St. Maria De Mattias

St. Maria De Mattias’ life, lived in the 19th century (Vallecorsa, [Italy] February 4, 1805 – Rome August 20, 1866) is a clear example of how the searching for and joyful acceptance of the participation in Christ’s Paschal Mystery leads to holiness.

Childhood

Maria’s childhood was lived in a land unsettled by the struggles of the civil war experienced in Lower Lazio in the 1800s. She passed through the bloodiest part of the century with the great desire of contributing to its redemption. As a child she was an eye witness to brutal crimes in Vallecorsa (Frosinone), her hometown, where the brigands killed and sowed desperation in many families. That violence created a deep resonance in the depths of her soul and awakened within her the desire to take on the burdens of suffering humanity. Her spiritual journey, begun in listening to the Bible stories her father told her, deepened in her first approaches to the Paschal Mystery as a child. One morning during the Easter Season, she was struck by the image of the immolated lamb the priest had used during the homily. When she later asked her father to explain, he told her that the lamb was a symbol of Jesus who gave his life for us. This event remained in Maria’s subconscious for a long time and prepared the way for her future choices.

Adolescence

Maria De Mattias quickly changed from a vivacious girl full of life to a restless young woman searching for meaning in life. Her youthful journey unraveled into an experience she considered fundamental in her faith journey. “One day (while I was praying) I felt as if I were being carried lightly in someone’s secure arms. I am writing this with tears in my eyes because I was deeply impressed by this experience. I experienced peace in the depths of my heart that I cannot explain with words. In that act, I remember having made a total offering of myself to God with complete abandonment to the divine will that I felt in offering that act. I felt my heart was completely changed and full of courage.” (Letter 448) Her meetingwith St. Gaspar Del Bufalo, the founder of the Missionaries of the Most Precious Blood, during a popular mission preached by him in Vallecorsa in 1822, was a new launching pad for Maria. Discovering that Christ’s Blood was pure love given to humanity for the redemption of all creatures dissolved her final resistance, and her inner life opened to welcome this love as God’s gift. Feelings of pure and passionate rapture filled her and for the first time Maria was aware of being in love with the Crucified and Risen Jesus.

Her love for Jesus, which would color every moment of her daily life from then on, was transformed into an ardent desire to commit herself to Him through the choice of total consecration to Him. Influenced by the apostolic fervor animating the Missionaries of the Most Precious Blood in their efforts to evangelize the Ciociaria region of Italy, Maria desired to do the same thing. For a long time this double vocation of bride of Christ and missionary smoldered within her and, not being able to fulfill it immediately, she lived it in Vallecorsa by intensifying her prayer and organizing meetings in her home to catechize the girls of the area.

The Foundation of the Congregation of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ

When Father John Merlini, a Missionary of the Most Precious Blood, entered her life as her spiritual director, the spiritual journey of the Ciociarian girl took a big shift. As a young priest, Father Gaspar Del Bufalo had already outlined a plan for founding a congregation of priests dedicated to the Most Precious Blood and also creating a women’s branch to be at the side of the Missionaries. Merlini, after having seen to what depth the Lord Jesus had entered into Maria De Mattias’ life, was aware that there was now the opportunity of the creation of the feminine branch in Fr. Gaspar’s plan.

Upon the presentation of favorable circumstances, Maria De Mattias under the guidance of Fr. Merlini, left her home on March 1, 1834 at the age of 29 to go to Acuto (Frosinone) a small, isolated town in the mountains of the Ciociaria region. Here she had been sought by the towncouncil as a teacher to open a school for the poor girls. In Acuto on March 4, 1834, she founded the Congregation of the Adorers of the Divine Blood, today known as the Adorers of the Blood of Christ. Soon several young women joined her in the journey of consecration to God and, after a few years, she was able to open another school.

The spirituality of the Blood of Christ was the central inspiration for her personal life and that of the Congregation. Maria’s identity as Adorer took the form of continual contemplation of Christ’s open side, the source of salvation, to whom she wanted to bring every single human being.

A Woman Given to Love

Maria’s earthly journey was motivated by an ardent desire of seeing all of humanity renewed by Christ’s Blood, experiencing the freedom and fullness of life. The underlying idea to her action was that of re-evangelizing the population and re-founding the social life on the values flowing from the Gospel. Maria’s dream was to see all of creation, purified by Christ’s Blood, moving toward its initial perfection.

She did not hold back any energy in working for her “dear neighbor.” There were so many various kinds of poverty: material poverty, sickness, violence, illiteracy, moral degradation, lack of religious instruction, etc. Her daily efforts were to take on the burden of these needs by working especially in the area of the education of girls and women through the school, retreats for young women and married women and in preaching in church. Like so many women of her time, though her family had the money, Maria was never sent to school. She learned to read and write on her own. Because of need, she later began to write to others, though always with repugnance. Knowing this about her, it is surprising to discover that she wrote more than three thousand letters.

The Encounter
With the passing of years her frequent travels, hard work and deprivations took a toll on her already delicate health. At the beginning of December, 1865, she moved to Rome where, as Merlini said, she could guide the foundation better. By then the Adorers had expanded to 200 sisters and 60 local communities with as many schools. Her health worsened in Rome. The tumor on her arm caused her much pain and her tuberculosis caused continuous loss of blood. Aware that she was coming to the end of her life, she joyfully prepared for her encounter with the Lord.

Maria De Mattias died in Rome on August 20, 1866. The news passed quickly by word of mouth, “The saint has died.”

She was canonized by Pope John Paul II on May 18, 2003.

Hymn to

the Blood

of Christ...