AMERICA/PERU - Recognition of the martyrdom of "Aguchita": religious missionary among the indigenous Ashaninka people

Monday, 24 May 2021 martyrs   missionaries   nuns   beatification  

Lima (Agenzia Fides) - Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on May 22 to promulgate several decrees, including the one recognizing the martyrdom of the Servant of God, Sister María Agostina Rivas López, known as Aguchita, a Peruvian nun committed to the defense of the people and young Ashaninka, an indigenous people of the Amazon largely present in South America, especially in Peru and Brazil. She was murdered in hatred of the faith in 1990 by the Sendero Luminoso terrorist group. The date of her beatification will be announced shortly. The note from the Peruvian Bishops' Conference, sent to Fides, recalls that Aguchita was born on June 13, 1920 in Coracora, Ayacucho. At the age of 14 she went to Lima to study at the Seville School, run by the Sisters of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd. Attracted by the consecrated life, she entered this Congregation in 1941 and made her perpetual religious profession on February 8, 1949. In 1988, she was sent to the mission of the Congregation in the city of La Florida, in Junín, where she stayed despite the dangers and risks she faced. She pledged to defend the Ashaninka peoples, decimated in the early 20th century by the exploitation of rubber and the destruction of their forests, as well as by disease and slavery.
In particular, she devoted her efforts to educating young people. On September 27, 1990, while in the community of La Florida, the Sendero Luminoso terrorist group murdered Aguchita and eight other residents in the town center square. Announcing with great joy the news of the forthcoming beatification of Sister Maria Agostina, the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd recalls the stages of the beatification process, which began in 2017 and ended in a short time. “The signs of heroism were verified in the exercise of her virtues and in the consignment of her life in martyrdom, witnessing a life dedicated to others, faithful until her death", says the note of the nuns.
Aguchita intercedes for all the needs of our Congregation and of the people of God".
Aguchita was a holy woman, "next door". "Had it not been for her martyrdom, she would have gone unnoticed by most", her sisters write. She has always dreamed of being a missionary in the jungle and God granted it to her. "The martyrdom of Aguchita is a ripe fruit of the Peruvian Church. Daughter of our Church, peasant woman from the sierra, from deep Peru, emigranted to chaotic Lima, nun formed in Peru, promoter of Peruvian youth and women, martyr of terrorism. Sister Agustina is ours, of all Peruvians, the mature fruit of a Church that is struggling to grow and mature, to become an adult, to accept and enrich itself with all the variety of cultures found in Peru". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 24 /5/2021)


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