Pallota, Maria Assunta, Bl.
PALLOTA, MARIA ASSUNTA, BL.
Missionary; b. Force, in the Marches of Ancona, Italy, Aug. 20, 1878; d. Tong-Eul-Koo, China, April 7,1905. From her early years Pallota worked to help support her poor family. She acquired only enough formal schooling to read and write. In 1898 in Rome, she joined the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (see franciscan sisters). During the next few years she dwelt in the congregation's convents in Rome, Grottaferrata, and Florence, working about the house and in the garden and infirmary, and teaching catechism. She sailed for China (1904), and there in the orphanage at Tong-Eul-Koo, she continued her humble tasks. While caring for the plaguestricken during a typhus epidemic she fell victim to the disease. Humility, kindness; obedience, and prayerfulness distinguished her life. Her remains, which were incorrupt when exhumed in 1913, are in China. She was beatified Nov. 7, 1954.
Feast: April 7.
Bibliography: e. federici, Bienheureuse Maria Assunta (Rome 1954). Acta Sanctae Sedis 47 (1955) 28–33. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienheureux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes, ed. the benedictines of paris (Paris 1935–56) 13:205–208.
[m. f. s. condon]