28 April 2020
Virgin (Optional Memory)
She was born in Villarica, Republic of Paraguay, on January 12, 1925, the first of seven children born to the marriage of Mr. Ramón Guggiari and Mrs. Arminda Echeverría. María Felicia Guggiari Echeverría, known as Chiquitunga, enthusiastically joined her country’s Catholic Action group, particularly dedicating herself to serving children and the sick. She enjoyed a great friendship with Mr. Ángel Sauá Llanes, who had a degree in medicine and, like her, was a member of Catholic Action. After a period of discernment, he decided to enter the seminary to become a priest. Forgoing her emotions, María Felicia encouraged him in his vocation.
For her part, she began to feel a calling to the Teresian family after dialoging with Mother Teresa Margarita of the Sacred Heart, prioress of the first Paraguayan Carmel. She entered the Monastery of Discalced Carmelites of Asunción and took the name, Maria Felicia of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
In 1959 she was diagnosed with incurable infectious hepatitis, a painful disease that she offered with the same generosity that she showed in her apostolic work and renunciation of Mr. Ángel Sauá. She died on April 28, 1959, at thirty-four years of age. Her mortal remains rest in the chapel of the Carmel of Asunción since April 28, 1993.
The decree confirming the heroicity of her virtues was promulgated on March 27, 2010, and the decree validating the diocesan process regarding the alleged miracle attributed to her was granted on November 14, 2008. The solemn ceremony of her beatification was celebrated on June 23, 2018, in Asunción, Paraguay.
