Fiorina Cecchin

Animated by a deep missionary zeal, Sister Maria Carola officially requested to leave for the missions. On January 28, 1905, she embarked from Trieste bound for Kenya, as part of a group including four other Cottolengo sisters and missionaries of the Consolata. Arriving in Africa, she spent herself without counting the cost for twenty years in various mission stations, notably in Limuru, Tuthu, Iciagaki, Mugoiri, Wambogo, and Tigania. There, she exercised multiple responsibilities: managing dispensaries, caring for the sick, teaching reading and writing, catechesis, and the education of the youth. Appointed regional superior, she guided her sisters with wisdom and gentleness. Her kindness and tireless dedication earned her the deep affection of the local populations (Kikuyu and Meru), who affectionately nicknamed her "Mware Muega" (the good sister) or "the white saint." However, living conditions were extremely harsh, marked by a difficult climate and a lack of resources. Furthermore, starting in the 1920s, relations between the Sisters of Cottolengo and the Consolata Missionaries deteriorated due to disagreements over methods of evangelization and the living conditions of the religious. Faced with these persistent difficulties, Pope Benedict XV formally ordered the repatriation of the Cottolengo sisters from Kenya. Sister Maria Carola, although seriously ill (suffering from bloody enterocolitis), chose out of obedience and charity to be the very last of the 44 religious to leave the land of Africa. She bade farewell to the mission on October 11, 1925. During the return voyage to Italy, her state of health worsened rapidly. She passed away on November 13, 1925, at the age of 48, aboard the steamship Porto Alessandretta. Due to the maritime sanitary regulations in force, her remains were wrapped in a simple sheet and committed to the waters of the Red Sea.

The reputation of holiness of Sister Maria Carola, already vivid during her lifetime in Africa and Italy, continued to grow after her death. The diocesan inquiry for her beatification was opened on April 24, 2014, by the Archbishop of Turin, Mgr Cesare Nosiglia, and concluded on October 7 of the same year. The Roman phase began after the validation of the process by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on May 28, 2015. On November 23, 2020, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, thus declaring her Venerable.

On December 13, 2021, Pope Francis approved the decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Maria Carola Cecchin. The miracle concerns the scientifically inexplicable healing and return to life of a newborn, Msafiri Hilary Kiama. On April 14, 2013, while a woman was giving birth aboard a Land Rover on the road between Gatunga and Matiri (in the Meru district of Kenya), the child was born without any signs of life (stillborn, presenting a total absence of cardiac activity, muscle tone, and cyanotic coloration). Faced with this desperate situation, Sister Catherine Gathoni, a Cottolenghine nun present at the scene, offered a fervent prayer to Sister Maria Carola Cecchin. After thirty minutes of apparent death, the newborn suddenly began to breathe normally. The child has grown up in perfect health. The solemn beatification celebration took place on November 5, 2022, at Kinoru Stadium in Meru, Kenya. The rite was presided over, in the name of Pope Francis, by Cardinal Antoine Kambanda, Archbishop of Kigali (Rwanda), in the presence of thousands of faithful and civil and religious dignitaries.

The spirituality of Blessed Maria Carola Cecchin rests on an absolute trust in Divine Providence and a total abandonment to the will of God. She lived her religious commitment in the spirit of Saint Joseph-Benedict Cottolengo, uniting contemplation with active and concrete charity toward the most destitute.

She liked to repeat in the Venetian dialect: "'Na bôna mort a pagrà tut" ("A good death will pay for everything"), thus expressing her gaze constantly turned toward eternity and Paradise. Her humility was manifested from her beginnings in the hidden work of the convent kitchens, which she considered her first mission field.

Although the Cottolengo sisters had to leave Kenya in 1925, their work left an indelible mark there. In 1972, responding to a new call, the congregation returned to settle in Kenya to continue its service to disabled people and sick children, thus perpetuating the Blessed's legacy of charity.