The testimony of her life

She began her life as a nun and as a teacher rising above the humdrum of everyday tasks and of the regular observance that was to carry her through the humble and incessant practice of Christian virtues to the only true aim of human life: Saintliness. The boarding-school of Cernusco, Via Amedei Milan, Genoa and during the autumn holidays Chambery in the Savoy, were the grounds for her fertile apostolate; during the last years of her life she was again sent to Milan, this time to Via Quadronno.

Sister Sala expressed her complete obedience, rot only in accepting with an always willing heart all these moves, so very painful to her because of her vivid and deep sensibility, but also in her full compliance with the wishes of the Mother Superior and the Sisters.

«She seemed to have taken vows of obedience to ail the nuns» said a witness-and in her willingness to be always at the disposal of her pupils and anybody who asked for her advice.

«I’ll come at once» remained the motto of her fife, always at everybody's call.

«I'll come at once» made her interrupt her most important activities such as her lessons meticulously prepared, depriving her of precious time for prolonged contact with God which her contemplative soul ardently desired.

With her «I’ll come at once» Sister Marianna knew that she was keeping her promise of love to God, with the humilty and poverty of those who have given themselves to God.

Chambéry (Savoy-FR). The castle of the Dukes of Savoy.

She always had God with her: God's presence was to her like the air we breathe. Also her pupils noticed it both when they listened to her explanations, always characterized by a deep spirit of faith that attracted their attention and touched their hearts, and when they were with her, in the chapel for common prayer, and when they saw her walking quickly along the corridors taken up with all her activities, and when they watched her late at night kneeling for a long time, in the dimly lit dormitory, in a final daily conversation with Jesus.

«She is an extraordinary Nun» said the pupils pointing her out.

«She is a Saint» someone dared to say. But first her pupils, like all pupils, had put her patience, her steadfastness, her piety and her endless capacity for understanding and forgiving, for faith and love, to the test.

Sister Marianna was a gifted teacher because notwithstanding her strong personality, she was a mild woman. And she had the strength of the mild: the strength that reaches the Kingdom of God.