“What was mine was also yours.” In this simple and direct phrase, Sister Giovanna Pirra encapsulates an entire philosophy of missionary life that has crossed cultures, religions and social barriers. Small in stature but great in heart, this Combonian sister has made universal welcome her style of evangelization, demonstrating that God’s love knows no borders.
The Instinct for Welcome
From childhood, Sister Giovanna had a natural talent for inclusion: “Since I was little, I immediately became attached to everything, I loved everyone, I invited everyone.”* With that spontaneity that characterizes true witnesses of the Gospel, she had the habit of saying about the most difficult people: *”These ones need prayer more than the others.”
This maternal instinct accompanied her even during her formation experience in Rome, where her generous nature emerged in every situation. “If there was someone who didn’t treat others well, I made myself heard, even though I was small, small, short, and very, very young.” Justice and kindness were inseparable for her.
A Family Without Religious Boundaries
Upon arriving in mission, Sister Giovanna put into practice what we would today call “theology of encounter.” Her visits to Muslim families were as natural as those to Christian families. “Then once I went to the Muslims and when they saw me they said, ‘Have you become Muslim?’ I said no, no, no, absolutely not.”
Her firm but respectful response testified to a faith secure in itself, unafraid of confrontation. The Christian presence was not a threat or aggressive proselytism, but simply active love that spoke for itself. As she herself recounts, “their problems became mine,” without distinctions of creed or belonging.
The Church Going Forth
Her apostolate was characterized by surprising evangelical freedom. She collaborated naturally with the local parish priest: “I knew the parish priest was also very, very good, very good, who ran everywhere, helped everyone, liked to cook.” Together they visited families, dividing the routes with Franciscan simplicity: “You go that way, I go this way, then we’ll visit her together.”
Their activities were guided by the spontaneity of the Spirit: “We did things as they came, spontaneous, from the heart.” A pastoral approach of closeness that anticipated Pope Francis’s insights about the Church going forth by decades.
Love That Makes No Distinctions
One of Sister Giovanna’s most touching memories concerns a non-Christian family with a sick child. “Then she sat there together, lit a fire, and I brought some clothes that I also had.” The simple gesture of sharing clothing reveals an incarnate theology: charity as universal language.
The most beautiful moment comes when, passing near that house, she hears the joyful cry of the child: “Mama, mama! The sister is here!” In those words is all the love that those who live mission as total gift of self can generate. “I said, really this sound of love, no?”
Welcoming the Discarded
Sister Giovanna’s sensitivity reached even the most marginalized people. She tells of women “who would have been those of bad life” who, knowing of her departure, called her: “Listen, you have to leave, but before leaving come to us, so that at least you take the last step, the last step is to me.”
The fact that even prostitutes sought her for the final farewell says everything about her ability to never judge, to welcome everyone as brothers and sisters. For her there were no categories of “more or less worthy” people: all were children of God in need of love.
The Superiority of Service
When it fell to her to be superior of the convent, at forty years old, Sister Giovanna exercised authority in her characteristic style: “I was the superior because the others were all younger than me, very good.” No triumphalism, but recognition of others’ qualities and humble service to the community.
Even in a position of responsibility, she maintained that style of proximity that had always characterized her: attentive to everyone’s needs, ready to share even rags for those who had nothing, always available for those who knocked at the door of her heart.
The Legacy of a Universal Heart
The testimony of Sister Giovanna Pirra reminds us that the most effective evangelization often happens without words, through concrete gestures of human solidarity. Just as Saint Daniel Comboni had intuited that Africa had to be saved “with Africa,” she understood that every culture has the right to be loved as it is.
Her mission was not conquest but encounter, not imposition but sharing. In a time when interreligious dialogue is often charged with tensions, her experience shows that it is possible to be firmly Christian and at the same time universal brothers and sisters.
“I am good,” she says of herself with disarming simplicity. But that “goodness” was a silent revolution that touched Muslim and Christian hearts, poor and rich, healthy and sick. Because when love is authentic, it needs no labels: it speaks the universal language of the heart that knows how to become neighbor.
Walking the Path of Encounter
Sister Giovanna’s approach to interfaith relations was marked by respect and genuine curiosity. She never sought to convert through argument or pressure, but through the eloquent testimony of a life lived in service. When Muslims questioned her about her faith, her response was clear but never defensive. She understood intuitively what theologians would later formalize: that authentic dialogue begins with listening and mutual respect.
Her method was profoundly incarnational. Rather than speaking about God, she became God’s hands and feet in the daily life of her neighbors. The sick child who cried with joy at her approach, the families who invited her to share their meals, the women who sought her blessing before she departed – all testified to a presence that transcended religious boundaries while remaining authentically Christian.
The Combonian Charism Lived
In Sister Giovanna’s simple narrative, we see the Combonian charism in its purest form. Saint Daniel Comboni’s vision of “saving Africa with Africa” finds expression in her instinctive respect for local cultures and her ability to become truly sister to all she encountered. She never imposed foreign ways but allowed the Gospel to take root naturally in the soil of human relationships.
Her legacy continues today in every Combonian sister who knows how to step out from their own securities to encounter the other, whatever their face, their story, their faith. Because in the logic of the Gospel, there are no strangers: there are only brothers and sisters waiting to be recognized and loved.
The universal heart that beat in Sister Giovanna’s small frame reminds us that mission is not about numbers or conversions, but about the patient work of building bridges between human hearts. In a world increasingly divided by religious and cultural differences, her witness points toward a different way – the way of love that recognizes the divine image in every person encountered along the journey.
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Source: Testimony of Sister Giovanna Pirra, collected by Antonella Cattaneo,smc
