SW News: The Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain has selected two missionaries who were in Jihadi custody for a long time for its prestigious Beata Pauline Jaricot Award. Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez and Fr Pier Luigi Maccalli will be bestowed with the award on Saturday in Madrid.

Fr Maccalli, who hails from the African Mission Society, was in the custody of jihadists in the African nation of Niger for more than three years. A native of Italy, he was set free on Tuesday 6, October 2020, after being kidnapped from the diocese of Niamey on February 17, 2018.

The other recipient Sr Narvaez belongs to the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate and she was abducted by Islamist insurgents on February 7, 2017. The Colombian nun was finally freed on October 9 last year.

The Pontifical Mission Societies is also honoring Ana Alvarez de Lara, former president of Manos Unidas and the NGO Misio America with the Blessed Paolo Mann award. It is usually given to institutions and people who help Spanish citizens have a better understanding of the importance of the mission of the Church.

These awards were instituted to commemorate the 200th-anniversary of the Society for the Propagation of Faith and the Centenary of the missionary works instituted under the pope. The Society was formed under the initiative of Blessed Pauline Marie Jaricot, a wealthy French laywoman. She was committed to raising funds and awareness about world missions.

While as a teenager, she approached girls who were working in her brother-in-law’s factory to contribute a penny a week to support abandoned kids in China. Quickly others joined the mission and in 1822 on May 3rd the society took birth.