The Face of Italy's Earthquake: Who is the nun featured in this now ICONIC photo?

'I started losing all hope of being saved.'

She is now recognized as the face of Italy's earthquake, but who is the nun featured in the captivating photo of the earthquake's aftermath?

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Sister Marjana Lleshi was captured sitting, blood-stained and dirty, on the ground after being rescued from the Don Minozzi convent beside the Church of the Most Holy Crucifix in Amatrice.

Marjana was sleeping when the 3:36 a.m. earthquake struck. When she woke, she discovered she was covered in dust and had a gash in her head.

She cried out for help, but no one responded. Marjana was stuck and accepted her fate.

"When I started losing all hope of being saved, I resigned myself to it and started sending messages to friends saying to pray for me and to pray for my soul and I said goodbye to them forever," she explained outside her order, Sisters of the Handmaidens of the Lord, headquarters in Ascoli Piceno, according to the Associated Press. "I couldn't send a message like this to my family because I was afraid that my father would have an emotional collapse and die hearing something like that."

Just when Marjana had given up all hope, a young man came to her rescue.

"In that moment, I heard a voice who called me: 'Sister Marjana, Sister Marjana.'"

She was pulled out, sat on the side of the road with the ground still shaking and began texting her friends and sisters that she was alive.

This is the moment Sister Marjana Lleshi became forever "immortalized" in the power image taken for the ANSA new agency.

Following the earthquake, Marjana was examined by physicians for dust inhalation and her head wound.

The nun hopes to travel to Rome for Mother Teresa's canonization next week but is unsure if she can handle the travel after the traumatic stress from the earthquake. The Sisters of the Handmaidens of the Lord lost three sisters and four of the elderly women they cared for during the quake.

"I had said 'adieu,'" she said, expressing how grateful she was for still being alive, "and in the end, it wasn't an adieu."

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