Lady Abbess Mother Marianna Pinto, OSB

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Lady Abbess Mother Marianna Pinto, OSB, first Abbess of Our Lady of the Assumption Abbey, Mount of Prayer, Coubaril, Saint Lucia, was born in the small town of Noci, near Bari in the south of Italy on July 24, 1933, from a family of 10. At age 15, she entered the Monastery of San Giovanni Battista at Monte Mario in Rome, studied for a degree in education, became a school teacher and the contact person between the cloistered monastery and the outside world. She made her solemn profession in 1961.

Dom Patrick Webster, OSB, a Saint Lucian by birth, appointed Bishop of St. George’s, Grenada in 1970, sought and received the approval of the Congregation for the Promotion of Faith (Propaganda Fide) in the Vatican to establish a monastic tradition of women in the English-speaking Caribbean. He subsequently instituted the Monastery of Our Lady of the Assumption in the Ecclesiastical Parish of Our Lady of Fatima in Roxborough, Grenada in 1973, but thereafter relocated them to Saint Lucia where he was appointed Archbishop of Castries in 1974. Through him, the first Benedictine Community was established in Castries; Mother Pinto arrived in Saint Lucia on 2nd December 1975.

From humble beginnings in a small house at La Clery to Mayfield and then to Bishop’s House in Marchand, Mother Marianna with unwavering commitment, nurtured the small Benedictine Community which initially comprised 6 nuns and the community eventually moved to The Mount of Prayer at Coubaril in 1983. With strong faith and unrelenting tenacity, Mother Marianna was able to rally benefactors, both local and international, and the Monastery and church were built by 1987.

By 2007, the Monastery was elevated to the status of an Abbey and on 21st November 2007, Mother Marianna received her Solemn Abbatial Blessing and was installed as its first Abbess. By that time the Community had grown to 16 nuns from Trinidad, Martinique, Zambia and Saint Lucia.

“I am nothing” and “I am just a servant” was how Mother Marianna described herself, a reflection of the humility and simplicity she exuded. The Papal Nuncio of Peru noted with “her generous heart and her holistic approach to the pastoral and social ministry of the Church in the Antilles (she) is an ICON, an endless source of inspiration to motivate Bishops, clergy and laity to live Christian life with enthusiasm and apostolic zeal and never to surrender before the challenges and difficulties of life.”

With her “pioneering spirit” and determination to promote monastic life and vocations according to the Rule of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica, Mother Pinto, as she had done in Saint Lucia, sought support from clergy, religious and laity across countries to build the Monastery of Our Lady Queen and Gate of Heaven in Msupadzi, Chipata, Zambia in 2014. There in the remote cluster of villages of Msupadzi, she built not only a church and monastery but also a police station, a school for 400 children and living quarters for the teachers. Responding further to the cry of the poor, she built a medical clinic and a warehouse for storage of agricultural products by the community. She also raised sufficient funds to erect 12 artesian wells which now provide portable water for several of the villages.