Paraguay: On 100 years of his birth, pray for soon canonization of Chiquitunga

To mark the centenary of the birth of the first Paraguayan beatification, María Felicia Guggiari Echeverría—known as “Chiquitunga”—numerous activities took place and the Archbishop of Asunción (Paraguay), Cardinal Adalberto Martínez, asked the community to pray for her prompt canonization.

This Sunday, January 12, marked 100 years since the birth of the nun María Felicia Guggiari Echeverría, the first Paraguayan blessed. In Asunción, the Monastery of Discalced Carmelites organized special activities. In Villarrica, where the Blessed was born and the remains rest, the faithful were invited to pray the Rosary and to a solemn Eucharist presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio in Paraguay, Mons. Vincenzo Turturro.

The President of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, declared the commemoration of the centenary of Chiquitunga of general interest.

The Archbishop of Asunción, Cardinal Adalberto Martínez, directed a letter to the faithful in which he expresses: “There is a celebration in heaven and here on earth, in our hearts and in the church that pilgrims in Paraguay. It is the 100th birthday of Blessed María Felicia de Jesús Sacramentado, the beloved ‘Chiquitunga’! “.

This century since its birth, the cardinal assures, “has unleashed in a shock wave a soft breeze with the smell of a lily that has flooded Paraguay. It is the smell of holiness that this girl gives us,” he specifies, considering that she points the way “so that we can also aspire to be saints.”

Chiquitunga “invites us to venture down this path of total surrender to God through love of neighbor, manifested in Christian service,” says the archbishop, asking the faithful: “Let us pray for his prompt canonization.”

Who was “Chiquitunga”, the first Paraguayan blessed?

María Felicia Guggiari Echeverría was born in Villarrica on January 12, 1925. From the age of 14 she dedicated herself intensely to prayer and the apostolate in the Catholic Action of Paraguay.

That stage of his life was marked by great catechetical activity: he taught catechism to children, young workers, university students with problems, the poor, the sick and the elderly.

At the age of 30, on August 14, 1955, she responded to God’s call to the contemplative life, entering the Order of the Discalced Carmelites. She was renamed María Felicia de Jesús Sacramentado.

At the age of 34 he contracted hepatitis and on March 28, 1959, an Easter Sunday, he died.

In 2010 she was declared venerable by Benedict XVI; and on June 23, 2018 she was beatified by the then prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato.

The miracle attributed to her intercession was the healing of a baby born in 2002, who revived after remaining without vital signs for about 20 minutes after delivery.