A worker in an early 20th century Lecco, she worked in a spinning mill and then in a factory to help her large family make an honest living. Strong in spirit, helped by parish priest Don Luigi Piatti, she distinguished herself for piety and charity among the young women of Catholic Action and was animator of parties and games in the oratory. With prayer, work, meditation, sacrifice, she served with simplicity in her family, in the parish, in the oratory, especially among the disadvantaged, with rare modesty, an enchanting smile, and a tender devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes, whom she invoked at her grotto with the rosary.

Maria became acquainted with the charism of the Order founded by Sister Maria Crocifissa di Rosa, a noblewoman from Brescia (1813-1855), canonised in 1954. Once in Brescia, she consecrated herself to the Lord in the congregation of the Handmaids of Charity. After her period of formation, she took the name Sister Lucia. She made her perpetual vows in 1938. Her life in the monastery was characterised by humble services, even trustworthy tasks, as she went out for shopping, accompanied the Sisters to their destinations, served the priests who came to the Mother House for Spiritual Exercises . Due to a serious illness she died in the Ronchettino hospital in 1954. She rests in Brescia in the Mother House of the Ancelles.

She was declared venerable on 27 February 2017.