Francesco and Sister
Francesca: A meeting beyond all hopes
Traveling from Naples to Rome for the Jubilee of the Sick
and Healthcare Workers, Sister Francesca had one hope: to pass through the Holy
Door of St. Peter’s Basilica
© Antoine Mekary | ALETEIA
At 94 years old — 75 of them spent in cloistered life
— Sister Francesca Battiloro received what she calls the
greatest surprise of her life: an encounter with Pope Francis. “I
had asked God, just Him, to meet the Pope,” she said. “I thought it was
impossible. But instead, He sent him right to me.”
Traveling from Naples to Rome for Sunday's Jubilee of the Sick and Healthcare Workers, Sister
Francesca had one hope: to pass through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Frail, nearly blind, and in a wheelchair, she was granted a private moment for
this pilgrimage while a Mass for 20,000 faithful took place outside in the
Square.
As she prayed silently near the tomb of St. Peter, she
noticed a small group of men in suits approaching. In the middle,
another wheelchair. It was the Pope himself, making his first public appearance
after being hospitalized with pneumonia. He, too, had the goal of Sr.
Francesca: He had gone to pray, confess, and pass through the Holy Door before
surprising the crowd outside.
Neither expected the encounter. But there they were, two
wheelchairs meeting in the central nave. “How beautiful, how
beautiful,” Sister Francesca kept repeating, overwhelmed. She reached out for
the Pope’s hand and, by her own account, couldn’t let go.
With a recovering voice and his trademark sense of humor,
Pope Francis smiled and asked, “Are you one of the nuns from Naples?” — a nod
to a moment 10 years earlier when a group of Neapolitan cloistered sisters
swarmed him during a visit to their cathedral.
Sister Francesca had been there too but never managed to get
close. This time was different. She and the Pope shared nearly 10
minutes together.
“I kissed his hand, and he looked happy… Truly, God has been
answering my prayers lately, even the small ones,” she said.
She didn’t come asking for anything for herself. Instead,
she offered her life for the Pope’s recovery. “I told him, ‘Holiness, I’m
praying so much, I’ve given my life to Jesus so that you may be healed, and
I’ll go instead …’ He smiled.”
Then she added quietly, “Now I just desire to die in an act
of pure love. That’s what I want — my final encounter with Him. I’ve lived my
life.”
Later, addressing the faithful in St. Peter’s Square, Pope
Francis called illness “a school of love” and reminded all that “God
never abandons us.”
This unplanned meeting in a sacred place, between two
servants of God — both in wheelchairs — revealed something profound. Not a
coincidence, but a grace. A glimpse into how prayer, when entrusted fully to
God, can unfold into something beyond imagination.
In a Basilica rich with centuries of faith, a new
page was gently written: small, quiet, but radiant with hope.
https://aleteia.org/2025/04/07/francesco-and-sister-francesca-a-meeting-beyond-all-hopes
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