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Elizabeth Riconda was born on September 22, 1901 in Springfield, Massachusetts to Remolina Salamano and Tranquillino Riconda, the fifth of six children. Her father was a chef at a large hotel in Holyoke.
At the age of five, the family moved to New York City. Elizabeth attended public schools and graduated from high school in 1919.
Because her father wanted her to be a teacher, that is what Elizabeth studied for. However, when her father died in 1918, leaving her mother with children to raise by herself, Elizabeth studied typing and stenography in New York City and then worked as a secretary.
Elizabeth entered the Maryknoll Sisters on June 3, 1921 and received the name “Mary Ruth.” She made her first vows on April 9, 1923 at was assigned to South China in September of that year. Fortunately for Sr. Mary Ruth, she had an incredible facility for learning languages. In Hong Kong, she served as a secretary to the regional superior, taught French and English to children, and taught meditation classes and prayer in Chinese. After eleven years, Sr. Mary Ruth felt an ever-increasing call to the contemplative life. Fortunately, the Maryknoll Sisters had such a branch.
In 1934, Sr. Mary Ruth joined a Maryknoll contemplative community. She would have gone to join a new Maryknoll contemplative community in China, but when the Communists took over, that became impossible.
In September of 1971, Sr. Mary Ruth entered the Maryknoll contemplative community among New Mexico’s Navajo people. Then, at the age of eighty-four, Sr. Mary Ruth went to Guatemala to join that Maryknoll contemplative community among the Quiche people.
Sr. Mary Ruth was noted for spending hours on end in front of the Blessed Sacrament morning and afternoon, and she spent two years as a hermit.
As a missionary and contemplative, Sr. Mary Ruth was noted not only for her sharp mind, but she was noted for her well-developed sense of humor – a quality that is a must in both the contemplative and missionary life.
Sr. Mary Ruth died in Maryknoll, New York on October 10, 1997.
