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Rosa Curcio was born on January 30, 1877 in Ispica, Ragusa, Italy, the seventh of ten children. Though she lived to the age of 80, she was dogged throughout her life with diabetes and health issues resulting from the diabetes.
Although she was noted to be very intelligent as a child, like many boys and girls of the world, she was not able to advance past the sixth grade. Fortunately, though, her family had a home library which she used as a vehicle of self-education.
One of the topics that touched her deeply was that of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, also known as “The Little Flower.” Though St. Therese was a cloistered Discalced Carmelite Sister and died at the age of 24, she is one of the patron saints of foreign missionaries in the Catholic Church. From her devotion to the Little Flower, Rosa developed an ever-deepening love of the Carmelites and their spirituality.
Along with her love of Carmel, though, Rosa believed she had a call to help the poor and other outcasts of society. So, in 1890, Rosa joined a group of Third Order Carmelites. The group helped poor and orphaned girls. In the Third Order, Rosa took the name “Maria” and held the position of prioress from 1897-1908.
Rosa, however, felt that God wanted her to become a formal religious sister. Fortunately, in 1924, Rosa met a priest of the Order of Carmelites of the Ancient Observance named Lorenzo van den Eerenbeemt. With him, she went to Rome for the canonization of the Little Flower.
The next day, Rosa and the priest visited a beautiful small town called Santa Marinella on the coast north of Rome. Rosa loved the beauty of the region, and she was touched by the extreme poverty she saw there. It was then that she decided this was where she would establish a new order called the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. She received permission to form a community in 1925, and in 1930, her order was recognized as an institute of diocesan right. In religious life, she took the name Maria Crocifissa Curcio.
By 1947, the order had grown enough so that it was able to spread out of Italy by sending missionary sisters to Brazil. Today, the sisters serve in various parts of the world.
Mother Maria Crocifissa Curcio died on July 4, 1957 in Santa Marinella and was beatified on November 13, 2005. Blessed Maria Crocifissa is a patron of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, missionaries, and Carmelite tertiaries. Blessed Maria Crocifissa’s feast day is July 4.
