Maria Felicia di Gesù Sacramentato

María Felicia Guggiari Echeverría, known as Chiquitunga (little one), was a young woman who lived in Paraguay in the first half of the twentieth century. She was born in Villarrica (Republic of Paraguay) on January 12, 1925. She was the eldest of seven siblings born to the marriage of Ramón Guggiari and Arminda Echeverría.

She enthusiastically adhered to Catholic Action, living the associated journey of service to children, the poor and sick. She had a special friendship with Ángel Sauá Llanes, a medical graduate and member of Catholic Action like her, who confided to her his desire to become a priest.

After meeting Mother Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart, prioress of the first Paraguayan Carmel, she began to understand what her vocation was: at the age of thirty she entered the Carmelite convent of Asunción and took the name of Sister Maria Felicia of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. In January 1959 she discovered that she was ill with infectious hepatitis: she therefore offered her condition with the same generosity that had seen her engaged in the apostolate and with which she renounced her feeling for her friend.

She died on April 28, 1959, at the age of 34. Her mortal remains rest since April 28, 1993 in the chapel of the Asunción Carmel.

On June 23, 2018, the solemn celebration of her beatification was held in Asunción.

Chiquitunga

LITURGICAL TEXTS

28 April – Blessed Maria Felicia of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament Guggiari Echeverría, Virgin