106-year-old nun continues serving in the cloister and sharing the Gospel on YouTube

 By Diego López Marina for EWTN News

March 21, 2026 Diego López Marina News Briefs 1Print

Sister Anna Maria shares about her late-in-life vocation, some wisdom on living a long life, and how her advanced age has not stopped the elderly nun from keeping active.

Sister Anna Maria of the Sacred Heart. | Credit: Adoratrici Perpetue Seregno

Sister Anna Maria of the Sacred Heart, an Italian nun, turned 106 on March 14 at her monastery near Milan, where she continues to serve her sick sisters and share reflections on the Gospel on YouTube.

Still lucid “in thought and word,” and with 36 years of life in cloister, the nun belongs to the Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament, the Italian newspaper Il Giorno reported. Despite her advanced age, she continues to participate daily in Eucharistic adoration even during the night and assists in the monastery’s infirmary, caring for elderly or ailing nuns.

Her birthday celebration took place with a Mass of Thanksgiving and a gathering with family members, experienced through the grilles of the cloister where Sister Anna Maria remains dedicated to prayer.

“I do this like so many other things, out of love for Jesus who continually asks me to love my neighbor,” the religious, whose name before entering the convent was Anna Perfumo, said in a video shared by her community.

“The years are many, but … with patience, God’s will shall be fulfilled. Pray for me, and I will always remember you on earth and in heaven,” she added.

According to Il Giorno, the nun’s life was marked by hardships from the very beginning. At 4 months old, she contracted bronchopneumonia — a condition that was practically fatal in 1920 — and at age 4 she came down with scurvy, a disease that was incurable at that time. “The doctor told my mother: ‘I won’t be coming back tomorrow, because the child will be dead.’ Yet I was miraculously healed,” she said.

Before entering the monastery, she worked for years as a governess and schoolteacher in addition to caring for elderly and infirm priests. Nevertheless, she always harbored in her heart the desire to consecrate herself to God in the contemplative life.

That longing was finally realized at the age of 70, following the death of her mother. After several attempts, she was admitted to the Adorers’ monastery in Genoa, from where she would be transferred years later to Seregno, where she currently lives.

In a video, Sister Anna Maria expressed her gratitude for the expressions of affection she had received and spoke about her late vocation: “It’s true; I had to wait quite a long time before fulfilling God’s will. But when it is God who desires something, it will always come to pass. That’s why one must have great confidence, great faith, great hope, and great patience.”

In her message, she also shared a reflection on the passage of time and on faithfulness: “My grandfather used to tell us that it’s faithfulness that keeps us young and that it’s necessary to keep our eyes and souls open to what is beautiful, good, and true; in this way, one will experience a serene old age. Love keeps the heart young.”

Finally, she extended a greeting for the Easter season: “Life is Christ — the Way, the Truth, and the Life. May the Lord grant you peace and joy… and also peace among peoples, for the sake of fraternity among nations.”

The Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament are a contemplative, cloistered order of women whose life is centered on the continuous adoration of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Their mission is to intercede for the Church and the world from the silence of the monastery, offering their lives as a constant prayer.

The congregation was founded in 1807 in Rome by Blessed Maria Magdalena of the Incarnation (Caterina Sordini) with the charism of Eucharistic adoration.

 

Guardian Angels: Not Just Kid-Stuff

Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap. on Saturday, March 14, 2026

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Like many people years ago, as a child, my brother and I, together with our dad, always prayed in our “night prayers” the traditional prayer to our guardian angels: “Angel of God, my guardian dear to whom God’s love entrusts me here, ever this day (or night) be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide.  Amen.”

I still ask my guardian angel at night when I go to bed and, in the morning, when I get up, to watch over and protect me.  Moreover, before writing, I always ask my guardian angel to give me clarity of thought and expression and to whisper the right words into my ears.  Sometimes when I am struggling to find the right word, he places exactly the right word in my mind.

Prayers to one’s guardian angel are Biblically based:

• God instructs Moses, as the Israelites set off for the Promised Land: “Behold I send you an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place which I have prepared. Give heed to him and hearken to his voice.” (Exodus 23:20-21).

• Psalm 91:11 affirms that one need not fear, “for he (God) will give his angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways.”

• Jesus himself states that we should not despise the little ones, “for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10)

• In the Acts of the Apostles, when Peter escapes from prison and knocks on the door where the faithful were gathered, his brethren wrongly think: “It is his angel!” (Acts 12:13-15)

Although most of us will never see our guardian angels, many saints have.  Padre Pio frequently conversed with his guardian angel, who would defend him against demonic attacks.  Gemma Galgani was in daily contact with her guardian angel, who taught, protected, and corrected her.  Sr. Faustina Kowalska spoke of her guardian angel accompanying her on her journeys.  She also saw him when she was immersed in prayer, often asking her to pray for the dying.

The Guardian Angel, Saint Ursula and Saint Thomas by Francesco Buoneri, c. 1615 [The Parado, Madrid]

The point of the above examples is not to say that one has to be a “saint” to speak with or behold one’s guardian angel.  Rather, it is to illustrate that we, too, can converse with and be assured of our guardian angel’s protecting and guiding presence.

Moreover, we should dispel the romantic and “cute” notion that guardian angels are only relevant for vulnerable children.  Adults are in as much need of their guardian angels – maybe even more so, for their temptations and affairs are often of a more serious nature.

Our guardian angels are therefore present to strengthen, to encourage, and to guide us in living out our respective vocations, whether single, married, religious, or priestly.  To dismiss them as only suited for what is childish is to place ourselves in harm’s way.

The question has been asked: After death, do our guardian angels cease to be with us once we enter into Heaven?  Obviously, we no longer need to be guarded.  Do they, then, get recycled to someone newly conceived?

According to Catholic tradition, our guardian angels even remain with us in Heaven and together we give praise and glory to the most holy Trinity – to our heavenly Father who is the ultimate source of life, to the risen Jesus, the Father’s incarnate Son, who is our loving Savior and Lord, and to the Holy Spirit who cleanses us of sin and makes us holy.

With all of our brothers and sisters in Christ, along with our respective guardian angels, we will sing forever a glorious hymn of praise and thanksgiving.

Here, we perceive the confluence of the earthly and the heavenly liturgy.  At the conclusion of the Preface at Mass the following, or something similar, is said: “And so, with the Angels and all of the Saints we declare your (the Father’s) glory, as with one voice we acclaim: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts.  Heaven and earth are full of your glory.”

With one voice, our earthly human voices, the heavenly voices of the saints, and the host of angelic voices, we all together declare that both Heaven and earth are filled with God’s threefold holiness.

Thus, to participate at Mass, whether in a lowly chapel or in the grandeur of a basilica or a cathedral, earth is conjoined with the heavenly angelic liturgy, and the heavenly angelic liturgy is conjoined with earth.

The Mass, then, fulfills Isaiah’s heavenly vision:  “I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.  Above him stood the seraphim. . .and one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.’” (Isaiah 6:1-3)

At Mass, the earth is filled with the glory of God.  Our churches are “jam-packed” with angels, and so, in unison with our guardian angels, we join the seraphim in singing this thrice-holy proclamation of the Trinity’s holiness.

At the end of funeral Masses, just prior to going to the cemetery, the priest prays: “To you, O Lord, we commend the soul [name], your servant, in the sight of your saints and in the presence of your angels.  May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs come to welcome you and take you to the holy city, the new and eternal Jerusalem.”

Our guardian angel will be among the saints and angels who will lead us (we hope) into the new and everlasting heavenly Jerusalem – rejoicing, knowing that he has accomplished the task God had given him to do – to guard and guide us into paradise.