Sr Maria Consiglia

Fr Joseph Zammit, OSA writes:

I write this on the passing away of Sr Maria Consiglia del Santissimo Salvatore (Rosaria Portelli), OSA, on January 2.

The beloved sister hailed from Xagħra. She was born on April 13, 1922.

Sr Maria appreciated the monastic community while they resided in Ta’ Ċenċ in 1942, since the monastic community had temporarily moved there on the insistence of the then Archbishop Michael Gonzi, due to the continuous danger of aerial assault on Valletta during World War II.

Sr Maria, a remarkably beautiful person of affable features, gave her utmost, in response to the Lord’s generous calling.

Her vocation unfolded in the humility of the cloister, far from the hubbub of civil society. What made her out-of-the-ordinary was her sharp intellect and her complete devotion to her calling.

Sr Maria served as Mother Abbess from 1977 to 1989. She was ever so dedicated to the promotion of the ordered life of the house. The Monastery of St Catherine in Republic Street,Valletta, was to her the bridge to do people good, ever so precise in her duties, ever so loving towards her one true love: Christ our Salvation.

She came to the Monastery in Valletta on November 19, 1945, where she entered into the novitiate year. She was permitted to pronounce freely her profession of the religious and monastic vows, as permitted under Church law on November 24, 1946; she professed her definitive vows on November 25, 1949.

May the love God has shown each one of us through knowing her for a while help us love Him in a similar manner.