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This week’s missionary hero is a woman who died while serving as a missionary in Peru. Most of the people she served called her “Aguchita.”
Antonia Luzmila Rivas López was born on June 13, 1920 in Coracora, Parinacochas, Peru, the eldest of twelve children into a farming family. As a youth, she had to do her share to help with the crops and animals. It was in this context that she developed a love and appreciation of nature.
Antonia’s parents saw to it that their children received a solid religious education. It was when she was teenager that Antonia decided she wanted to be a religious sister. When she was 18, she visited her brother César who was studying to become a priest in Lima. In that city, she met the Sisters of the Good Shepherd for the first time.
Four years later, in 1942, Antonia entered that order, formally called Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd Congregation. That same year, she received her habit and became known in the religious life as Sr. María Agustina Rivas López; everyone called her “Aguchita.”
In 1945, when she was 25, she promised to serve the poorest of the poor, and four years later, she made her perpetual profession.
In her order, Sr. Aguchita served in many roles. One of these roles was to be a nurse to a community of cloistered sisters. She served in this role for five years (1970-1975). She was known to be a very great nurse, charitable with all who needed her help.
Sr. Aguchita is best known, however, for her work in with the rural indigenous jungle people of Peru. With others of her Good Shepherd community, she educated the youth and helped the women. Especially, she worked with the Asháninka people. She also taught the people how to pray, weave, make bread, and take care of plants and animals. Sr. Aguchita also taught the woman basic healthcare techniques for themselves and loved ones. She organized youth groups and served as a catechist in rural villages. Her own rural background helping with plants and animals, and her experiences as being the eldest of 11 children, must have been an incredible help to her.
Unfortunately, in the 1980s, a Communist guerilla group commonly known as Sendero Lucero (Shining Path) was creating havoc among the Peruvian people. From 1980 to 2000, this group is believed to have killed between 31,000 to 48,000 people in Peru. Many of the soldiers of Shining Path were girls and boys as young as ten years of age. Shining Path made entire villages disappear, and made thousands of people homeless.
On September 27, 1990, a group of 15 to 18 Shining Path youth came to the village where Sr. Aguchita was working. She had been making candy with some of the girls. When they ran out of lemons, Sister said she’d run into the plaza and buy some. However, the armed youth, which included children as young as 10 or 12, ordered her and everyone on their list to line up. There was one member of the community (Sr. Luisa) on the list, but she was not present that day, so the group decided Sr. Aguchita would replace her. Instead of going directly to the line-up, Sr. Aguchita detoured to the house to close the kitchen. The Shining Path saw this as disobedience of an order.
The “crimes” Sr. Aguchita was charged with included “distracting the girls with candy;” distributing food to the hungry; organizing women; working with the poor; and talking about peace but doing nothing.
Sister Aguchita was killed with five bullets at the age of 70; her killer was a 17-year female member of the Shining Path.
On May 22, 2021, Pope Francis approved the beatification of Sr. María Agustina Rivas López.
