By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic

Photography: MARLENE QUARONI | FC

MIAMI GARDENS | St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo in 1827 understood that divine providence would guide his vocation of caring for the vulnerable, marginalized, and the needy. This year, his religious community in Miami is celebrating its 62nd anniversary.

“The Sisters of St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo have staffed the Marian Center since 1963,” said Archbishop Thomas Wenski during an anniversary Mass at the school Oct. 21, 2025. “The Marian Center School and Services provides a quality education to students with developmental disabilities,” added Archbishop Wenski.

It was Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll, Miami’s archbishop at the time, who asked the sisters to start a school in the area with the mission of educating and empowering persons with diverse abilities and nurturing them to wholeness, following the Gospel and the Church's call to love, charity and justice.

The sisters traveled from Turin, Italy, where St. Cottolengo established the Little House of Divine Providence in 1827, to Miami. In 2027, the Cottolengo community will celebrate its bicentennial throughout its worldwide communities.

“In preparation for the 200th anniversary of the establishment of our community, we are taking a relic of one of the saint’s bones on a pilgrimage to his communities worldwide,” said Sister Fausta Rondena, a residential assistant at the Marian Center, who carried the first-class relic from Turin to Miami in September.

The relic will travel to the continents of Europe, Africa, North and South America, and to the country of India. Sister Filomena Mastrangelo, director of residential services at the Marian Center, will carry the relic to Ecuador, where another sister will take it to India. The relic was venerated at the chapel of the Marian Center from Sept. 1 to Oct. 24.

During the anniversary Mass, two women joined the Laity Aggregate Association of the Sisters of St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo.

Elena DiCiccio, a special education teacher who has taught at the school for 15 years and helps with the special Olympics in Broward County, is one of the aggregates.

“This will help me more in my faith to live out the daily St. Cottolengo mission,” DiCiccio said.

The other aggregate is Daisy LoFranco, a retired medical doctor, who arrived in the United States from the Philippines 43 years ago. She met Sister Lidia Valli, principal of the Marian Center School and Services, at Visitation Church in Miami, and became interested in the Marian Center’s mission.

“Becoming an aggregate will help me with the St. Cottolengo mission,” LoFranco said. “As part of my service to the school, I have been driving students to their medical appointments,” she added.

Both DiCiccio and LoFranco went to Rome in 2018 with the St. Cottolengo sisters. Pope Francis invited the Marian Center bell choir to perform for him at the Vatican on Easter Sunday.

“I felt like I was in Heaven when I met the pope,” said LoFranco.

The Marian Center School and Services currently has 15 children and 79 adults in its day training and work program. There are 13 women in residence, 42 employees, four nuns, members of the Marian Center Action Team (MCAT), and volunteers.

“Here, at the Marian Center, students learn to be independent, happy and understand that they are children of God,” said Sister Filomena.