In the village of Junín de los Andes in Argentina, Blessed Laura Vicuña, virgin, who, born in the city of Santiago in Chile and a pupil at the Institute of Mary Help of Christians, in the thirteenth year of her age offered her life to God for the conversion of her mother.
Lifespan: 1891–1904
Beatified: 3 September 1988 by Pope John Paul II
Memoria liturgica: 22 January
“O my God, I wish to love and serve you all my life; and so I give you my soul, my heart, my whole being. I would rather die than offend you by sin.”
Laura del Carmen Vicuña Pino was born in Santiago, Chile, on 5 April 1891. Orphaned of her father at the age of two, she moved with her mother to Argentina, where she attended the school of the Salesian Sisters.
In 1902 Laura took private vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Cheerful and engaging by nature, she was also resolute enough to face with courage the violent designs of an obsessive man. Her story impresses by the extraordinary determination this young girl knew how to show, as she firmly declared her resolve: “death, but not sin.”
She died very young on 22 January 1904, having become the most generous and beloved girl in the whole school.
Laura was beatified by John Paul II on 3 September 1988. Her remains are venerated in the chapel of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Bahía Blanca, Argentina.