Maria Troncatti was born in Italy in 1883 to poor farming parents. She attended catechism lessons in her local parish during her childhood and in obedience to her priest decided to wait until adulthood before requesting to be admitted into the Salesian Sisters. Troncatti joined the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco on 15 October 1905 after having commenced her period of the novitiate and she later professed her vows on 17 1908 in Nizza Monferrato. Her father fainted as she left due to the pain of separation. She spent this time in Varazze in Liguria. Troncatti suffered a serious infection in 1909 and later contracted typhoid; this prompted a visit from Blessed Michele Rua who blessed her. In 1915 she passed a special course in nursing and used this education during World War I as she tended to ill and wounded soldiers - she also worked for the Red Cross while stationed in Varazze. Troncatti was sent to the missions in Ecuador on 9 November 1922 for a mission of evangelization. collaborated with the Shuar tribe in the Amazon forest; the natives there dubbed her as "Mamacita". She and fellow religious boarded a train to Marseille in France and spent over two weekson a boat to Panama; she then went to Guayaquil in December and then onwards to Ecuador. Her first encounter with them threatened her life: the tribal chief's daughter was wounded from a bullet caught in the crossfire between two warring tribes and she was threatened with death if she could not save the girl; Troncatti operated and saved the girl's life in a move that bought Troncatti the respect of the natives and their admiration. She also served in Ecuador as a catechist and nurse. Before she turned 85 in 1968 she penned a letter to her relations back home in Brescia and said that - despite their wishes to reunite with her - her age made travel difficult and she could not leave due to her mission. Troncatti died on 25 August 1969 in a plane crash in Ecuador. The small plane crashed not long after takeoff on the edge of the forest that she had dubbed the "homeland of the heart". Two other religious were in that plane and managed to survive - the three were en route to Quito for an annual spiritual retreat.
Beatification
The beatification process commenced in Méndez under Pope John Paul II on 20 October 1986 after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared "nihil obstat" to the cause and titled Troncatti as a Servant of God. The diocesan process was inaugurated on 7 September 1986 and concluded its business on 25 October 1987 while on 25 May 1990 the C.C.S. validated the process in Rome. The C.C.S. then received the Positio dossier from the postulation in 1997 and passed in to their consulting theologians on 5 May 2008 for their approval while the C.C.S. themselves later approved the contents of the dossier on 7 October 2008. It all culminated on 12 November 2008 when her heroic virtue was confirmed in a move that allowed for Pope Benedict XVI to declare Troncatti to be Venerable. The process for the investigation of a miracle attributed to her and needed for beatification opened on 21 July 2008 and concluded its work on 12 September 2008 while the C.C.S. validated this process in Rome on 13 February 2009. A medical board voted in favor of the miracle on 7 April 2011 while consulting theologians also provided their assent on 22 October 2011; the C.C.S. issued their approval on 21 February 2012 and passed it to Benedict XVI on 10 May 2012 for his final approval. The miracle in question came from Ecuador in 2002 involving the cure of Josefa Yolanda Solórzano Pisco. Troncatti was beatified on 24 November 2012 in Ecuador with Cardinal Angelo Amato presiding over the celebration on the behalf of the pope. The current postulator for this cause is the Rev. Pierluigi Carmeroni.
