Maria Tuci

On 10 August 1949, she was arrested by the sigurimi, an Albanian secret police force, and sent to a prison in Shkodër. She refused to comply with any of the demands and orders the officers had given to her and she was subjected to prolonged torture.

From all her brutal wounds and torture, she died on the 24th October 1950 at the age of 22 in the prison hospital she was placed in in Shkodra.^[1][3] She died with a rosary in her hand. Before she died, she said:

“I thank God because he gave me the strength to die free.”^[4]

On the 26th April 2016, Pope Francis had recognised her heroic act and awarded her with the Roman Catholic title venerable.^[1][2] On the 5th of November 2016, she was beatified by Pope Francis in a ceremony held at the Square of the Cathedral of Shën Shtjeftenit in Shkodër, Albania. The mass was conducted by Cardinal Angelo Amato.^[1] Her feast day is on the 24th of October,^[1][2][3][4] on the anniversary day of her death. She is nicknamed “the modern Saint Agnes”^[4]