WITNESSES: FRIARS
FR. VOLANTINO
Founder and Servant General pfsgm
Formerly an atheist and a motorcycle aficionado, he courageously left everything (including 10 workers, a large body-building gym, and a disco pub of 1500 associates which was close to becoming a night club) - on his own and against the current - to carry out the project which God had marvelously announced to him.
FR. JOSEPH
Vice Servant General, Biblical Scholar
An ex-atheist and a master musician, he spent his youth far from God in search of the pleasures of the world; but after an encounter with a poor little friar who struck him with his dazzling simplicity, he decided to leave everything and give himself totally to the Lord.
FR. ANTONIO
He did not believe in God, nor did he understand the true meaning of life any longer, when Divine Providence had him encounter some members of our young community while they were begging in Catania. A new hope was ignited in him, soon to be transformed into the certainty of beatific immortality!
FR. NATHANIEL
Before coming to faith at 17 years of age, he was among various people who searched for freedom, but he did not find true freedom. Then, attracted by the life of the Apostles and the first Franciscans, he searched for the right community for three years--until he met the founder of this community, who helped him understand the meaning of true freedom in gradually putting the Word of Jesus into practice (cf. Jn. 8:32).
FR. MICHAEL
When he came to Assisi with the desire to give himself totally to the Lord according to St. Francis' style of life, the Lord arranged a providential encounter with the Little Friars of Jesus and Mary - and above all with their founder, thanks to whom he understood in a clear and certain way how to carry out his particular vocation.
FR. PICCHIGNITO
Before his conversion, he was shouting at the top of his lungs from the heavy-metal stage, until his life radically changed - thanks to an encounter with some poor friars at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima. From then on, he has increasingly burned with the fervent zeal to "shout" the music of the Gospel, and to win over many souls to Christ and His Church with his life.
FR. FRANCESCO
Having returned to himself after a period of wandering far from the Lord and His Church, he felt a strong desire to live the Gospel in poverty, after the manner of Christ and of St. Francis of Assisi. He began to have different vocational experiences, until he encountered the Little Friars of Jesus and Mary and felt a "fire in his chest" burning within him (cf. Lk. 24:32).
FRIAR EMANUEL
Chegou a Assis com o desejo de doar-se totalmente ao Senhor seguindo o estilo de vida de S. Francisco, o Senhor permitiu um encontro providencial com os Pequenos Frades de Jesus e Maria e sobretudo com o fundador deles, graças ao qual entendeu de modo claro e seguro como realizar a sua única vocação.
FRIAR BERNARD
His conversion began in 2016. With a background as a sommelier and a professional cook - first on military ships and then on cruise ships - he has travelled the world far and wide. Friar Bernard is now the cook of the Poor Friars wherever he goes! Now, he also travels the world hitchhiking, 'taking nothing for the journey' (cf. Luke 10:14), together with the other members of the community, in order to serve another kind of food: the spiritual food!
FRIAR PASCUAL
Born in Lima, Peru, he received a Catholic education as a child but when he was 16 he started to drift away from the Church and get lost in the world. He worked and studied; only when he was 30 did he begin to come closer to the Church and the Sacraments again. After seeing the movie "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" and reading the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus invites His disciples to abandon themselves to divine providence (cf. Matt 6:25ff), he started to feel a deep desire and calling to live in the same way. After having a vocational experience with a community of friars, he met the Little Friars and Little Nuns of Jesus and Mary when he was 35 years old.
FRIAR GABRIEL
Friar Gabriel grew up in a Catholic family in one of the most Catholic areas of Louisiana. When he was 14 years old, he met the youth minister at his parish and from then on felt the desire in his heart to give his whole life to the Lord. About a year later, he felt that the Lord might be calling him to become a diocesan priest, but he still had to finish his studies. When he graduated from high school, the Lord helped him understand that it was not the right time to enter the seminary, and he decided to work for a year or two. During that period, he had closer contact with the community of the Little Friars of Jesus and Mary, where he had a brief experience, and he understood that the Lord had not permitted him to enter seminary precisely because He had other plans for his life.
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FRIAR JOHN PAUL
Witness not available.
WITNESSES: NUNS
SR. VERONICA
Co-Foundress and Servant General psgm
Although she was a brilliant student and a promising ballerina of classical and modern dance, she did not have peace in her heart. She thought that no matter what she did, however beautiful and noble it might be, she would always be unhappy if it was not what the Lord had chosen for her. Then she encountered the community and her life changed.
SR. STELLA
Vice Servant General psgm
Before meeting the Lord, she had a good job, many friends, and a boyfriend with plans of marriage; nevertheless, she always had a strange sensation of always being halfway - of not being totally satisfied, of never doing enough. Then, one day, she gave a car-ride to some Little Friars while they were hitchhiking, and her life radically changed.
SR. EFFATA
Formerly a Protestant Lutheran, she spent her youth looking for peace in misguided friendships. She encountered the Poor Friars on the Camino di Santiago in Spain, and despite having a prosthetic leg...she arrived by bicycle...in Sicily! She resolved her problems with Catholicism, and in a short time from a Protestant Evangelical Christian she became a Catholic and then a Little Nun.
SR. SARA
Having left all the attractions of the world at a single stroke, she, too, was assumed full-time into the "Workshop of Love:" that is, into the plan which the Lord had always had for her (cf. Jer. 29:11). Now she tries increasingly to do her best to bring as many souls as possible to God and to his Church.
SR. TERESA
Coming from a Muslim family, she received baptism as an adult, at the risk of her own life. After this, she continued her journey; for some years, she searched for her path, until someone was attentive to her Divine Calling and helped her realize her "dream": to be able to live the entirety of the Gospel in deed and in truth (cf. 1 Jn. 3:18).
SR. SUSANNA
She could not understand the meaning of her existence, or why all the pleasures of this world ended so quickly. She did not find answers to her questions (not even through her philosophical studies) until someone demonstrated to her the True Wisdom which comes from the practice - in the Church - of the Word of God (cf. Ps. 119:100). Thus, she left everything and everyone to follow the plan of the Lord with the Little Ones of Jesus and Mary.
SR. BELA
She was teaching Religion and Morality in school, but did not feel completely fulfilled. After going to the Sanctuary of Fatima, she made a powerful prayer to understand what path she should follow, and shortly thereafter she had her first contact with the community - where, thanks also to the help of her spiritual guide, she understood that the Lord was calling her there to complete her mission.
SR. SPERANZA
She was raised from childhood in the Catholic Faith, in a climate of strong persecutions. Even in the midst of so many difficulties, she managed to cultivate her love for Jesus, to the point of conceiving the idea very early on of giving herself totally to Him. An expert in Chinese medicine, after some vocational experiences she came to know the community of the Little Friars and Little Nuns of Jesus and Mary, and decided to undertake the long journey to Italy solely to understand the will of God for her. From then on, she has not turned back.
SR. CATERINA
Already at the age of 6 she told her mother that she had a great love for the life of a nun, and by the age of 12 she wanted to become one. This love grew the whole time she was going to Catholic schools. Then, one day, she encountered the community of the Little Friars and Little Nuns of Jesus and Mary in her hometown of Houma (LA) - in whose evangelical style of life she finally found her Great Love.
SR. BENEDETTA
After a past of being the "rebellious daughter," she fell in love with the Lord through the humble and simple example of the Poverello of Assisi. Thus, she began her vocational search, which led her to discover the Little Friars and Little Nuns of Jesus and Mary through facebook in the summer of 2014.
SR. DILETTA
After a somewhat rebellious past, far from the Lord (due to some sufferings and injustices that she went through when she was very young), she discovered the mercy of God and began a journey of profound conversion which also led her to mature in her religious vocation. She encountered the community of the Little Friars and Little Nuns of Jesus and Mary through facebook and began a gradual course of discernment with Sr. Clara (which lasted for about a year). Feeling called to experience the lifestyle of the pfsgm, she left Brazil in August of 2017 to come to Italy, advancing with joy and enthusiasm on her journey towards total consecration to the Lord. In addition to Portuguese, she speaks and writes in Italian.
SR. ELIORA
Born and raised Protestant, she gradually realized that only the Catholic Sacraments could fully answer her longing to find God working through matter in a concrete way. Three months after being confirmed, she began to discern a religious vocation. Eventually, her deep desire for radicality was met by the charism of the Little Friars and Little Nuns, whose Gospel lifestyle of poverty, prayer, and evangelization immediately attracted her.
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SR. JACINTA
Struggling with complications after birth (as a result of a negative reaction to vaccines that caused a speech impediment & other difficulties), Sr. Jacinta held on to her one stability - her faith in Jesus Christ. Shortly after her conversion to the Catholic Church on Easter Vigil 2006 (at the age of 13) she quickly understood that Jesus was calling her to be His bride as a religious. After she spent 9 years in discernment of the religious life - seeking to find the community that the Lord was calling her to - He led her to find the community of the Little Friars and Little Nuns of Jesus and Mary on facebook, where she learned that she could, in a way, relate to Moses - that Jesus was asking her to take the step forward to enter into the high lifestyle and charism of the community; changing her shame of having disabilities to using them "for the greater glory of God and for the salvation of the most souls possible."
