Maria Francesca Pastore, also known as Sister Letizia, celebrated her 110th birthday in Bitonto, Apulia, on 16 October. Her birthday was first reported by Santeramo Genealogia in Colle.
Maria Francesca Pastore was born in Santeramo in Colle, Apulia, on 16 October 1915. She spent her childhood on the family farmhouse in Gioia del Colle. In her early years, she endured the hardships brought by the Spanish flu pandemic. In the 1930s, she suffered the loss of her mother, who died of breast cancer at the age of 42. At 25, in 1940, she entered religious life and became a nun. When choosing her religious name, she took the name Letizia in honor of her mother — a name that had also been borne by several women in her maternal lineage.
In 1966, her father passed away at the age of 88 from colorectal cancer. During this period, she moved to the Monastery of the Virgins in Bitonto, where she patiently and meticulously devoted herself to the art of bookbinding, restoring volumes damaged by the 1966 Florence flood, and to cultivating the art of miniature painting.
She is currently the second-oldest known living nun in Italy, following Velia Antonelli (Sister Gabriella).
LongeviQuest extends warm congratulations to Maria Francesca Pastore on her 111th birthday.
