The Venerable Sister Maria Nazarena Majone of Graniti, province of Messina, was the co-founder, together with Saint Hannibal Mary of France, of the monastic congregation of the Daughters of Divine Zeal.
The order has offices spread across every corner of the world. He is very active in Australia and, above all, in India where he takes care of children and the homeless.
The work and teaching of Sicilian nun they had and still have many followers and were an inspiration to several young women who, following in their footsteps, dedicated themselves to assisting orphans and the poor.
Sister Maria Nazarena Majone in Graniti, where you can visit the home, Christmas, is remembered with affection and deep devotion by her fellow citizens.
Sister Maria Nazarena Majone di Graniti, childhood
Maria Majone, the last of six children of a poor and dignified family, was born on 21 June 1869 in Graniti, province of Messina, daughter of Marta Falcone and Bruno Majone. As soon as she turned eleven, the death of her beloved father shocked her childhood. The conditions of poverty force her and her brothers and sisters to work to contribute to the support of their unfortunate family.
Maria, with an unusual dedication for her young age, does not complain and willingly gives up the carefree games of a child in order to be of support to her loved ones.
The beginning of Sister Maria Nazarena Majone's monastic journey
Girl in her early twenties decides to take the monastic vows. Her innate vocation is accentuated when Maria meets her in Messina Poor women of the Heart of Jesus, a small congregation founded by a deacon, who later became Saint Hannibal Mary of France, engaged in the difficult work and mission of restoring the materially and spiritually disastrous neighborhood of Avignon.
In reality, destined to take vows and wear the monastic habit, she must have been one of Mary's older sisters. The young woman's strong vocation changed her sister's plans and she renounced becoming a nun, remaining in the family and allowing Maria to follow her compassionate inclination.
The mad priest of Avignon
Hannibal he had been the young scion of a high nobility family from the city of Messina. From a very young age, just eighteen, he undertook a religious life, donating, among other things, like Saint Francis of Assisi, his belongings to the poor.
He dedicated himself, above all, to the most unfortunate neighborhood of the city, Avignon, where he moved to live, starting an intense work of education of the local children and earning, with the impetus of his action, the nickname of "mad priest".
In the neighborhood he gathered a small congregation of nuns who assisted him in assisting orphans and the needy and who were joined, in 1889, by Maria Majone.
The arrival of Mary in Messina
On 14 October 1889, at the age of twenty, together with her best friend, Carmela D'Amore, Maria arrived in Messina from Sant'Annibale Maria Di Francia who two years earlier had started an institute of nuns in the Avignon district dedicated, above all, to the laborious work of educating the children of that desolate area of the city.
It is said that Don Annibale, welcoming the two young women who had expressed their intention to take religious vows, he showed them the miserable conditions in which his small community lived, almost challenging them to stay and face absolute poverty.
Mary showed unthinkable courage in a girl who had always lived in her small village protected by her mother and brothers and declared to Don Annibale that with Jesus at her side she could face any affliction.
Mary becomes Nazarene
In 1892, Maria definitively took vows with the name of Mary Nazarene. In a very short time, the young nun became, together with Saint Hannibal, the pillar of the small congregation and the co-founder of the Daughters of Divine Zeal.
Not only in Messina, but also in other Sicilian centers, he was responsible for opening shelters for the poor, elderly people, the sick and orphanages.
The Messina earthquake of 1908
When the devastating earthquake of 1908 hit Messina causing over eighty thousand deaths in the city, including thirteen nuns of the Daughters of Divine Zeal, Sister Maria Nazarena Majone was in Taormina where a new orphanage had just been inaugurated.
Having returned promptly to Messina, Sister Maria Nazarena did her utmost to assist the earthquake victims who were left homeless and in need of all the basic necessities.
Recognition of the great works of the congregation
In the following years, the tireless work of Sister Maria Nazarena and the congregation of the Daughters of Divine Zeal was recognized by the high ecclesiastical spheres.
To Sister Maria Nazarena, who in the meantime has become the first Mother General of the congregation, again together with Saint Hannibal Mary of France, was even granted an audience with the pontiffs of the time, Benedict XV and Pius
Sister Maria Nazarena Majone di Graniti, the illness
After forty years of intense activity together, both Saint Hannibal and Sister Maria Nazarena fell ill. The nun assisted Saint Hannibal during his illness until his death in June 1927.
In the following years, Sister Maria Nazarena suffered a lot due to a serious form of diabetes which did not give her respite until her death, but did not prevent her from continuing to work on behalf of the needy.
The death of Sister Maria Nazarena and the beatification process
Sister Maria Nazarena's health conditions worsened enormously in 1938. It was therefore decided to transfer her to Rome to provide her with better care which, however, proved useless. The nun passed away at the end of January 1939.
In life, Sister Maria Nazarena was already considered worthy of the altars for her hard work towards the weakest. Soon after her death, she began the beatification process which partially ended in December 2003 when the then Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree with which it was declared Venerable. We are still awaiting the next step which could lead to the proclamation of beatification.
