Iowa school named for Bl. Maria Assunta

WATERLOO - Archbishop Jerome Hanus blessed the ground Saturday where a new Catholic middle school will be located and announced it will be named for a beatified Italian nun.

The school will be named for Maria Assunta Pallotta, the great aunt of Waterloo resident Mary Ellen Molinaro. Bob and Mary Ellen Molinaro are giving more than $1 million to the the Cedar Valley Catholic Schools capital campaign, which development director Mike Knipp said is the "biggest single gift" to date.

WCFCourier

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Interesting saint.  Beatified in 1954 by Pope Pius XII, Blessed Maria Assunta was a missionary to China where she died due to illness.  The whole monastery smelled of flowers for three days after her death.  Her body was found incorrupt.

Suddenly, those in the room began to notice a delightful fragrance which resembled a mixture of violets and incense. That night Sister Assunta's body remained in the infirmary. The following morning a crowd of Chinese Christians invaded the mission compound, asking to experience the miracle. News of the fragrant odor had spread. For three days the mysterious perfume remained in the house, then it ceased on the day of her burial, April 9, at the hour at which she had died two evenings before. The Chinese Christians began to ask Assunta for favors, and they becameconvinced that she had answered their requests. Eight years after Assunta's death, the Community was transferred from Tong Eul Koo to Tai Yuan Foo, and the bishop wished that the body of Sister Assunta also be transferred. Disinterment revealed that the body was incorrupt. It remained in the chapel of the cemetery for a month without being affected.