The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints said on its website that after settling in Buenos Aires in 1779, Antonia “soon obtained the esteem and trust of the bishop, who granted her several and extensive faculties.”
She was “esteemed for her exceptional prudence,” the dicastery said, having been known for “asking for advice, before making any kind of decision, from wise people and religious authorities.” She was, for many people, “an example of humble and spontaneous simplicity, capable of edifying through her availability and wisdom.”
Blessed María Antonia was born in 1730 in Silipica, Santiago del Estero, Argentina, and died on March 7, 1799, in Buenos Aires. Her body “was buried in absolute poverty in the cemetery next to the church of the Pietà of Buenos Aires,” the dicastery said; later, it was “transferred to the same, where today it is a destination for pilgrimages.”
She was proclaimed Venerable in 2010 and beatified in 2016.
ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, reported on Tuesday that the Catholic Church in Argentina experienced a “historic day” of “immense joy” upon learning of the Holy Father’s announcement.
The Holy House of Spiritual Exercises proudly posted on Facebook of the “first Argentine saint!” while wishing that her “holiness be an impulse for the evangelization of our homeland.”