María Agustina Rivas López
Peruvian nun and venerated person
Feast: 27 September (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Antonia Luzmila Rivas López, 'Aguchita', a Sister of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, lived in Lima until 1988 as cook, cleaner, nurse, teacher and carer for abandoned and at-risk children.
In 1988, as the Maoist Shining Path spread terror, she was sent to La Florida in Junín, Peru, where her congregation supported peasant and indigenous women. Despite the danger she chose to stay with the people, and on 27 September 1990 she was killed there by young Shining Path fighters.
The miracles
As a martyr, beatified without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
A sister who stayed with the poor despite terrorist threats and was killed for it.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Maria Agostina Rivas López, detta Aguchita
- Wikidata Q106961056 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Antonia Luzmila Rivas López (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.