Antonia Luzmila Rivas López
Peruvian religious sister and Blessed / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Antonia Luzmila Rivas López (13 June 1920 – 27 September 1990) – in religious María Agustina, also known as "Aguchita", – was a Peruvian religious sister of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd.[1][2][3] Rivas studied in Lima before she became a religious sister. She made her perpetual vows in the late 1940s before she served as an educator for children. But she also had an active role in the care and education for indigenous populations and peasant women while she oversaw a number of different health and catechetical programs.[3][2] Rivas worked at a time when the communist-oriented Shining Path movement was on the rise and threatened local religious communities.[4] The nun was slain in 1990 when a teenage girl from the Shining Path shot her dead with a rifle when she tried to intercede for the villagers that she was with at the time; her death rattled her order who pondered whether or not to leave the area in light of her murder.[1][2]
Antonia Luzmila Rivas López | |
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Martyr | |
Born | (1920-06-13)13 June 1920 Coracora, Parinacochas, Ayacucho, Peru |
Died | 27 September 1990(1990-09-27) (aged 70) La Florida, Chanchamayo, Junín, Peru |
Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
Beatified | 7 May 2022, La Florida, Peru by Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo (on behalf of Pope Francis) |
Feast | 26 September |
The process for her beatification was initiated in Peru in 2017 and she became titled as a Servant of God at the outset.[3] Pope Francis determined in 2021 that Rivas had been slain "in odium fidei" (in hatred of the faith) hence permitted for her to be beatified; the beatification was celebrated in La Florida, Peru, on 7 May 2022.[1][2][5]