Cause for sainthood opened

MADISON  Generosity almost seems genetic throughout the immediate family of Ivannia Vega-McTighe, coordinator of the diocesan Office of Catechesis here — from her great-grandparents, grandparents and parents and down to her two daughters. Per­haps that long legacy of love and kindness also runs from the branches of Vega-McTighe’s extended family over generations that includes a possible saint-in-the-making: María Isabel Acuña Arias (Niña Marisa), known for her short but charitable and prayerful life in their native Costa Rica.

Earlier this month, the Archdiocese of San José there began the process of the cause for sainthood by opening an apostolic inquiry for Arias, also affectionately known as “Niña Marisa,” or “Little Girl Marisa,” who is the younger cousin of Vega-McTighe’s maternal grandmother, Alba Iris Acuña. Eventually, this process, which would require Vatican involvement and approval by the Pope, could lead to her being named “venerable,” then “blessed” and finally a saint — someone her family could pray to, admire for her strong faith in the face of terminal illness and point to with pride. Niña Marisa never lost her generosity or unshakable faith in God, during her battle with a brain tumor that took her life at 13 on Aug. 15, 1954.

“Niña Marisa was known at a very young age for her love of the poor and her charitable works. She would split her clothing allowance so that she could buy clothes for other people. My mother, Maria, remembers that she was generous in sharing her toys, when they would play together, when they were little. When Marisa was sick, she offered up her suffering to the Lord and felt united to Christ though her illness. She also prayed for her father, Rafael Ángel, who left the Church but came back shortly before she died. “People were calling her a saint even before she died,” said Vega-McTighe, a parishioner of St. Mary’s in Pompton Lakes, who noted that over the years, people have claimed that Niña Marisa had answered prayers through her intercession. “My parents here in the U.S. and my family back in Costa Rica are excited. In the stories passed down in my family, Niña Marisa showed us how to share with the poor and that Jesus is waiting for us to love him,” she said.

Born on March 5, 1941 in San José and raised in Heredia, Niña Marisa attended school operated by the Salesian Sisters and Mary Help of Christians. When Ivannia and her family came to the U.S. from Costa Rica, when she was three-years-old, they also had a devotion to Mary Help of Christians and were pleasantly surprised to find that when they settled in Paterson, the Salesian Sisters were serving the Diocese, running Mary Help of Christians Academy, North Haledon.

At age 12, Niña Marisa experienced fainting and vomiting and was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, which medicine could not treat at that time, according to historical accounts.

“During the process of this terrible disease, she showed signs of deep faith and trust in God. She abstained from any complaint and always manifested peace, serenity and even joy with those who visit her,” wrote Father Alejandro Jimenez Ramirez, postulator, who oversees the apostolic inquiry into Niña Marisa’s cause in the archdiocese. Eventually, the illness took her sight. “The testimony of the people, who were close to her in this period of her life, is constant, insofar as she offered with love and faith to the Creator all her sufferings and for the conversion and return to the Catholic faith of her father,” he wrote.

In her last weeks in the hospital, Niña Marisa met Salesian Father Ángel Menéndez, who became her spiritual director. The priest wrote down testimony of her faith in his journal and it will be used along with accounts from her relatives, friends and acquaintances in the inquiry into her heroic virtues, which could make her eligible for the title “venerable.” Just before she died, she received an answer to her prayers when her father returned to the Church. They received Holy Communion together, Father Ramirez said.

Niña Marisa makes up but one branch of Vega-McTighe’s family tree, rooted in generosity over the generations. Her maternal great-grandfather, Manuel, owned a bakery near where the possible saint grew up and periodically invited the poor people from the town to receive free bread. Her paternal great grandmother, Abilia, used to hold dinners for the poor. She considers her grandmother; mother; father, Marcos; and mother-in-law, Janet McTighe, to be models of generosity with their family members and people in the community.

That spirit of generosity has been passed down to Vega-McTighe’s daughters, Hannah, 16, and Sarah, 13, who have been involved in charitable activities over the years, including raising money and organizing food drives for the poor. They find their inspiration in Vega-McTighe, also director of faith formation at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson, and her husband, John, a professor at Ramapo College, Mahwah, who has dedicated more than 20 years to serving the poor in Bronx, N.Y., Washington, D.C., and Paterson, she said.

“I grew up in a family with such faith-filled, generous people. Even if we didn’t have much, we gave to other people, knowing that God would multiply,” said Vega-McTighe, who has been in contact with relatives in Costa Rica, where she used to visit regularly as a child, including trips to Niña Marisa’s grave. She also posted the good news about Niña Marisa’s cause on Facebook.

In the Diocese, Niña Marisa is the latest in a long succession of saints or would-be saints, who have had connections to local clergy, religious, lay individuals or families, parishes, schools or other religious institutions. These notable Catholics include, among many others: St. Padre Pio, Blessed Capuchin Father Solanus Casey, Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and Dorothy Day.

In a statement on May 24, Archbishop José Rafael Quirós of San Jose marveled about how, at a young age, Niña Marisa “became a wonderful witness of the Christian virtues.”

“Being only a young girl, she was able to give God her life with love, being particularly an example of charity for the most dispossessed and in an extraordinary way offering her as an oblation to the Lord for conversion to faith,” the archbishop wrote. “The existence of this young woman's reputation for holiness has persisted over time and has become a model and example for countless Catholics over the years,” he wrote.