"You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).
Two sisters, Marianna Infranco and her sister Domenica were the first to take the light of the world to Sicily.
Marianna Infranco was born in Montevago, in the province of Agrigento, in 1898. When she was a girl, her family had moved to Chicago, in the United States, in search of fortune. There she had come to know the Adventist message preached by Pastor Rosario Calderone, originally from Messina, who worked as an editor.
The Infranco sisters decided to return to Montevago to tell their relatives and fellow villagers of the "Advent Message". When Pastor Calderone visited Montevago sometime later, he found to his great surprise, a group of people who regularly met in Montevago under the guidance of Marianna Infranco. Calderone stayed there for a week, preaching in a classroom of the school made available by the local authorities. At the end of the week, he crowned his efforts with a baptismal ceremony in the Acque Calde, an ancient thermal spring not far from the Belice River. Six souls publicly manifested their adherence to the Adventist Church and among those baptized was the stepmother of the town's archpriest.
Pastor Calderone, returned to the United States and notified the leaders of the work in the United States and Italy about what had happened in Sicily. In the meantime, Marianna and Domenica Infranco continued their effective witness. Pastor Gian Luigi Lippolis visited the group and preached at the same school. Six more people were baptized by Pastor Diolode Werner, the new director of the Italian work. On April 30, 1921, the first church in Sicily was organized in Montevago.
Later, Marianna Infranco was asked to work as a Bible Instructor (today a pastoral assistant), which she willingly accepted. For a short time she moved to Florence, but later returned to her native Sicily, where she preached the Gospel with great zeal. The Sicilian churches have never felt uncomfortable in having women preachers nor have they ever shown discrimination against them, because, from the beginning, they have counted on valid and consecrated women.
Marianna Infranco was transferred to Bari where, until her death, she carried on her fruitful ministry as a Bible Instructor, always assisted by her dear sister Domenica, a piano teacher who, in the church of Bari, held the offices of treasurer and organist. Marianna died in 1978, on a Sabbath, when she returned from church and peacefully fell asleep in the afternoon. She rests in the cemetery of Bari. Her sister moved to the Adventist senior residence "Casa Mia" in Forlì where she passed away.
The light shone in Sicily thanks to the dedication and consecration of two humble women who placed their lives at the service of Christ. Today the church in Sicily has several churches and groups in all nine provinces and continues the witness that was first transmitted by Marianna and Domenica Infranco.
Based on an extract from the book Libere donne in libera Chiesa. 150 anni di presenza femminile avventista in Italia (Free Women in a Free Church. 150 years of Adventist female presence in Italy), by Dora Bognandi, Lina Ferrara and Franca Zucca