Mother Teresa Maria and Maria Valtorta

P. Corrado Berti, Marta Diciotti, Mother Teresa Maria, documentary fund of the Maria Valtorta Heritage Foundation

The editor presents her as follows:

"Mother Teresa Maria of Saint Joseph, born Lydia Korompay in the world, was born in Venice on February 18, 1900. She was the second of seven children (five girls and two boys) of Umberto Korompay and Maria Fazzini. This family was well-off. They cultivated a love of art in all its expressions, particularly music.

Intelligent and versatile in spirit, Lydia nurtured a deep Christian piety that led her to dedicate herself to God by the vow of chastity at only 15 years old and to offer herself for the sanctification of priests. As she did not obtain her parents' approval to become a Carmelite, she fled from home as soon as she was of age and was received in Rome at the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites of Santo Stefano Rotondo, where she took her vows. Appreciated for her gifts, she quickly became mistress of novices and then, in 1938, she was assigned to the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites in Camaiore (province of Lucca), where she was elected prioress for the first time in 1941.

During the Second World War, the monastery was severely damaged by bombings, so the nuns, excused from strict enclosure, had to adapt to temporary accommodations. It was only in 1955 that the community could be transferred from Camaiore to San Colombano, near Lucca, in a villa ceded by Count Trombi and restructured for monastic use.

Re-elected several times prioress in the same community, Mother Teresa Maria always fulfilled her role with enlightened wisdom, which she reflected in intense correspondence, not only with Maria Valtorta but also with relatives, ordinary people and some personalities.

After two years of infirmity, she passed away in San Colombano on December 7, 1985, the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the anniversary of the day when, as a teenager, she had begun her path of total self-donation to God."

The circumstances of her "meeting" with Maria Valtorta

Mother Teresa Maria and Maria Valtorta, each living only a few kilometers apart, never met: "Mother Teresa had been the great confidant of Maria Valtorta. The cloistered by vocation and the cloistered by infirmity had never met, but they had entrusted their concerns about the affairs of the Work and the confidential transports of their sister Souls to a dense exchange of letters, for about a dozen years."

It was the randomness of the War that allowed the two "cloistered" to correspond. As the editor tells, Maria Valtorta was looking for a reliquary for an unborn baby when two Carmelites passed by her window, a surprising event since these nuns do not usually leave their monastery:

"The Italian word breve designates a small fabric 'reliquary,' usually made by nuns. Out of devotion, it was worn around the neck or sewn onto a baby's clothing. Maria Valtorta wanted one for the unborn child of Paola Belfanti (née Cavagnera), a relative very dear to her, daughter of Giuseppe Belfanti, her mother's cousin. The request for this reliquary was the reason for the first contact of Maria Valtorta with Mother Teresa Maria of Saint Joseph, Prioress of the Discalced Carmelites. They had seen their monastery in Camaiore damaged by bombings and had to settle in a villa in the countryside of San Colombano, a location not far from Lucca. For this reason, the nuns had been temporarily dispensed from strict enclosure. On the morning of December 5, 1945, Maria Valtorta saw two nuns pass in front of the French window of her infirm room, on the ground floor of the Viareggio house. Wanting to take advantage of this meeting to order the desired object, she asked Marta Diciotti to catch up with them. Stopped in the street, the two nuns were reluctant at the idea of entering strangers' homes. But faced with Marta's insistence, they promised to return later because they were expected at the homes of friends. In the early afternoon, when they were in Maria Valtorta's room, they had a clear intuition of being in the Presence of the 'spokesperson.' They knew her 'dictations,' which Father Migliorini distributed as typed copies, without and against Maria Valtorta’s wishes. Returning to the monastery, they related the episode to the Mother Prioress, who had received from Father Migliorini the anonymous note whose photo we reproduced above. The making of this 'reliquary' was the origin of the great spiritual friendship between Maria Valtorta and Mother Teresa Maria of Saint Joseph.

These two Carmelites, Sister Luigia Giacinta and Sister Teresa Cherubina, are sometimes mentioned in the correspondence Maria Valtorta maintained with Mother Teresa Maria, who called them "the little sisters," "the girls," "the little ones," etc.

Relationships of Mother Teresa Maria with Maria Valtorta and her work

Quickly, Maria Valtorta found in Mother Teresa Maria the spiritual mother she was seeking and did not hide from her her personal thoughts, the views she held about people around her and the vicissitudes of the work. In this sense, their correspondence constitutes a testimony as vital as that of Marta Diciotti, who was her daily confidante.

The Pisani spouses met Mother Teresa Maria after Maria Valtorta’s death: "Whenever Claudia and I went to Viareggio to spend a few days with Marta in the Valtorta house, it was essential for the three of us to go, one afternoon, to visit Mother Teresa, prioress of the Discalced Carmelites cloistered monastery of San Colombano, near Lucca. After a short wait in the lounge, in front of the double gate behind which only a black curtain was seen, we heard dragging footsteps and a clear voice greeting: 'Praised be Jesus Christ.' The curtain was drawn and the nun's face appeared behind the bars, smiling, radiant in her expressive blue eyes. It was a meeting that always repeated itself with deep joy."

She remained discreet about Maria Valtorta, but "she rather spoke of the happy or sad news concerning the Work and the remarkable figures who had marked its history."

In his final testimony, written in 1980, Father Corrado Berti writes that he entrusted to Mother Teresa Maria one of the three copies of his Valtortian memoirs: "another copy was sent to M.T.M., a mysterious person who prefers to remain in the shadows and must be left in the shadows; she is a cloistered nun, a close friend of Maria Valtorta.

I do not know if this M.T.M. will read them, because she is elderly, because she is ill; therefore, I do not know if she will read my memoirs and correct them; however, out of respect and considering her value, I sent them to her so that, if possible, my personal memories could be archived, completed and perfected."