled in
Rabat where her father was also living his dissolute life, but they never lived
together with him. Although her mother had been trying to find a suitable man
to get her married, Maria Teresa always declined such proposals. She preferred
to lead a quiet life, going out to Church daily, and when the occasion
presented itself to help the poor she met on the streets. The people who knew
her started to comment about her pious behaviour. She was never put off by her
father’s behaviour and whenever she met him she would ask for his blessing.
On one occasion, she was impressed by a sermon she heard at the ‘Ta’ Giezu’
church in Rabat. She went to pray in front of the picture of Our Lady of Good
Counsel, in the Augustinian’s Church in Rabat, the church where she usually
went for her daily mass and evening prayers. There for the first time she felt
the calling to become a nun and dedicate her life to God in prayer.
Her parents immediately opposed her wish to become a nun, and her mother forced
her to wait for a year before making any final decision. Maria Teresa waited
obediently for a whole year, but her resolve did not change.
On the 16th July 1828, she joined the Benedictine Community in St Peter’s
Monastery in Mdina. In choosing this kind of life, she had chosen a life of
prayer, work, silence and obedience.
After six months as a postulant, at the beginning of 1829, in a special
ceremony of investiture as a novice took place, surrounded by her parents and
relatives, and she changed her name to Maria Adeodata. During the one year she
was a novice, she impressed not only her companions in the noviciate but also
the nun who was in charge of the novices. This nun confessed that she never
found any fault in Adeodata, and that instead of teaching her, she used to
learn from her.
On the 4th March 1830, the required Notarial Act of Renouncement was performed,
which was the last formal step required to be admitted as a nun. In this Act,
she renounced to her titles and distributed the vast inheritance she had
inherited from her paternal grandmother, keeping just enough for herself to be
able to help others during her lifetime.
The solemn monastic profession took place on the 8th March 1830, and for the
next 25 years she lived as a cloistered nun in St Peter’s monastery. During
this period, not only the nuns in the monastery but many persons outside
benefited from her acts of charity and her saintly life. She held various
official responsibilities within the monastery, but the ones she treasured most
were that of looking after the chapel, which gave her more time to be near the
Blessed Sacrament and that of porter, which kept her close to the poor people
who used to come daily to the monastery seeking help. For four years she was in
charge of novices, and from 1851 to 1853 she was elected as Abbess. During the
two years’ mandate she had to face difficulties from a few members of the
community, since she tried to bring about some changes in community life in
order to help the community live more in accordance with the Benedictine rule
and monastic way of life. Some nuns were also jealous of her since so many
people revered her for her saintly way of life.
She was renowned for her spirit of self-sacrifice and self-denial. The best she
had, whether food or clothes, were always given to those in need, whilst she
was happy to live on leftovers and worn out clothes. During her life in the
monastery she also wrote various works, the most famous of which is “The
mystical garden of the soul that loves Jesus and Mary”, which collects together
personal spiritual reflections written in the form of a diary between 15th
August 1835 and 3rd May 1843. She also wrote her reflections about spiritual
direction, and a good number of prayers some of which were meant to be used in
the community. Although her native language was Italian, she did her best to
learn how to speak and write in Maltese, and she wrote some prayers in Maltese
for common use in the Monastery. Throughout her life as a nun, she was a
shining example to all in her observance of the Rule of St Benedict, obedience
to her superiors, her acts of charity, her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament
and to the Blessed Virgin, and her total commitment to love God.
During the last two years of her life, heart trouble slowly eroded her health
which was never all that good. Yet she continued to force herself to live a
normal life within her community, always striving for perfection and leading
others through her example.
On the 25th February 1855, at the age of 48, she realised that the end was
near. Against her nurse’s advice, she dragged herself to the Chapel for the
early morning conventual mass, and after receiving communion she had to be
carried back to her bed, where she died soon afterwards surrounded by her
community reciting prayers.
As soon as news of her death reached the people outside the monastery, the same
phrase was repeated throughout Malta: “the Saint has died”. She had a simple
funeral, and she was buried in the Monastery’s crypt the following day.
Many people claimed miraculous cures and other graces from God through
Adeodata’s intercession. In 1892, the Canonical Process for her Beatification
and Canonization was initiated. In 1897, the miracle which was later to be
presented to the Congregation for Causes of Beatification and Canonization for
official examination and eventual acceptance took place. This miracle happened
in Subiaco in Italy, and it involved a Benedictine Abbess who was so sick that
the last rites were administered to her, but after prayers through the
intercession of Adeodata she got better and the doctors looking after her could
not explain such a recovery.
Due to economic reasons, the Canonical Process for Adeodata’s Beatification was
stopped in 1913, but in 1989, the Benedictine Community at St Peter’s Monastery
presented a petition for the resumption of the Canonical Process for Adeodata’s
Beatification and Canonisation.