– In a letter written on June 26, 1875, Mother Maddalena reveals that she struggled to respond to the call of the Minister General and of the pope for nuns to go to America. She wrote: To tell you the truth, there was a moment of so great a pain, that I hoped the whole affair would come to nothing and that the Holy Father might not will it. But when I saw him satisfied, I judged that it was the will of God!!! My heart was breaking at certain moments; but once resolved, I would not turn back, thinking that God would punish me for not doing His will. … I, then, have not been able to say ‘no,’ on account of what I felt interiorly.