Suor Letizia, 110-Year-Old Benedictine Nun, Dies in Bitonto

Suor Letizia, born Maria Francesca Pastore in 1915, died at the age of 110 in the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria delle Vergini in Bitonto, Italy. A member of the Benedictine Order since 1940, she spent more than eight decades in cloistered life, working as a bookbinder, embroiderer, painter and caretaker of the monastery garden. Her long life spanned two pandemics – the 1918 Spanish flu and the COVID‑19 crisis – which she survived both as a child and as a centenarian.

She was known locally as a symbol of resilience; she voted in the Puglia regional elections as the oldest voter in the region and was praised by former mayor Nicola Pice, who called her a “bright and simple soul.” Her death marks the passing of one of Italy’s longest‑lived religious figures.