Antonia Luzmila Rivas López

The religious life of Sister María Agustina is deeply rooted within the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd. For more than forty years in Lima, she dedicated herself to diverse and often humble tasks: she worked as a cook, laundress, nurse, and educator. She took particular care of minors in situations of abandonment, poverty, or social exclusion, and also collaborated in the formation of novices. Between 1970 and 1975, she was sent to Spain, to Salamanca, to serve as a nurse for the community of contemplative sisters of her order. In 1988, at the age of 68, she fulfilled her childhood dream by being sent on a mission to the Amazon rainforest, in La Florida (Perené district, Chanchamayo province). In this region marked by great poverty and growing insecurity due to terrorist activities, the congregation managed a mission to assist local populations. Sister María Agustina fully committed herself to the peasant women and the indigenous Asháninka communities. She organized literacy, nutrition, health, craft, and family catechesis programs, striving to promote the dignity of women and young people.

At the end of the 1980s, the La Florida region suffered under the terror imposed by the Maoist-inspired revolutionary movement, the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso). Despite the threats and the omnipresent danger of death, Sister María Agustina and her sisters decided to remain with the population to continue their work of peace and support. On September 27, 1990, an armed group of the Shining Path burst into La Florida. The terrorists set fire to the local coffee cooperative facilities and dynamited the medical post. They forcibly gathered the inhabitants in the main square. Not finding the superior of the religious community they were looking for, they seized Sister María Agustina. Accused by the guerrillas of being a "peacemaker" and of diverting young people from the armed struggle through her educational and charitable activities, she was sentenced to death. Sister María Agustina tried to intercede for the villagers and died praying for her executioners. She was shot five times by a 17-year-old female militant. Six other people from the village were executed alongside her that day. For fear of reprisals, the bodies remained in the square all night before being buried the next day. The cause for the beatification of Sister María Agustina was officially opened on October 4, 2017, in the Apostolic Vicariate of San Ramón. On May 22, 2021, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing her martyrdom in odium fidei (in hatred of the faith).

The solemn celebration of the beatification of Sister María Agustina Rivas López took place on May 7, 2022, in La Florida, at the very place where she was murdered. The Mass was presided over by Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo, Archbishop of Mérida and Apostolic Administrator of Caracas, acting as the official representative of Pope Francis. The ceremony brought together thousands of the faithful, numerous Peruvian bishops, and delegations from the indigenous communities of the central jungle. Her relics were placed in a reliquary adorned with silver leaves and local motifs. Her mortal remains are now venerated in the Santa Rosa de Lima church in La Florida. Her liturgical feast is set for September 26.

Sister María Agustina, nicknamed the "Martyr of Mercy," leaves behind a spiritual legacy deeply marked by gentleness, humility, and self-giving. Her spirituality was inspired by the spiritual childhood of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, characterized by absolute trust and total abandonment into the hands of God. She loved to repeat that she was only "clay in His hands." Her love for creation and her respect for nature translated into a concrete commitment to the preservation of the Amazon and the defense of the rights of indigenous populations. By opposing the violence of terrorist ideology through education, charity, and prayer, she embodied the figure of the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. Her example continues to inspire social development projects, women's education, and youth ministry throughout the Amazonian region of Peru.