Agnese was born on April 14, 1929 in a small town on the banks of the Po, S. Maria in Punta, (in the province of Rovigo), among strong and essential people, from parents of Christian faith and good culture: the father Anacleto Simoni was a lawyer and the mother EIsa Maritano, an elementary school teacher. Agnese was the first of four siblings, to whom she was very close as an older sister. The family was his first great school and his great harbour. He had a simple and serene childhood in this modest but suggestive corner of the world, from a landscape point of view, which he always carried in his heart. At the age of 1, Agnese and her family moved to the nearby town of Adria, in a more advanced and stimulating environment, and culturally higher, with ancient historical, cultural and ecclesial traditions. Here she attended the gymnasium and the classical high school, regularly preparing for university studies, initially choosing the faculty of Medicine, which she then abandoned due to the serious loss of her brother Lino, which occurred in 1948, in an accident that caused her a real crisis; she then decided to switch to studying Literature at the Faculty of Padua. He lived in Adria between the end of the war and the great flood (1951), two catastrophes that left a long-lasting mark on an already depressed area like Polesine. There was also poverty and Agnese knew how to help and give. There was a lack of means of communication and transportation, inconveniences to be endured. Agnese knew how to happily overcome hardships. She was a refugee in Rome and a guest of Catholic Action during the flood. She loved studying, was intelligent, strong-willed and eager in everything. She would have graduated if illness had not prevented her from doing so, although she still had to take some exams. The greatest “exam”, the hardest test she had to face, however, was the sudden and unforeseeable mourning of her father's death in February 1953, in the midst of her own serious illness, which saddened her terribly, sharing the pain of her family and especially her mother. In a crescendo of adversity, he found himself putting into practice that abandonment to the will of God that he had expressed in one of his writings as placing himself in the “arms of the Good Lord with full, total and unlimited trust”. Agnese was eloquent and charming in her speech, and she also wrote many letters with ease and spontaneity, expressing a true gift of relationship, communication, and spiritual guidance. She also wrote as a correspondent for “Squilli”, the Association’s newspaper, in the pages dedicated to young girls, with a very personal style, describing faith in terms of everyday life. He wrote stories, parables of life, with a happy hand and also with a poetic vein: lively pages on themes of life, of friendship, of waiting for the future to mature. And he also wrote about himself and his journey following the Lord, confidences that were one with his commitment to education. After her father's death, she returned to Rome for the last time in a very worsening condition. Her mother and sister Mariuccia were at her side, as were her friends from Catholic Action, and even the Giovanissime from the internal association of the community where she was hospitalized. Also at her bedside were the diocesan assistant of Catholic Action, Don Ferdinando Frison, who had accompanied her and appreciated her so much in her diocesan activity, and her parish priest, who celebrated the Eucharist in her room in the morning.
same day as the Ascension in which her life ended. It is easy to think that the heavenly Mother came to take her by the hand when, in the evening, after the rosary and the Marian litanies led by her sister, she gave herself up in a silent prayer, and it was She who led her to the embrace of the "Lord of her life". It was May 14, 1953. Her city welcomed Agnese's remains with trepidation and emotion. She left an indelible memory in the Association and in our local church.
from site AC Adria-Rovigo
