Turin (Italy) On 8 November 2020, in Montaldo Torinese, a Municipality of the Province of Turin where Blessed Maddalena Morano, FMA, taught for 12 years, the square in front of the Town Hall will be named after her.
Born in Chieri on November 15, 1847, Maddalena Morano arrived in Montaldo in 1866 with a primary school teacher diploma and taught first in girls’ schools then, from 1872, in boys’ schools. In short, with her authority and capacity for dialogue, she won the esteem and affection of students and families across the country. The testimonies remember her as a trained, rigorous teacher, but also passionate and cheerful. A concrete woman, she loved her pupils and took care of them. In the village she helped the poor. The parish priest, Fr. Ferdinando Trinchieri, said of her: “Her seriousness combined with sweetness did a lot of good and won her the trust and esteem of all”.
Maddalena feels her religious vocation grow in Montaldo, which she will be able to follow after having assured her mother, a widow and poor, a dignified old age. In April 1878, she went to meet Don Bosco in Turin, who advised her to contact the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and introduced her to Fr. John Cagliero, a young priest he had appointed as spiritual director of the FMA Institute.
On 15 August 1878, Maddalena Morano was welcomed in Mornese by Mother Mary Domenica Mazzarello. In 1879 she made her first profession and on 2 September 1880, she made her perpetual vows. Her apostolate will take place in Sicily until her death in 1908. There she is an animator, novice Formator, founder of new works, contributing to the expansion of the Institute.
Montaldo Torinese dedicates a square to her in the places where she lived and practiced her profession as a teacher, an exemplary and determined woman who formed the country’s future citizens. Sunday 8 November will begin with the Holy Mass, celebrated by the parish priest of Andezeno and Montaldo, Fr. Enrico Trombino in the Church of Saints Vittore and Corona. An FMA will outline a brief profile of her biography and works, while Valeria Martano, President of the V.I.T.A. and former teacher, will present the topicality of Maddalena Morano’s pedagogical commitment.
A significant gesture will be the giving of a copy of the Italian Constitution to the eighteen-year-olds of Montaldo by the Councilor for Culture of the Municipality and the President of the Montaldo Culture Association, in the presence of the Mayor of Montaldo Torinese, Sergio Gaiotti.
The naming of the square will consist of a few, simple gestures, which will allow us to better understand the virtues, secular and Christian, of Blessed Magdalene Morano.
