Sr. Maria Antonia - Under Angel Wings [Illustrated]

Sister Maria Antonia (Cecy Cony) 19001939

For the English edition:

Imprimi Potest: Celsus Wheeler, O.F.M.
Minister Provincial

Nihil Obstat: Bede Babo, O.S.B.
Censor

Imprimatur: John J. Dauenhauer
Administrator of the Diocese of
Paterson, New Jersey
April 21, 1953

Copyright 1953 by St. Anthonys Guild, Paterson, New Jersey, and published in 1953 as Under Angel Wings: The Autobiography of Sister Maria Antonia .

Retypeset and republished in 2000 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc. Footnotes are from the original 1953 edition unless marked thus: Publisher , 2000.

Library of Congress Control No.: 99-70761

ISBN: 978-0-89555-647-9

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

TAN books
Charlotte, North Carolina
2000

T HIS is the story of a privileged Brazilian girl, born in 1900, who was led to high sanctity under the continual guidance, protection and inspiration of her Guardian Angel, whom she called her New Friend. However, in accordance with the decrees of Urban VIII, the account of the supernatural gifts and revelations of Sister Maria Antonia (Cecy Cony) is to be accepted only on human faith, and everything in this book is submitted to the infallible judgment of the holy Catholic Church.

PUBLISHERS POSTSCRIPT, 2000

In October of 1999, in response to our inquiry regarding a possible decision by the Church regarding the life and experiences of Sister Maria Antonia, we received a communication from the Provincial Minister of the Franciscan Sisters of Penance and Christian Charity in Porto Allegre/RS, Brazil. The Sister wrote:

First of all we want to say that it came as a surprise, and a great joy too, to know about your interest in regard to our Sister Antonia Cony, about the research already made of her life and the precise datas gathered.

As for your question concerning a possible decision made by the Church about the matters in question, nothing has happened up to now. At the moment it is at a standstill. Nevertheless there are some occasional petitions made by the people asking for more publication and more disclosure of datas of Sister Maria Antonias life.

We are keeping the number of your fax and, if anything comes up, we will be happy to inform you

Contents

Translators Preface

One day in Rio de Janeiro when I was looking through the books in the shop conducted by Vozes, the Franciscan publishing house, I came upon a book entitled Devo Narrar Minha Vida, with the picture of a young Sister on the cover. I included it among the books I was buying, because biographies and autobiographies have always had a special appeal for me. Not long afterward a letter reached me from Mother

M. Clarissa, Assistant General of the Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity. Mother Clarissa was seeking an English translator for this autobiography. Mother mentioned in her letter that translations were being prepared in Dutch and German, and that a Dutch Franciscan had been instrumental in introducing Sister Maria Antonias cause in Rome. After examining the book I was glad to accept the task of translating it into English. Now that this work is finished, I consider it a great privilege to bring to English readers knowledge of this favored soul, so innocent, so childlike, so marvelously protected by her Guardian Angel, whom she calls her New Friend.

Sister Maria Antonia was the daughter of Joo Ludgero de Aguiar Cony, a captain in the Brazilian army, and his wife, Antonia Soares Cony. In the intimate circle of her family and friends, she was known by the nickname Dd.

The autobiography of Sister Maria Antonia was first published in 1949 by the Franciscan Press of Petropolis, Brazil. This book became so popular that the first edition was soon exhausted, and a second edition was issued in 1950. The editor of the autobiography was Father John Baptist Reus, S.J., who had been Sister Maria Antonias spiritual director during the closing years of her life. In his introduction Father Reus tells us how the autobiography came to be written:

Obliged by obedience, Sister Maria Antonia wrote the recollections of her life, with a certain repugnance and after asking the special help of Our Lord. According as she finished each of the six notebooks of which the autobiography consists, she handed them in to her superiors, and did not ask anything further about them. She died before she could finish her autobiography, which describes her life only up to her twenty-first year. Sister Maria Antonia was able to appear before Our Lord in all the radiant beauty of her baptismal innocence.

The manuscript was read by several persons, who found it so appealing that they asked to have it published so that others might draw inspiration from it. The facts narrated in this autobiography deserve the belief of any prudent person who is versed in these matters. Sister Maria Antonia was intelligent and well educated. In her classes, she was usually in first or second place. In the exercise of her profession her superiors testify that she was an excellent teacher.

Humble, singularly sincere and innocent, she never lied in her life. She never offended her Divine Master deliberately [ por querer ]. This phrase gives us the key by which we can judge correctly certain external faults noted in her by certain persons. She was incapable of inventing mystical occurrences. Neither from books nor in any other ordinary way could she have become acquainted with the supernatural phenomena that she describes so clearly. When she learned toward the end of her life that there were souls who never experienced the sensible presence of Our Lord at Holy Communion, she asked with surprise: Not even on the day of their First Holy Communion? When she received an answer in the negative, she wept bitterly, exclaiming: Those souls never came to know Our Lord in this life.

The late Father Francis X. Zartmann, S.J., had a deep admiration for the life of Sister Maria Antonia. His opinion is of great value to us, because for many years he was Provincial of the Southern Brazilian Province of the Society of Jesus. He had been director of Jesuit priests during their year of tertianship. He was an experienced spiritual director and retreat master for priests and religious, a man of calm and sound judgment, a deep student of mystical phenomena.

It was necessary to omit certain passages from the manuscript which referred to the interior life or to persons who could be identified. Knowledge of her life in the convent was drawn from Sisters who enjoyed the friendship and confidence of Sister Maria Antonia.

Father Reuss introduction is written in the careful, restrained language of the professor of theology. Along more lyrical lines, another tribute to Sister Maria Antonia comes from the eloquent pen of His Excellency Dom Frei Henrique Golland Trindade, O.F.M., who wrote the Preface to the Portuguese work. Dom Henrique says:

Along with the familiarity which this holy Franciscan Sister enjoyed with her Guardian Angel, the most profound impression that we received from reading this autobiography was the simplicity, the ingenuousness, of the whole narration. For us this is one of the proofs of its truthfulness. One cannot imitate such a style. It is written in the language of the Fioretti of St. Francis. It is like a humble and unpretentious stream flowing through the fields and the woods, murmuring: