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Home / Awards / Servitor Pacis Award / 2000 THE SERVITOR PACIS AWARD RECIPIENTS 2000 - Mother Erminia Cazzaniga, FCC Mother Erminia Cazzaniga, FCC was born in a small town called Sirtori, Italy. She was the second of four children in the Cazzaniga family. Her desire to become a missionary from a very young age attracted her to the Canossian Daughters of Charity. She joined that Religious Institute on 14 September 1952, and started her novitiate in Vimercate. The young Erminia took her first religious vows on 19 September 1955. She was then sent to Portugal for a Diploma in teachers’ training. She returned to Vimercate for her final vows on 15 September 1960. It did not take long for Sister Emrinia to leave for the missions. In November that same year, she was already bound for Timor, then a Portuguese colony. Last year, in fact, the Canonssian Daughters of Charity celebrated 120 years of its presence in Timor. She started her apostolate first in Ossù, a tiny mountain-locked village. She was an active and zealous missionary there for ten years. She served her Congregation for the major part of her life as Superior of various Canossian communities in Timor. Through the help of many benefactors and well-wishers, she built several convents, schools and hostels for girls. In 1975 civil broke out with Indonesia’s annexation of East Timor. She was then in Baucau and had to leave, under obedience, for Australia, together with other Canossian sisters. But she returned to Bacau in 1977 to find a country half destroyed. Immediately she started an “apostolate of emergency”. Day in and day out, she nursed the sick and the wounded, who had no one to turn to. In September 1999, a terrible storm hit Timor, leaving the country completely in ruins. Mamatuto, where they were based, was also badly hit. Mother Erminia and her community were asked this time to return to Baucau for safety. Before leaving for Baucau, she informed her Mother General and her family of the situation in Timor. To her sister Maria who was inviting her to return to Italy, Mother Erminia replied: “Maria, you are married and have two children; if they were in danger and needed your help, would you have the courage to abandon them and go on your way? The Timorese are my family; I cannot leave them now”. And so, she decided to stay in Timor. It was a Saturday, the 25th of September 1999. As usual, Mother Erminia was going out, without realizing that it was going to be the last token of her heroic charity, to feed “her starving children”, the Timorese. During that journey she was mercilessly killed by unknown persons who are still at large. Mother Erminia, a faithful Disciple of Christ, stands out in the history of Canossian Daughters of Charity as a eloquent figure of evangelical service and Christian charity. She was bursting with zeal for souls, and filled with enthusiasm to accomplish all she could for Christ, in the tasks entrusted to her, applying the best of her talents and diligence. She truly enjoyed the school ministry and gave special attention to the formation of girls so that - she used to say - “they could one day become good mothers”. In the schools, she was known among her pupils as a strict teacher but, at the same time, compassionate and caring. In the parishes, she taught them the tenets of the Catholic faith, with motherly solicitude and love. In her program of work she once wrote: “I should die to myself to become really a travel companion of my Sisters and to understand them in their journey”. Yes, the Lord took her for her word when He called her to His Kingdom while she was on her way to help the poor and the needy whom she loved so much. Mother Erminia was indeed a dynamic woman of courage and dedication, of serene and generous heart, who lived her religious commitment daily and tirelessly, until the last breath of her life. She was an angel of peace, known for her missionary zeal, boundless generosity, and great spirit of sacrifice. For all of these qualities the Path to Peace Foundation is pleased to bestow, posthumously, upon Mother Erminia Cazzaniga the title “Servitor Pacis”--Servant of Peace.
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