The central focus of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), is the protection of human beings in the age of Artificial Intelligence.
The Pope personally presented the document at the Vatican on May 25, the Monday after Pentecost. It highlights eight women as living examples of how faith, courage, and practical love of the neighbor can transform society.
In paragraph 124 of the third chapter, he emphasizes that “history can change if even a single man or woman truly takes the dignity of all people seriously.”
According to the Pope, these women embody the great humanity that God has placed within us—a humanity that preserves and radiates dignity, justice, and hope despite limitations and social resistance.
The fact that they worked in such different fields—education, medicine, science, and politics—demonstrates that true greatness lies not in power, nor even in the practice of religion itself, but in devotion to others.
The pope stresses that these women were not perfect heroines but human beings familiar with doubt, failure, and suffering. Yet this, he says, is precisely where their strength lies:“Their lives remind us that moral progress is almost always a long and difficult journey, marked by setbacks.”
“Their witness shows that goodness does not happen by itself but requires perseverance and remembrance.”(Magnifica Humanitas, Chapter 3, No. 125)
Their work serves as a call not to lose sight of what is human, especially at a time when technology and efficiency are often prioritized over individual needs. Holiness, faith, science, and politics are not opposites but pathways to restoring humanity to its intended greatness.
Among the eight women are Mother Teresa and Marie Curie, as well as several figures who are less well known in Europe.
Who are these women, and what makes them role models for today’s society?
Mother Teresa
One of the most widely recognized figures is Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910–1997). Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiuin Albania, she joined the Sisters of Loreto at the age of 18.
During her mission in India, she experienced what she described as a “call within a call” and founded the Missionaries of Charity.
She felt a profound attraction to serving the poorest of the poor and lived by the motto:“We can do no great things—only small things with great love.”
She and her fellow sisters lived in extreme poverty, sharing everything with the poor and sick whom they cared for. In 2016, she was canonized in one of the fastest canonization processes in Church history.
While supporters emphasize her total dedication to the poorest and her efforts to ensure that the dying did not face death alone, critics argue that she romanticized poverty rather than addressing its structural causes.
Laura Montoya
Laura Montoya (1874–1949) also felt called to missionary work. Raised by a single mother, she began working at an early age to help support her family.
She later became a teacher and developed a pedagogy based on love. Instead of emphasizing discipline and memorization, she taught through stories, songs, and practical acts of charity.
In 1914, she founded the Missionaries of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and St. Catherine of Siena with six companions. They lived among Colombia’s Indigenous peoples, learned their languages and customs, and sought to present the Christian faith in a culturally adapted manner.
Elisabeth Elliot
Born in Belgium and raised in the United States, the daughter of a preacher, Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) developed a fascination with languages from an early age. She studied Greek and theology so that she could read and translate the Bible in its original language.
In 1953, she married missionary Jim Elliot and followed him to Ecuador. There, he was killed while evangelizing the Waorani people.
Despite this tragedy, Elisabeth chose to remain among the very tribe whose members had killed her husband.
It is said that when she returned to the Waorani, she embraced her husband’s killers. One of them, Kimo, later became a close friend and helped her translate the Bible into the Waorani language.
In addition to Bible translations, she wrote several books about forgiveness and trusting God during difficult times.
Maria Montessori
Today, the name Montessori is best known for her educational philosophy used in schools and kindergartens worldwide.
Maria Montessori (1870–1952), the daughter of affluent academics, was one of the first women in Italy to study medicine.
After graduating, she specialized in psychiatry, education, and work with children with intellectual disabilities. She believed that children naturally want to learn and can do so independently when given the proper environment.
The Montessori Method is built on this principle: children learn independently in a prepared environment with freedom to explore.
In 1907, she founded the Casa dei Bambini (“Children’s House”) in Rome for disadvantaged and developmentally delayed children.
Today, more than 20,000 Montessori schools operate around the world.
Marie Curie
Marie Curie (1867–1934), born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, studied physics and mathematics in Paris because women were not permitted to attend university in Russian-occupied Poland.
In 1895, she married Pierre Curie. Through their research, they discovered and investigated radioactivity in 1898.
Later, together with the French Women’s Union, she helped develop mobile X-ray units for use during the First World War.
Her work with radioactive materials eventually led to her death from leukemia.
To this day, she remains the only person to receive Nobel Prizes in two different scientific disciplines: Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911).
She continues to inspire women in science and stands as a symbol of determination and perseverance.
Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day (1897–1980) did not live the life of a traditional saint but rather that of a social activist.
Born in Brooklyn, she worked as a journalist and wrote for socialist newspapers such as The Call.
Before converting to Catholicism after the birth of her daughter Tamara, she lived an unconventional life that included multiple relationships and an abortion.
After joining the Catholic Church in 1927, she met Peter Maurin. Together they founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1930.
The movement promoted social justice and nonviolence and established houses of hospitality for the homeless and unemployed in New York.
Day became a prominent participant in demonstrations for workers’ rights, racial equality, and peace, and she was arrested several times, including during protests against World War II and the Vietnam War.
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto (1953–2007) was the daughter of Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Shortly after completing studies in political science and philosophy at Harvard and Oxford, she returned to Pakistan, where her father was executed following a military coup.
After spending years under house arrest, she went into exile. Four years later, she returned and became the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party.
In 1988, she became the first democratically elected female prime minister of a Muslim-majority country.
Reports state that many women wept in the streets during her inauguration.
Throughout her life, she advocated for democracy, women’s rights, and education—especially education for women.
She was assassinated in 2007. Her death sparked grief and protests worldwide, and she remains a symbol of democracy and women’s rights in the Islamic world.
Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai (1940–2011) was a Kenyan environmental activist and the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which she won in 2004.
Born into a rural Kikuyu family, she became involved in environmental protection at an early age.
After studying biology in the United States, she earned a doctorate in anatomy, becoming the first woman in East Africa to do so. She later taught and conducted research at the University of Nairobi.
In 1977, she founded the Green Belt Movement, which planted more than 30 million trees.
Her protests against deforestation and corruption occasionally put her life at risk. In 1984, she was arrested for protesting the construction of a high-rise building in a public park.
As Kenya’s Assistant Minister for Environment (2003–2005), she advocated strongly for sustainable development.
In her Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 2004, she stated:“We cannot save the Earth if we do not save the people who live on it.”
With thanks to domradio.de where this article was first published. Translated, edited and republished by Global Catholic with permission.
