34
St.
Tabitha good
deeds almsgiving Peter raised from dead |
3rd v. St.
Tryphonia
Roman widow and martyr. |
Two Mighty and Courageous Widows |
300 July 05 St. Cyrilla of Cyrene M Although
aged was martyred |
304 Julitta
Holy Martyrs |
319 Oct. 19
St. Cleopatra
-- St. Varus appeared |
370 Oct 9 ST
PUBLIA,
of good family in Antioch |
383 January
22: St.
Blaesilla Widow of Rome; |
384 March 22 St. Lea
devout widow
nun Superior community of Saint Marcella exchanged rich
attire for sackcloth. |
387 Saint
Monica,
[may 04] mother of
St Augustine of Hippo (June 15)
{Aug
27} |
404 St. Paula
patroness of widows
children |
|
408 St. Olympias
lavish in her almsgiving. |
410 January 31 St. Marcella
Roman matron gave to
poor |
435 St. Juliana
of Bologna Married
woman of Bologna
|
439 Dec 31 St. Melania
Abbess rich Roman
endowed monasteries in Egypt Syria and Palestine |
5th century 492 St. Gwen
Widowed martyr at Talgrarth |
5th v. Sept 15 Eutropia
of Auvergne, Widow first lauded by Saint Sidonius Apollinaris
(RM) |
6th century 6v Triphina
of Brittany Widow mother of the infant-martyr
Saint Tremorus |
June 03 545 Clotilda
of France Queen Widow At her passing, a dazzling light heavenly incense filled the room |
550 St. Galla
oct 05 Roman
noblewoman caring for
sick and poor; |
6th century 6v Triphina
of Brittany Widow
mother of the infant-martyr Saint Tremorus
(RM) |
6th
v. St. Agia
Widow also called Aja and Aye She is reported as being the sainted mother of St. Lupus of Sens. |
6th v. St.
Benedicta Mystic nun; St. Peter appeared in vision warn her of
death |
572
Sylvia
of Rome mother of Gregory
the Great, pope and doctor of the Church;
Widow (RM) |
7th century July
18 St.
Theneva Also called Thenova, the
patron saint of Glasgow |
652 May 08 Blessed
Ida of Nivelles built double monastery
at Nivelles OSB |
659
St. Gertrude
of Nivelles Benedictine abbess mystic gifted with visions
|
679 Saint Ethedlreda
(Audrey) heaven sent seven day high tide founded
the great abbey of Ely, austere life body incorrupt |
|
680 Eusebia
of Hamay widow OSB, Abbess wise and capable, |
|
680
St.
Bathildis Queen and
foundress Benedictine convent at Chelles,
St. Denis Monastery and Corbie |
679 June
23 Saint
Ethedlreda (Audrey) heaven sent seven day high
tide founded abbey of Ely, where she lived an austere
life body was found incorrupt |
8th v. ST BERTILIA
OF MAREUIL, WIDOW |
688 St.
Richrudis
Benedictine abbess forty years wed St.
Adalbald 4 children Eusebia, Clotsind, Adalsind, Mauront
all became saints |
688 April 09 St.
Waldetrudis ist Patronin von Mons 7 saints in
family became
celebrated for the miracles of healing |
691 St.
Begga daughter of Pepin of Landen
mayor of the palace and St. Itta. |
714
St. Agia
Benedictine wife of St. Hiduiphus of Hainault |
|
703
Ermengild
of Ely wholly devoted
to God, OSB, Widow
(AC) |
|
723 St.
Oda Widow and servant of
the poor |
725 July 04 St.
Bertha
Benedictine widow,
abbess convent she founded Blangy |
730 Dec 24 St.
Adele Widow Abbess ruling with holiness
prudence compassion |
725 September 03 St Cuthburga,
Absess of Wimborne, Widow; a novice under St Hildelitha |
734 St. Kentigerna
Widowed hermitess
mother St. Coellan daughter of Kelly Jan 07 |
769 Sigolena
of Troclar Daughter and early widow of French noblemen of
Aquitaine; |
780 May 13
St.
Mella Widow abbess |
|
785 St.
Werburg
Widow abbess |
820 St. Anne
a widow, born in Constantinople;
Also
called Euphemianus.
Oct 29 |
860
Athanasia
of Constantinople Matron
married twice reluctant home convent venerated by
Empress Theodora; celebrated for monastical observance
and the gift of miracles. (RM) |
864
Oct 19 St.
Laura widowed; martyr. Born
in Cordova; murdered by Moors |
921 Sept 16 St. Ludmila
Daughter of a Slavic prince; as widow, led an austere,
pious life and continued to be concerned for the Church during the
reign of her son Bratislav, which lasted for 33 years |
895
St. Richardis
Empress and wife of
Emperor Charles the Fat |
937 St. Edith
of Polesworth Sister of King Athelstan of England; married
viking king Sihtric at York in 925, he died next year, she became
Benedictine nun at Polesworth, where she was noted.
|
968 Mar 14 St.
Matilda
piety charitable works
Patron of parents of large families;
|
986 January 06 St.
Wiltrudis Widow Benedictine
nun wife of Duke Berthold |
999 December
16 ST ADELAIDE,
WIDOW; regent generous life
|
1024 Feb
05 Agatha
Hildegard of Carinthia converted husband before
his death |
1028 Hilsindis In her widowhood she was
the abbess-founder of the convent of Thorn on the Marne River
, OSB Abbess (AC) Hilsindis was born into the family of the dukes of Lorraine (France). In her widowhood she was the abbess-founder of the convent of Thorn on the Marne River (Benedictines). |
1040 St.
Cunegundes
Empress Patron of Lithuania
virgin |
1045 ST EMMA,
WIDOW founded the abbey of Gurk; devoted her possessions
and her life to the service of God |
1069 St. Amunia Mother of St. Aurea.
March 11 She joined her daughter in the
life of a hermitess after the death of her husband. |
1105 Blessed Aleth
of Dijon Mother of Saint Bernard Widow (PC) April 04 October 04 |
1113 April 12
Blessed Ida
of Boulogne descendent of Blessed
Charlemagne |
1107 Mar
14 St
Paulina of Zell founded the double abbey
of Zell. |
1175
Blessed Mary
de la Cabeza, Widow the irreproachable wife of Saint Isidore the Farmer
(AC) |
1175 St. Helen
of Skovde Widow; gave all her possessions to the poor; Like Jesus,
the innocent Lamb, St. Helen was put to death; many miracles were reported
at her tomb April
19 |
1176 Blessed Clementia
of Oehren, OSB Widow (AC) |
|
1213 June 23 Blessed
Mary (Marie) d'Oignies turned their
house into a leper hospital, |
|
1228 BD
JUTTA
OF HUY, Jan 13
Widow an extraordinary
power of reading the thoughts
of others |
1247 May 16 St.
Margaret of Cortona established a hospital
and founded a congregation of tertiary sisters devoted
to the Eucharist and the passion of Jesus |
1260 May 05
St. Jutta
Widowed noblewoman
of Thuringia noted for visions and miracles |
1268 Bl.
Salomea
princess became a Franciscan tertiary; did her best to make her court
a model of Christian life; founding a convent of Poor Clares; 28 yrs a Poor
Clare; abbess |
1300 Blessed
Ida
of Louvain OSB Cist. V (PC) |
|
1300 Bl. Bonizella
Piccolomini Widow devoted herself and all her wealth to the service
of the poor (PC) |
1299 June 15 BD JOLENTA
OF HUNGARY, WIDOW |
1305 Blessed Santuccia
Terrebotti Benedictine abbess OSB Widow (AC)
1305
Blessed Santuccia Terrebotti Benedictine abbess OSB
Widow (AC). |
1309 BD ANGELA
OF FOLIGNO, WIDOW
must always take her
place among the great mystics and contemplatives
of the middle ages, side by side with Catherine
of Siena and Catherine of Genoa. |
1309
St. Aldo
(Aldobrandesca) Widow she gave away all possessions ministering
to sick visions almsdeeds and mortification and ecstasies Siena (also known as Aldobrandesca, Aude, Blanca,
Bruna) |
1317 St. Agnes
of Montepulciano Nun foundress in Tuscany noted for visions (of Christ
Blessed Virgin angels) levitations miracles for the faithful (1435
- incorrupt) |
1310 May 22 Humility
of Faenza, OSB Vall. Widow
heroic fasting and savagely austere life (AC) |
1356 June 20 Blessed
Michelina Metelli Franciscan tertiary
OFM Tert. Widow (AC) |
1336 July
04 St.
Elizabeth of Portugal |
1391 June 14 Bd Castora
Gabrielli, Widow |
1394 St. Dorothy
of Montau visions and spiritual gifts patroness of Prussia |
1395 Margaret
the Barefooted, Widow bore abuse with patience for many years
(RM) |
1419 Blessed
Clare Gambacorta both devout and penitential Poor Clares OP Widow (AC) |
|
1435
Blessed Angelina
of Marsciano founded convent regular tertiaries Saint Francis
Foligno, finished in 1397 with 135 convents, |
1431 Blessed
Mary of Pisa Widow
miraculous favors saw guardian angel from
childhood OP Tertiary
|
1478 Blessed
Seraphina Sforza, Poor Clare V (AC)
|
1440 St. Frances
of Rome widow,
renowned for her noble family, holy life,
and the gift of miracles. |
1472 Blessed Antonia
(Antoinette) of Florence, OFM Widow (AC) |
|
1510 St
Catherine (Caterinetta) of Genoa, Widow; blood
from her stigmata gave off exceptional heat; |
1503 BD
LOUISA
OF SAVOY, humble nun of the Poor Clares |
1520
Bd Helen Of Bologna, Widow |
|
1521 BD MARGARET
OF LORRAINE Feast day
11/6 |
1533 Feb 28 BD
LOUISA ALBERTONI, |
1601 St. Anne
Line English 1/40 martyr from Dunmow, Essex |
1618 BD MARY
OF THE INCARNATION, |
1771 St. Mary
Margaret d'Youville Foundress Sisters of Charity directress
of Montreal’s General Hospital, operated her community |
1865 BD PAULA
CERIOLI, WIDOW, Foundress OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE HOLY FAMILY
OF BERGAMO |
34 St. Tabitha
good deeds and almsgiving
raised from dead Peter. Widow of Joppa (in modern Israel), who was mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (9:36-42) as one who “was completely occupied with good deeds and almsgiving.” |
MARY THE MOTHER OF GOD a
Widow “Many widows have 'second vocations' of this
sort, entering religious orders after the death of their husbands. St. Elizabeth
Seton, foundress of
the American Sisters of Charity, was, of
course, a memorable example. Cloistered,
contemplative orders are perhaps even more
attractive to widows who are on in years.
Take for instance, Mrs. Rizer, of Richmond, Virginia.
Around 1930, after
the death of her husband and the maturing
of her children (one of whom became a priest),
she entered the cloistered convent of the Visitation
in Richmond. On important holidays, the family
would come to visit her. According to the existing
rules of cloister the mother would sit in the screened-off
part of the parlor to chat with her children who
sat on the other side of the grill that bisected the room.
Our readers who are widowed might well ask themselves whether they, too, perhaps have a second vocation of this sort.--Father Robert F. McNamara .” [ R.I.P.
Father McNamara]
|
3rd century St. Tryphonia Roman widow and martyr. |
Dec 19 3rd
v. St. Fausta mother of St. Anastasia
- Sirmium Serbia Romæ sanctæ Faustæ, quæ fuit mater sanctæ Anastásiæ, ac nobilitáte et pietáte éxstitit insígnis. At Rome, St. Fausta, mother of St. Anastasia, renowned for her noble birth and her holiness. The mother of St. Anastasia of Sirmium. Serbia, Yugoslavia. Fausta was a model matron of her era, demonstrating true virtue in raising a saint. Fausta of Sirmium, Widow (RM) 3rd century. The legend of Saint Anastasia of Sirmium says that Fausta was her mother (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). |
300 Cyrilla of Cyrene
M Although the aged widow of Cyrene, Saint Cyrilla, was condemned
to death, she seems to have died in the torture chamber rather
than as planned. Several other martyrs suffered with her (Benedictines).
(RM) |
Two Mighty and Courageous Widows 304 Julitta The Holy Martyred for the faith A certain pagan stole all her property, and when Julitta turned for relief to the courts, her antagonist reported to the judge that she was a Christian, which placed her outside the law's protection. |
383 January 22:
St. Blaesilla Widow of Rome;
St. Blaesilla
herself began to study Hebrew, and it was at
her request that Jerome began his translation
of the book of Ecclesiasts. Daughter of St. Paula and a disciple of St. Jerome. Blaesilla died at the age of twenty-three from a fever. She and her husband were married only seven months when he predeceased her. 383 ST BLESILLA, WIDOW BUT for the letters of St Jerome, very little would be known of the youthful widow St Blesilla, daughter of St Paula. On the death of her husband, after seven months of married life, Blesilla was attacked by fever. Yielding to the promptings of grace, she determined to devote herself to practices of devotion. After her sudden recovery she spent the rest of her short life in great austerity. St Jerome, writing to her mother, speaks in very high terms of her. St. Blaesilla herself began to study Hebrew, and it was at her request that Jerome began his translation of the book of Ecclesiasts. St Blesilla died at Rome in 383 at the early age of twenty. See the Acta Sanctorum, January 22; and St Jerome’s letters nos. 37, 38 and 39. St Blesilla is of course referred to in the more detailed lives of St Jerome and St Paula. |
319 Oct. 19 St. Cleopatra Widow -- St. Varus miraculously came to comfort her |
370 Oct 9 ST
PUBLIA, WIDOW;
a woman of good family
in Antioch who was left a widow. She
gathered together in her house a number of consecrated
virgins and widows who wished to live a
common life of devotion and charity. |
384 St. Lea devout widow
nun Superior community of Saint Marcella exchanged her rich
attire for sackcloth Romæ sanctæ Leæ Víduæ, cujus virtútes et tránsitum ad Deum sanctus Hierónymus scribit. At Rome, the widow St. Lea, whose virtues and happy death are related by St. Jerome. A letter which St. Jerome wrote to St. Marcella provides the only information we have about St. Lea, a devout fourth century widow. Upon death of her husband, she retired to a Roman monastery and ultimately became its Superior. Since his correspondence was acquainted with the details of St. Lea's life, St. Jerome omitted these in his letter. He concentrated instead on the fate of St. Lea in comparison with that of a consul who had recently died. "Who will praise the blessed Lea as she deserves? She renounced painting her face and adorning her head with shining pearls. She exchanged her rich attire for sackcloth, and ceased to command others in order to obey all. She dwelt in a corner with a few bits of furniture; she spent her nights in prayer, and instructed her companions through her example rather than through protests and speeches. And she looked forward to her arrival in heaven in order to receive her recompense for the virtues which she practiced on earth. "So it is that thence forth she enjoyed perfect happiness. From Abraham's bosom, where she resides with Lazarus, she sees our consul who was once decked out in purple, now vested in a shameful robe, vainly begging for a drop of water to quench his thirst. Although he went up to the capital to the plaudits of the people, and his death occasioned widespread grief, it is futile for the wife to assert that he has gone to heaven and possesses a great mansion there. The fact is that he is plunged into the darkness outside, whereas Lea who was willing to be considered a fool on earth, has been received into the house of the Father, at the wedding feast of the Lamb. "Hence, I tearfully beg you to refrain from seeking the favors of the world and to renounce all that is carnal. It is impossible to follow both the world and Jesus. Let us live a life of renunciation, for our bodies will soon be dust and nothing else will last any longer." Lea of Rome, Widow (RM). Roman lady who on becoming a widow entered the community of Saint Marcella, of which she later became the superior. She was noted for the austerity of her life and her extreme penances. Saint Jerome (Ep. 20 to Marcella) wrote a panegyric in her honor (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth). |
387
Saint Monica,
[may 04]mother of St
Augustine of Hippo (June 15)
{Aug
27} |
404 St. Paula patroness of widows children Toxotius Blesilla Paulina Eustochium and Rufina |
408 St. Olympias lavish
in her almsgiving. Constantinópoli sanctæ Olympíadis Víduæ. At Constantinople, St. Olympias, widow. St Olympias, called by
St Gregory Nazianzen “the glory of
the widows in the Eastern church”, was to
St John Chrysostom something of what St Paula was to St
Jerome. Her family belonged to Constantinople, and was
one of distinction and wealth. She was born about the year
361, and left an orphan under the care of the prefect Procopius,
her uncle; it was her happiness to
be entrusted by him to Theodosia, sister to St Amphilochius,
a woman who, St Gregory told her, was a pattern of goodness
in whose life she might see as in a glass all excellences.
Olympias had inherited a large
fortune and was attractive in person
and character, so that her uncle had no difficulty
in arranging a marriage that was acceptable to him
and to her, namely with Nebridius, for some time prefect
of Constantinople. St Gregory wrote apologizing because
age and bad health kept him from attending the wedding,
and enclosing a poem of good advice for the bride. The husband
appears to have been an exacting man, but within a very short
time Nebridius was dead, and the hand of Olympias was being
sought by several of the most considerable men of
the court. The Emperor Theodosius was very pressing with her
to accept Elpidius, a Spaniard and his near relation. She declared
her resolution of remaining single the rest of her days: “
Had God wished me to remain a wife”, she said, “ He would not
have taken Nebridius away.” Theodosius persisted, and as
her refusal continued, he put her fortune
in the hands of the urban prefect with orders
to act as her guardian till she was thirty years old.
The prefect even hindered her from seeing the bishop or
going to church. She wrote to the emperor, somewhat
acidly perhaps, that she was obliged to him for easing her of
the burden of managing and disposing of her money, and that the
favour would be complete if he would order it all to be divided
between the poor and the Church. Theodosius, struck with
her letter, made an inquiry into her manner of living, and
restored to her the administration of her estate in 391. St Olympias thereupon offered herself to St Nectarius, Bishop of
Constantinople, for consecration as
a deaconess, and established herself in a
large house with a number of maidens who wished to devote
themselves to the service of God. Her dress was plain,
her furniture simple, her prayers assiduous, and her
charities without bounds, so that St John Chrysostom
found it necessary to tell her sometimes to moderate
her alms, or rather to be more cautious in bestowing them,
that she might be able to succour those whose distress deserved
preference “ You must not encourage the laziness of those
who live upon you without necessity. It is like throwing
your money into the sea.” In 398 Chrysostom
succeeded Nectarius in the see
of Constantinople, and he took St Olympias
and her disciples under his protection, and guided by
him her benefactions were spread abroad; an orphanage and
a hospital were attached to their house, and when the expelled
monks came from Nitria to appeal against Theophilus
of Alexandria they were fed andsheltered at the expense
of Olympias, St Amphilochius, St Epiphanius, St Peter of
Sebaste and St Gregory of Nyssa were among her friends, and Palladius
of Helenopolis refers to her as “a wonderful woman...like
a precious vase filled with the Holy Spirit” but it was with
her own bishop that friendship was most mutually affectionate
and trusting, and she was one of the last persons whom Chrysostom
took leave of when he went into banishment in 404. It was necessary
to tear her from his feet by violence. Our knowledge of this holy
widow is derived partly from Palladius, the letters of Chrysostom and the
writings of other contemporaries, but also from a Greek Life which was printed for
the first time in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xv (1896), pp. 400—483,
together with an account of the translation of her remains (ibid., vol. xvi,
pp. 44—51) written much later by the superioress (Ama) Sergia. See also the
article of J. Bousquet, "Vie d’Olympias Ia diaconesse", contributed to the
Revue de l’Orient chrétien, second series,
vol. i (1906), pp. 225—250, and vol.
ii (1907), pp. 255—268. The life seems to
have been composed in the middle of the fifth century
and is clearly posterior to Palladius, as is proved by
quotations made from this source. One chapter, the eleventh,
seems to be a later interpolation by another hand. The
letters of St John Chrysostom to St Olympias have been translated
into French by P. Legrand, Exhortations
â Theodore; Lettres â Olympias (1933).
See also H. Leclercq in DAC., vol. xii, cc. 2064—2071.
* Elsewhere
he writes to her: “Much patience is
needed to see oneself unjustly deprived of
wealth, driven from home and country to exile in an unhealthy
climate, chained and imprisoned, loaded with insults,
railing and contempt. Even the calmness of Jeremias
could not resist such trials. Yet not even these or the loss
of children dear as our very heart’s blood or death itself,
the most terrible of evils in human estimation, are so trying
to bear as bad health.” |
410 January 31 St. Marcella Roman matron gave to the poor |
435
St. Juliana
of Bologna Married
woman of Bologn |
439 Dec 31 St. Melania
Abbess rich Roman
endowed monasteries in Egypt Syria
and Palestine |
5th century
492 St. Gwen
Widowed martyr at Talgrarth |
6th century 6v Triphina of
Brittany Widow mother of the infant-martyr
Saint Tremorus (RM), feast may be July 5. Saint Triphina was the mother of the infant-martyr Saint Tremorus. She passed the later years of her life in a convent in Brittany (Benedictines). |
June 03 545 Clotilda
of France Queen Widow At her passing, a dazzling light and heavenly
incense filled the room Clothilde built the Church of the Apostles, later
called Saint Geneviève, in Paris, where Clothilde was later buried.
(Amazingly, her relics survived the French Revolution and can now be found
at the church of Saint-Leu, Paris.) (RM) Lutétiæ Parisiórum sanctæ Clotíldis Regínæ, cujus précibus vir ejus Clodovéus, Rex Francórum, Christi fidem suscépit. At Paris, St. Clotilde, queen, by whose prayers her husband, King Clovis, was converted to the faith of Christ. (also known as Clotilde, Clothilde) Born at Lyons, France, c. 474; died at Tours in 545. 545 ST CLOTILDA, WIDOW |
550 St. Galla
oct 05 Widowed
Roman
noblewoman caring for
sick and poor;
Her church in Rome,
near the Piazza Montanara, once held a picture
of Our Lady, which according to tradition
represents a vision vouchsafed to St. Galla.
It is considered miraculous and was carried in
recession in times of pestilence, now over high altar
Santa Maria in Campitelli. The letter of St
Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe, “Concerning the State of Widowhood”,
is supposed to have
been addressed to St Galla; her relics are
said to rest in the church of Santa Maria in
Portico. |
6th century 6v Triphina of Brittany Widow
mother of the infant-martyr Saint
Tremorus (RM)
feast may be July 5. Saint Triphina was the mother of the infant-martyr Saint Tremorus. She passed the later years of her life in a convent in Brittany (Benedictines). |
6th v. St. Benedicta Mystic nun; St. Peter appeared in vision warn her of death Romæ
sanctæ Benedíctæ Vírginis. At Rome, the virgin St. Benedícta.
Benedicta lived in a convent founded by St. Galla in Rome. Pope St. Gregory the Great states that
St. Peter appeared in
a vision to warn her of her approaching death. Benedicta of Rome V (RM). Benedicta a nun of the convent founded in Rome by Saint Galla (A Roman widow of the sixth century; feast, 5 October. According to St. Gregory the Great (Dial. IV, ch. xiii) she was the daughter of the younger Symmachus, a learned and virtuous patrician of Rome, whom Theodoric had unjustly condemned to death (525). Becoming a widow before the end of the first year of her married life, she, still very young, founded a convent and hospital near St. Peter's, there spent the remainder of her days in austerities and works of mercy, and ended her life with an edifying death. The letter of St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, "De statu viduarum", is supposed to have been addressed to her. Her church in Rome, near the Piazza Montanara, once held a picture of Our Lady, which according to tradition represents a vision vouchsafed to St. Galla. It is considered miraculous and was carried in recession in times of pestilence. It is now over the high altar of Santa Maria in Campitelli, of whom Saint Gregory the Great narrates her death was foretold to her by Saint Peter in a vision (Benedictines). |
572 Sylvia of Rome mother of Gregory the Great, pope and doctor of the Church; Widow (RM) |
7th century July 18 St. Theneva
Also called Thenova, the patron saint
of Glasgow, Scotland, with her son St. Kentigern.
She gave her name to Saint Enoch's
Square and Railway Station in Glasgow, Scotland,
where she is co- patron together with her son (Benedictines,
Delaney).Theneva of Glasgow, Widow (AC) (also known as Dwynwen, Thaney, Thenaw, Thenog, Thenova). Saint Theneva was a British princess. When it was discovered that she had conceived out of wedlock, she was thrown from a cliff. Unharmed at the bottom, she was then set adrift in a boat on the Firth of Forth. It was expected that she would die at sea, but apparently God had other plans for the young woman. She landed at Culross, where she was sheltered by Saint Serf and gave birth to Saint Kentigern, named Mongo ("darling") by his foster-father, Serf. |
680 Eusebia
of Hamay widow, OSB, Abbess wise and capable, re-establishing
discipline as in the days of St Gertrude, (AC) 680 ST EUSEBIA, ABBESS ST EUSEBIA was the eldest
daughter of St Adalbald of Ostrevant and of St Rictrudis.
After the murder of her husband, Rictrudis retired to the convent of
Marchiennes with her two younger daughters, and sent Eusebia to the abbey
of Hamage, of which her great-grandmother St Gertrude was abbess. Eusebia
was only twelve years old when St Gertrude died, but she was elected her
successor, in compliance with her dying wishes and in accordance with
the custom of the times, which required that the head of a religious house
should, when possible, be of noble birth, so that the community should
have the protection of a powerful family in times of disturbance. St Rictrudis,
who was now abbess of Marchiennes, not unnaturally considered Eusebia far
too young to have charge of a community, and bade
her come to Marchiennes with all her nuns. The little abbess was loath
to comply, but she obeyed, and arrived with her community and with the body
of St Gertrude, when the two communities were merged into one and all settled
down happily, except Eusebia. The memory of Hamage haunted her, until one
night she and some of her nuns stole out and made their way to the abandoned
buildings, where they said office and lamented over the non-fulfilment of
St Gertrude’s last injunctions.
See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii; Destombes, Vies
des Saints de Cambrai, i, pp. 349-343
and Analecta Bollandiana, vol.
xx (1901), pp 461—463.
The eldest daughter of Saints Adalbald and
Rictrudis, Saint Eusebia
was placed by her mother in the abbey of Hamage
(Hamay) which had been founded by her grandmother Saint
Gertrude. When Saint Eusebia succeeded as abbess at the
age of 12, her mother objected and summoned her daughter to
Marchiennes. Eusebia and her entire community answered her mother
and moved to Marchiennes. Later they were allowed to return
to Hamage, where Eusebia continued to rule her convent in peace
(Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia). |
8th v. ST BERTILIA OF MAREUIL, WIDOW THE life of St Bertilia was an uneventful one. Born of noble parents,
she spent her youth in exercises of
charity. In due time she married a noble youth,
and they spent their lives helping the poor and sick.
On the death of her husband she lived the life of a solitary
at Mareuil in the diocese of Arras, where she built
a church that adjoined her cell. She died early in the
eighth century, and must be distinguished from her contemporary
St Bertila of Chelles. See Acta Sanctorum,
January 3; Parenty, Histoire de Ste Bertilie (1847);
Destombes, Vies des saints
des dioceses de Cambrai et d’Arras,
vol. i, pp. 37 seq.; and P.
Bertin, Ste Bertille de Mareuil (1943).
W. Levison has produced a critical edition of the text
of the life, with a valuable
introduction, in MGH., Scriptores
Merov., vol. vi, pp. 95—109. 687 St. Bertilia Foundress noble virgin |
688 St. Richrudis
Benedictine abbess forty years wed St. Adalbald
4 children Eusebia, Clotsind, Adalsind, and Mauront
all became saints
688 ST RICTRUDIS, WIDOW THE family of St Rictrudis was one of the most illustrious in Gascony, and her parents were devout as well as wealthy. In her father’s house when she was a young girl Rictrudis met one who was to be her director for a great part of her life. This was St Amandus, then an exile from the territory of King Dagobert, whose licentious conduct he had condemned; the prelate was evangelizing the Gascons, many of whom were still pagans. Later on there arrived another distinguished visitor in the person of St Adalbald, a young French nobleman in great favour with King Clovis. He obtained from his hosts the hand of Rictrudis in spite of the opposition of relations who viewed with disfavour any alliance with a Frank. The home to which Adalbald took his bride was Ostrevant in Flanders, and there four children were born to them— Mauront, Eusebia, Clotsind and Adalsind, all of whom, like their parents, were destined to be honoured in later times as saints. After his return from exile St Amandus would come now and then to stay with this remarkable family, whose holy and happy life is described in glowing terms by the tenth-century compiler of the life of St Rictrudis. She had been married sixteen years when Adalbald, on a visit to Gascony, was murdered by some of her relations who had never forgiven him for his successful wooing. The blow was a terrible one to St Rictrudis. She told St Amandus that she wished to retire into a convent, but he advised her to wait until her son was old enough to take up his residence at court. This delay entailed on her a severe trial in later years, when King Clovis II suddenly made up his mind to give her in marriage to one of his favourites, for she was still attractive and very wealthy. The king’s commands in such cases were law, and Rictrudis pleaded with him in vain. Eventually, however, St Amandus persuaded the monarch to allow her to follow her vocation, and Rictrudis joyfully set out for Marchiennes, where she had founded a double monastery, for men and women. There she received the veil from St Amandus. Her two younger daughters, Adalsind and Clotsind, accompanied her, but Eusebia remained with her paternal grandmother, St Gertrude, at Hamage. After a few years at court Mauront decided that he too wished to abandon the world and it was at Marchiennes, in his mother’s presence, that he received the tonsure. Adalsind died young, but Clotsind lived to become abbess of Marchiennes when St Rictrudis passed to her reward at the age of seventy-six. The life of St Rictrudis, which was written by Hucbald of Elnone in 907, seems to represent a sincere attempt to arrive at historical truth, however greatly the biographer was hampered by the lack of materials, most of which are said to have perished when Marchiennes was raided and burnt by the Normans in 881. See the admirable discussion of the subject by L. Van der Essen in the Revue d’Histoire ecclésiastique, vol. xix (1923), especially pp. 543—550; and in the same author’s Etude critique . . . des Saints mérovingiens (1907), pp. 260—267. Hucbald’s life, with other materials, may be read in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii. W. Levison, in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. vi, has only re-edited the prologue. St Rictrudis is sometimes confused with St Rotrudis, a saint venerated at Saint-Bertin and Saint-Omer, about whose life nothing at all is known. A member of a noble family from
Gascony, France,
she wed the Frankish nobleman St. Adalbald despite family
objections, and the couple had four children — Eusebia, Clotsind, Adalsind, and Mauront
— all of whom became saints.
After Adalbald was murdered
by relatives in Gascony, she refused royal pressure to remarry and instead,
with the help of St. Amandus, she
became a nun at Marchiennes, Flanders, Belgium, a double monastery that she
had founded. Rictrudis served as abbess for some forty years until her death.
Adalsind and Clotsind joined her, and Mauront
became a monk there too.
In art, Rictrudis holds a church
in her hand. She may also be pictured with her children
(Roeder).Rictrudis of Marchiennes, OSB Widow (AC) Born in Gascony; died 688. Saint Rictrudis was born into a noble Gascon family. She married Saint Adalbald, a Frankish nobleman serving king Clovis II, despite some opposition from her family. The couple had four children, all of whom are counted among the saints: SS Adalsindis, Clotsindis, Eusebia, and Maurontius. After 16 year of a happy married life at Ostrevant, Flanders, Adalbald was murdered while visiting in Gascony by relatives of Rictrudis who disapproved of the match. After several years, King Clovis ordered her to marry, but with the aid of her old friend and spiritual advisor, Saint Amandus, Clovis relented and permitted her to become a nun at Marchiennes, Flanders--a double monastery that she had founded. Adalsindis and Clotsindis joined her, and sometime later Maurontius, on the point of marrying, left the court and became a monk there, too. Rictrudis ruled Marchiennes as abbess for 40 years (Benedictines, Delaney). |
April 09 688 St. Waldetrudis
ist Patronin von Mons 7 saints in family
became celebrated
for the miracles of healing which were wrought
through her both before and after her death Móntibus, in Hannónia, beátæ Waldetrúdis, vitæ sanctimónia et miráculis claræ. At Mons in Hainaut, blessed Waltrude, renowned for holiness and miracles. 688 ST WALDETRUDIS, or WAUDRU, WIDOW ST WALDETRUDIS, called in French Waltrude or Waudru, who is venerated in Belgium, especially at Mons of which she is patron, belonged to a family of remarkable holiness. Her parents were St Walbert and St Bertilia, her sister St Aldegundis of Maubeuge, her husband St Vincent Madelgar, and their four children St Landericus, St Dentelinus, St Aldetrudis and St Madelberta, the last two named both being abbess of Maubeuge. She married a young nobleman called Madelgar, with whom she led a happy life of devotion and good works. Some time after the birth of the last of their children, Madelgar withdrew into the abbey of Haumont which he had founded, taking the name of Vincent. Waldetrudis remained in the world two years longer than her husband and then she also withdrew, retiring into a very humble little house, built in accordance with her instructions, where she lived in poverty and simplicity. Her sister repeatedly invited her to join her at Maubeuge, but she wished for greater austerity than she could have at the abbey. Her solitude was so often broken in upon by those who centre of what is now the town of Mons. Throughout her life St Waldetrudis was greatly given to works of mercy, and she became celebrated for the miracles of healing which were wrought through her both before and after her death. There are
two Latin lives of St Waldetrudis the first, written in the ninth century,
has only been printed in Analectes pour servir a l’histoire ecclésiastique
déjà Belgique, vol. iv,
pp. 218—231 the second, at one time wrongly attributed
to Philip de Harveng, is in fact a later adaptation
of the former. It has been printed in the Acta
Sanctorum, April, vol. i, and by Mabillon.
See especially L. Van der Essen, Saints
Mérovingiens de Belgique, pp. 231—237,
and Berlière, Monasticon Beige,
vol. i, pp. 327—328.
Also known as Waltrude or Waudru, she was the daughter of Saints Walbert and Bertilia and sister of St. Aldegunus of Maubeuge. Marrying St. Vincent Madelgarius, she became the mother of saints Landericus, Madalberta, Adeltrudis, and Dentelin. When her husband chose to become a monk about 643 in the monastery of Hautrnont, France, he had founded, she established a convent at Chateaulieu, around which grew up the town of Mons, Belgium. 688 Waltraud Orthodoxe und Katholische Kirche: 9. April Waltraud (Waldetrudis = kraftvolle Herrscherin oder starke Göttliche) stammte aus einem adligen Geschlecht. Ihre Mutter Bertila (Berthild) wurde ebenso als Heilige verehrt wie ihre Schwester Adelgundis (Gedenktag 30.1.), die das Kloster Maubeuge gründete. Waltraud heiratete den Grafen des Hennegau Vinzenz Madelgar (Gedenktag 14.7.) und gebar 4 Kinder, von denen drei (Landicus, Madelberta und Adeltrud) ebenfalls Heilige wurden. Ihr Ehemann und ihre Kinder gingen auf ihren Wunsch in Klöster, sie selber erbaute das Kloster Mons in Castrilocus und wurde dessen Äbtissin. Sie starb am 9.4. um das Jahr 688 und wurde in der Kathedrale von Mons bestattet. Waltraud ist Patronin von Mons. Waldetrudis of Mons, OSB Widow (RM) (also known as Vaudru, Waltrude, Waudru) Died April 9, c. 686-688. The family of Saint Waudru, patroness of Mons (Belgium), was amazingly holy, too. Both her parents (Walbert and Bertille) and her sister (Aldegund) were canonized. Her four children were also declared saints (Landericus, Dentelin, Aldetrude, and Madelberte) and so was her husband (Madelgaire). Madelgaire was the count of Hennegau (Hainault), and one of the courtiers of King Dagobert I. After their children were born both he and Waudru longed to live lives totally devoted to meditation and prayer. He retired to an abbey he had founded at Haumont near Maubeuge, where he took the name Vincent. For two additional years, Waudru remained in the world, devoting herself to the care of the poor and the sick under the direction of Saint Gislenus. After Madelgaire's death, Waudru received the religious veil from Saint Autbert in 656, built a tiny home for herself near Castriloc (Châteaulieu), and, giving away her possessions, lived there alone. Though she clung to her solitude, her great wisdom and piety meant that countless men and women pressed on her for advice. Eventually Waudru had so many followers that she was obliged to found her own convent at Châteaulieu. She dedicated this convent to the Mother of Jesus, and around it grew the present town of Mons. By the time of Waudru's death she had become famous not only for her charity but also for her miraculous powers of healing, her patience in the face of trials, continual fasting, and prayer. Her relics are considered the most precious treasure of the church that bears her name in Mons (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth, Walsh). In art, Saint Waudru is depicted protecting her children under her mantle, offering her husband a crucifix, and refusing a crown of roses (Roeder). She is venerated in Mons (Roeder). |
691 St. Begga daughter
of Pepin of Landen mayor of the palace and St. Itta. Andániæ, apud Septem Ecclésias, in Bélgio, beátæ Beggæ Víduæ, quæ fuit soror sanctæ Gertrúdis. At Andenne, at the Seven Churches, blessed Begga, widow, the sister of St. Gertrude. 693 ST BEGGA, WIDOW PEPIN of Landen, mayor
of the palace to three Frankish kings,
and himself commonly called Blessed, was
married to a saint, Bd Itta or Ida, and two of their
three children figure in the Roman Martyrology: St Gertrude
of Nivelles and her elder sister, St Begga. Gertrude refused
to marry and was an abbess soon after she was twenty, but
Begga married Ansegisilus, son of St Arnulf of Metz,
and spent practically the whole of her long life as a nobleman’s
wife “in the world”. Of this union was born Pepin of Herstal,
the founder of the Carlovingian dynasty in France. After the
death of her husband, St Begga in 691 built at Andenne on the
Meuse seven chapels representing the Seven Churches of Rome,
around a central church, and in connection therewith she established
a convent and colonized it with nuns from her long-dead sister’s
abbey at Nivelles. It afterwards became a house of canonesses
and the Lateran canons regular commemorate St Begga as belonging
to their order. She is also venerated by the Béguines
of Belgium as their patroness, but the common statement that she
founded them is a mistake due to the similarity of the names.
St Begga died abbess of Andenne and was buried there.
A life of St Begga, together
with some collections of miracles,
has been printed in Ghesquière,
Acta Sanctorum Belgii,
vol. v (1789), pp. 70—125 it is of little historical value.
See also Berlière, Monasticon Belge,
vol. i, pp. 66—63 and DHG., vol. ii, cc. 1559— 1560.
There can he little doubt that the word beguinae, which
we first meet about the year 1200 and which, as stated
above, has nothing to do with St Begga, was originally
a term of reproach used of the Albigensians: see the
Dictionnaire de Spiritualité,
vol. i, cc. 1341-1342.
|
679
June 23 Saint Ethedlreda (Audrey) heaven sent seven day high
tide founded the great abbey of Ely, where she lived an austere
life body was found incorrupt
{see history
of Saint Etheldreda's Church in London:
Ely Productions
circa 1992 Video by Father
Kit Cunningham }In monastério Elyénsi, in Británnia, sanctæ Ediltrúdis, Regínæ et Vírginis, quæ sanctitáte et miráculis clara migrávit ad Dóminum. Ipsíus autem corpus, úndecim post annis, invéntum est incorrúptum. In England, in the monastery of Ely, St. Etheldreda, queen and virgin, who departed for heaven with a great renown for sanctity and miracles. Her body was found without corruption eleven years afterwards. {and 500 years later still incorrupt} Etheldreda von Ely Orthodoxe, Katholische und Anglikanische Kirche: 23. Juni ST ETHELDREDA, OR AUDREY, ABBESS OF ELY, WIDOW (A.D. 679) |
688 St. Richrudis
Benedictine abbess forty years
wed St. Adalbald 4 children Eusebia, Clotsind,
Adalsind, and Mauront all became saints 688 ST RICTRUDIS, WIDOW THE family of St Rictrudis was one of the most illustrious in Gascony, and her parents were devout as well as wealthy. In her father’s house when she was a young girl Rictrudis met one who was to be her director for a great part of her life. This was St Amandus, then an exile from the territory of King Dagobert, whose licentious conduct he had condemned; the prelate was evangelizing the Gascons, many of whom were still pagans. Later on there arrived another distinguished visitor in the person of St Adalbald, a young French nobleman in great favour with King Clovis. He obtained from his hosts the hand of Rictrudis in spite of the opposition of relations who viewed with disfavour any alliance with a Frank. The home to which Adalbald took his bride was Ostrevant in Flanders, and there four children were born to them— Mauront, Eusebia, Clotsind and Adalsind, all of whom, like their parents, were destined to be honoured in later times as saints. After Adalbald was murdered by
relatives in Gascony, she refused royal pressure to remarry and instead, with
the help of St. Amandus, she became
a nun at Marchiennes, Flanders, Belgium, a double monastery that she had
founded. Rictrudis served as abbess for some forty years until her death.
Adalsind and Clotsind joined
her, and Mauront became a monk there
too.
Rictrudis of Marchiennes, OSB Widow (AC) Born in Gascony; died 688. Saint Rictrudis was born into a noble Gascon family. She married Saint Adalbald, a Frankish nobleman serving king Clovis II, despite some opposition from her family. The couple had four children, all of whom are counted among the saints: SS Adalsindis, Clotsindis, Eusebia, and Maurontius. After 16 year of a happy married life at Ostrevant, Flanders, Adalbald was murdered while visiting in Gascony by relatives of Rictrudis who disapproved of the match. After several years, King Clovis ordered her to marry, but with the aid of her old friend and spiritual advisor, Saint Amandus, Clovis relented and permitted her to become a nun at Marchiennes, Flanders--a double monastery that she had founded. Adalsindis and Clotsindis joined her, and sometime later Maurontius, on the point of marrying, left the court and became a monk there, too. Rictrudis ruled Marchiennes as abbess for 40 years (Benedictines, Delaney). In art, Rictrudis holds a church
in her hand. She may also be
pictured with her children (Roeder).
|
May 08 652 Blessed
Ida of Nivelles built a double monastery
at Nivelles OSB Widow (AC) (also known as Itta, Iduberga) After the death of Blessed Pepin of Landen, his wife Ida built a double monastery at Nivelles. She and her younger daughter, Saint Gertrude entered the monastery, which was placed under the Benedictine Rule and governed by Gertrude (Benedictines). Several art historians give a stag with flaming horns as the emblem of Saint Ida of Nivelles, but it seems likely that this is a confusion with Ida of Toggenburg, whose proper attribute it is (Roeder). She is invoked against toothache and erysipelas (Roeder). |
659 St.
Gertrude of Nivelles Benedictine abbess mystic gifted with visions Nivigéllæ, in Brabántia, sanctæ Gertrúdis Vírginis, quæ claríssimo genere orta, despíciens mundum et toto vitæ suæ cursu in ómnibus sanctitátis offíciis se exércens, Christum sponsum in cælis habére méruit. At Nivelle in Brabant, St. Gertrude, a virgin of noble birth. Because she despised the world, and during her whole life practised all kinds of good works, she deserved to have Christ for her spouse in heaven. Daughter of Blessed Pepin of Landen and Blessed Itta of Ida. Itta founded Nivelles Abbey and installed Gertrude as abbess in 639. Gertrude was a mystic, gifted with visions. She befriended the Irish saints Foillian and Ultan. Gertrude is a patroness of travelers and gardeners. 659 ST GERTRUDE OF NIVELLES, VIRGIN ST GERTRUDE, the younger daughter of Bd Pepin of Landen and of Bd Itta, Ida or Iduberga, was born at Landen in 626. She had a brother, Grimoald, who succeeded his father, and a sister, St Begga, who married the son of St Arnulf of Metz. Gertrude was brought up carefully by her parents, who fostered her naturally religious disposition. When she was about ten years old, her father gave a feast at which he entertained King Dagobert and the chief nobles of Austrasia. One of these lords asked the monarch to bestow the hand of Gertrude on his son, who was present. Dagobert, no doubt thinking to please the little girl, sent for her and, pointing to the handsome young man in his brave attire, asked the child if she would like him for a husband. To his surprise Gertrude answered that she would never take him or any earthly bridegroom, as she wished to have Jesus Christ as her only lord and master. No one seems to have thought of overruling the girl’s determination, which was indeed applauded by the king and the assembly. Upon being left a widow, Bd
Itta consulted St Amand, Bishop of Maestricht, as to how
she and her daughter could best serve God, and by his advice
began to build a double monastery at Nivelles. Lest any attempt
should be made to interfere with Gertrude’s vocation, her
mother herself cut off her hair, shaving her head to the shape of
a monk’s tonsure. As soon as the new foundation was ready both mother
and daughter entered it, but Itta insisted upon making Gertrude superior,
while she herself served under her daughter, though assisting her
from time to time with her advice. The young abbess proved herself fully
equal to the position. She won the respect not only of her nuns but
of the many pilgrims of distinction who visited the house. Amongst the
latter were St Foillan and St Ultan on their way from Rome to Péronne,
where their brother St Fursey was buried. St Gertrude gave them land
at Fosses on which to build a monastery and a hospice. Foillan became
its abbot, but Ultan and some others were retained at Nivelles (according
to Irish writers) in order to instruct the community in psalmody. Bd Itta died in 652, and St
Gertrude, feeling the charge of so large an establishment,
committed much of the external administration to others.
This gave her more time for the study of the Holy Scriptures
and enabled her to add to her mortifications. So severely did
she treat her body that by the time she was thirty she was worn
out by fasting and want of sleep, and felt compelled to resign in
favour of her niece Wulfetrudis, whom she had trained, but who was
only twenty years old. The saint now began to prepare for death by
increasing her devotions and disciplines. Her biographer
relates that once, when she was praying in church, a globe as of
fire appeared above her head and lit up the building for half an hour.
Holy though she was, when
the time of her departure approached she was afraid because of her unworthiness,
and sent to ask St Ultan at Fosses whether he had had
any revelation with regard to her. The holy man sent back
word that she would die the following day while Mass was being
celebrated, but that she need have no fear, for St Patrick with
many angels and saints was waiting to receive her soul. St Gertrude
rejoiced at the message, and on March 17, while the priest was saying the prayers before the
preface, she rendered up her soul to God. In compliance with
her wish she was buried in her hair-shirt without shroud or winding-sheet,
and her head was wrapped in a worn-out veil which had been
discarded by a passing nun. St Gertrude has always been
regarded as a patroness of travellers, probably owing
to her care for pilgrims and to a miraculous rescue at sea
of some of her monks who invoked her name in great peril. Before
starting on a journey it was once the custom to drink a stirrup-cup
to her honour, arid a special goblet, of old used for the purpose,
is preserved at Nivelles with her relics, She came to be regarded also
as a patroness of souls who, on a three days’ journey to the next world
before the particular judgement, were popularly supposed to lodge the
first night with St Gertrude and the second night with St Michael. The
most constant emblem with which St Gertrude (who was widely invoked and
a very popular saint in Belgium and the Netherlands for many centuries)
is associated is a mouse. One or more mice are usually depicted climbing
up her crozier or playing about her distaff. No really satisfactory explanation
of this symbolism has ever been given, though many suggestions have been
made—for example, that while Gertrude was spinning, the Devil in the form
of a mouse used to gnaw her thread in order to provoke her to lose her temper.
In any case she was specially invoked against mice and rats, and as late
as 1822, when there was a plague of field-mice in the country districts
of the Lower Rhine, a band of peasants brought an offering to a shrine
of the saint at Cologne in the form of gold and silver mice. There may
also have been some underlying transference to her of traits derived
from the Freya or other pagan myths. St Gertrude is further invoked
for good quarters on a journey and for gardens. Fine weather on her
feast day is regarded as a favourable omen, and this day is treated in
some districts as marking the beginning of the season of out-door garden
work. There is an
early Latin Life of St Gertrude (which has been critically
edited by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov.,
vol. ii, pp. 447—474), as well as a number of other
documents of which details will be found in the BHL., nn. 3490—3504. See also Mabillon and the Bollandist
Acta Sanctorum. A full account of the folk
lore connected with St Gertrude of Nivelles is provided in Bächtold-Stäubli,
Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens
(1927), vol. iii, cc. 699—786, with a comprehensive
bibliography and cf. Kunstle,
Ikonographie der Heiligen, pp. 280—281.
See also A, F. Stocq, Vie critique de ste Gertrude
. . . (1031).
Gertrude of Nivelles, OSB Abbess (RM) Born at Landen in 626; died at Nivelles in 659. Saint Gertrude was the younger daughter of Blessed Pepin of Landen and Blessed Itta. Her sister Begga is also numbered among the saints. At an early age she devoted herself to the religious life. On the death of Pepin in 639 and on the advice of Saint Amand of Maastricht, Itta built a double monastery at Nivelles, where both mother and daughter retired. Gertrude was appointed abbess when she was judged old enough (about age 20). Although she was still very young, she discharged her responsibilities well with her mother's assistance. Gertrude was known for her hospitality pilgrims and her encouragement of and generous benefactions to the Irish missionary monks. She gave land to Saint Foillan, brother of Saint Fursey, on which he built the monastery of Fosses. She also helped the Irish Saint Ultan in his evangelizing efforts. At age 30 (656), Gertrude resigned her office in favor of her niece, Saint Wilfetrudis, because she was weakened by her many austerities. She spent the rest of her days studying Scripture and doing penances. Gertrude is another of the medieval mystics who was gifted with visions, and like Saint Catherine of Siena died at the significant age of 33--the age of Our Lord at His death. The cultus of Saint Gertrude became widely spread in the Lowlands, neighboring countries, and England. A considerable body of folklore gathered around her name. Saint Gertrude is named in Saint Bede's martyrology (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer). In art Gertrude is an abbess with mice (representing the souls in purgatory to whom she had a great devotion) running up her pastoral staff. Sometimes she is shown (1) holding a large mouse; (2) spinning or holding a distaff; or (3) with a cat near her (Roeder). As late as 1822, offerings of gold and silver mice were left at her shrine in Cologne (Farmer). Saint Gertrude is the patron saint of gardeners because fine weather on her feast day meant it was time to begin spring planting. Her patronage of travellers comes from her hospitality toward them (Delaney). Pilgrims used to drink a stirrup-cup in her honor before setting out. As an extension, she was also invoked as a patroness of those who had recently died, who were popularly supposed to experience a three-day journey to the next world. It was supposed that they spent the first night under the care of Gertrude, and the second under Saint Michael the Archangel. She is invoked against rats and mice (Farmer). |
680
St.
Bathildis Queen and
foundress Benedictine convent at Chelles,
St. Denis Monastery and Corbie |
680 Eusebia of Hamay,
OSB, Abbess wise and capable,
re-establishing discipline as in the
days of St Gertrude, (AC) 680 ST EUSEBIA, ABBESS ST EUSEBIA was the eldest daughter of St Adalbald of Ostrevant and of St Rictrudis. After the murder of her husband, Rictrudis retired to the convent of Marchiennes with her two younger daughters, and sent Eusebia to the abbey of Hamage, of which her great-grandmother St Gertrude was abbess. Eusebia was only twelve years old when St Gertrude died, but she was elected her successor, in compliance with her dying wishes and in accordance with the custom of the times, which required that the head of a religious house should, when possible, be of noble birth, so that the community should have the protection of a powerful family in tithes of disturbance. St Rictrudis, who was now abbess of Marchiennes, not unnaturally considered Eusebia far too young to have charge of a community, and bade her come to Marchiennes with all her nuns. The little abbess was loath to comply, but she obeyed, and arrived with her community and with the body of St Gertrude, when the two communities were merged into one and all settled down happily, except Eusebia. The memory of Hamage haunted her, until one night she and some of her nuns stole out and made their way to the abandoned buildings, where they said office and lamented over the non-fulfilment of St Gertrude’s last injunctions.
See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii; Destombes, Vies
des Saints de Cambrai, i,
pp. 349-343 and Analecta Bollandiana,
vol. xx (1901), pp 461—463.
The eldest daughter
of Saints Adalbald
and Rictrudis,
Saint Eusebia was placed by her
mother in the abbey of Hamage (Hamay) which had been founded
by her grandmother Saint Gertrude. When Saint Eusebia
succeeded as abbess at the age of 12, her mother objected
and summoned her daughter to Marchiennes. Eusebia
and her entire community answered her mother and moved
to Marchiennes. Later they were allowed to return to
Hamage, where Eusebia continued to rule her convent in peace
(Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia). |
688
St. Waldetrudis
ist Patronin von Mons
7 saints in family became
celebrated for the
miracles of healing which were wrought
through her both before and after her death:
April 9 fast day |
703 Ermengild of Ely wholly devoted to God, OSB, Widow (AC) |
723 St. Oda
Widow and servant of the poor
Originally a French princess wife of the duke of Aquitaine, she committed her life to aiding the poor after her husband’s death. |
725 July 04 St. Bertha Benedictine widow and abbess entered the convent she had founded at Blangy, in Artois, France. Two of her daughters joined her in the religious life. Bertha served as the abbess for a time and also lived as a recluse. |
730 Dec
24 St. Adele Widow Abbess
ruling with holiness prudence compassion Tréviris sanctæ Irmínæ Vírginis, fíliæ Dagobérti Regis. At Treves, St. Irmina, virgin, daughter of King Dagobert. 710 SS. IRMINA, VIRGIN, AND ADELA (734), WIDOW St Adela, another daughter of Dagobert
II, became a nun after
the death of her husband, Alberic. She is
probably the widow Adula, who about 691—692 was
living at Nivelles with her little son, the
future father of St Gregory of Utrecht. She founded a
monastery at Palatiolum, now Pfalzel, near Trier ;
she became its first abbess and governed it in holiness
for many years. Adela seems to have been among the disciples
of St Boniface, and a letter in his correspondence from
Abbess Aelitled of Whitby to an Abbess Adola is addressed
to her. St Irmina is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology,
but the cultus accorded popularly
to St Adela has not been confirmed and she is not venerated
liturgically.
The story
of Irmina’s early life,
recounted only by the monk Thiofrid nearly
400 years after her
death, is probably quite fabulous. There
is evidence that part of it is based upon a forged
charter. The Latin Life of St Irmina, edited by Weiland
in MGH., Scriptores, vol.
xxiii, pp. 48—50, is, however, the work of Thiofrid,
and not of Theodoric nearly a century later. See for
all this the Analecta Bollandiana,
vol. viii (1889), pp. 285—286 and also C. Wampach,
Grundherrschaft Echternach,
vol. i, Pt (1929), pp. 113—135,
and cf. the documents
printed in Pt ii (1930).
On Adela consult DHGr vol. i, c. 525. See further, E. Ewig in St
Bonifatius (1954), p. 418
and C. Wampach, "Irmina von Oeren und ihre Familie"
in Trierer Zeitschrift, vol. iii
(1928), pp. 144-~I54. St. Adele seems to have been among the disciples of St. Boniface (5 June, 755/(754)), the Apostle of Germany, and a letter in his correspondence is addressed to her. After a devout life filled with good works and communion with God, she passed on to her heavenly reward. Adela of Pfalzel, OSB Abbess, Widow (PC) Born c. 710; died c. 730. Abbess Adela, founder of Pfalzel (Palatiolum) Convent near Trèves (Trier, Germany), was a daughter of Saint Dagobert II, king of the Franks, and a sister of Saint Irmina. She became a nun after the death of her husband. She may be the widow "Adula," who is said to have been living at Nivelles with her young son--the future father of Saint Gregory of Utrecht. Adela was also a disciple of Saint Boniface (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). |
734 St.
Kentigerna
Widowed hermitess
mother St. Coellan daughter of Kelly --
Jan 07 734 St. Kentigerna Widowed hermitess mother St. Coellan daughter of Kelly the prince of Leinster, Ireland. When her husband died she went to Inchebroida Island in Loch Lomond, Scotland. A church there is dedicated to her memory. |
785 St. Werburg Widow abbess |
|
820 St. Anne
a widow, born in Constantinople;
Also
called Euphemianus.
Oct 29 |
860 Athanasia of Constantinople Matron married twice reluctantly turned their home into a convent venerated by Empress Theodora; celebrated for monastical observance and the gift of miracles. (RM) |
864
St. Laura
widowed; martyr. Born
in Cordova; murdered by Moors 864 Oct 19 St. Laura widowed; martyr. Born in Cordova; murdered by Moors St. Laura died in Spain, she became a nun at Cuteclara after she was widowed, and was scalded to death by her Moorish captors. Laura of Córdova, Abbess M (AC) Born in Córdova, Spain. In her widowhood Laura became a nun at Cuteclara, then its abbess. She was martyred by the Moorish conquerors who threw her into a cauldron of boiling pitch or molten lead (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). |
895 St. Richardis Empress and wife of Emperor Charles the Fat |
986 January 06 St. Wiltrudis
Widow Benedictine nun
wife of Duke Berthold - Bavaria. she became a nun after her husband's death (c. 947) and founded the convent of Bergen, near Neuburg, Germany, on the Danube about 976. She was well-known for her goodness and her abilities as an artisan. 986 ST WILTRUDIS, WIDOW RADERUS in his Bavaria Sancta describes Wiltrudis as a maiden who obtained the consent of her brother, Count Ortulf, to refuse the proposals of marriage, which had been made for her. The truth, however, appears to be that she was the wife of Berthold, Duke of Bavaria, who, after her husband’s death, about the year 947, became a nun. Even in the world she had been renowned for her piety and for her skill in handicrafts. After she gave herself to God her fervour redoubled and she eventually founded, about 976, an abbey of Benedictine nuns that became famous as that of Bergen, or Baring, bei Neuburg. She became the first abbess, and died about 986. See Rietzler, Geschichte Bayerns, vol. i, pp. 338 and 381 and Raderus, Bavaria Sancta, vol. iii, p. 137. |
968
Mar 14 St. Matilda
piety charitable works
Patron of parents of large families;
At Halberstadt
in Germany, death of blessed Queen
Matilda, mother of Emperor Otto I, renowned
for humility and patience. the queen proceeded to make a deed of gift of everything in her room until she was told that there was nothing left but the linen which was to serve as a winding-sheet. “Give that to Bishop William of Mainz”, she said designating her grandson. “He will need it first.” He actually die |
999 December
16 ST ADELAIDE,
WIDOW; regent generous
Throughout
her life she had shown herself and forgiving
to enemies, and amenable to the wise guidance in turn
of St Adalbert of Magdeburg, St Majolus and St Odilo
of Cluny, who called her “a marvel of beauty and grace”.
She founded and restored monasteries of monks and nuns,
and was urgent for the conversion of the Slavs, whose movements
on the eastern frontier troubled her closing years before
she finally returned to Burgundy. |
1024 February 05
Agatha Hildegard of Carinthia converted husband before
his death Widow (PC) Saint Agatha is highly venerated in Carinthia. She was the wife of Paul, the local count, and a model of devotion to her domestic duties and of patience under the brutal ill-treatment of her jealous husband, whom she converted before his death (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). |
1040
St. Cunegundes
Empress Patron of Lithuania
virgin |
1045 ST EMMA,
WIDOW founded the abbey of Gurk;
devoted her possessions
and her life to the service of God and of her fellow creatures. Besides giving alms liberally to the poor, she founded several religious houses, |
1105 Blessed Aleth
of Dijon Mother of Saint Bernard Widow (PC) (also known as Alethe, Aleidis, Aleydis, Alice) and many other holy children Aleth was the daughter of the lord of Montbard and wife of Tecolin (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). Her relics were at the Abbey of Saint Benignus in Dijon, France, in 1110, and transferred to Clairvaux in 1250 (Roeder). In art, Christ appears to Saint Aleth as she receives viaticum. Sometimes she is shown standing with her son, Saint Bernard (Roeder). |
1107 Mar 14 St
Paulina of Zell founded the double
abbey of Zell OSB Widow
(AC) Died at Münsterschwarzach, Germany. Upon the death of her husband, the German princess Paulina and her son, Werner, founded the double abbey of Zell, known as Paulinzelle (Benedictines). |
1113 April 12 Blessed
Ida
of Boulogne descendent of Blessed
Charlemagne Benedictine oblate
Widow (AC) 1113 Blessed Ida of Boulogne, Widow Died . Ida, daughter of Duke Godfrey IV (Dode) of Lorraine, descendent of Blessed Charlemagne. (AC) At age 17, she became the wife of Count Eustace II of Boulogne. She was the mother of Godfrey and Baldwin de Bouillon. After husband's death, Ida endowed several monasteries in Picardy, became a Benedictine oblate under obedience of the abbot of Saint Vaast (Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Gill). |
1175 April 19 St.
Helen
of Skovde Widow; gave all
her possessions to the poor; Like
Jesus, the innocent Lamb, St. Helen was put
to death; many miracles were reported at her tomb, 1175 St. Helen of Skovde Widow; gave all her possessions to the poor; Like Jesus, the innocent Lamb, St. Helen was put to death; many miracles were reported at her tomb, Born in Vastergotland, Sweden, in the twelfth century. She belonged to a noble family. However, after the death of her husband, she gave all her possessions to the poor. Following this, Helen made a pilgrimage to Rome. When she returned home, she found herself accused of involvement in the death of her son-in-law. It was later proved that the deed had been perpetrated by mistreated servants, but by that time, Helen had been executed. Following Helen's death, many miracles were reported at her tomb, and public devotion to her was approved in 1164, just four years after her death. Like Jesus, the innocent Lamb, St. Helen was put to death. Her goodness was preserved through the manifestation of God's power at her tomb. Although we may be suspect but innocent here in this life, God will provide sure justice hereafter. Helen of Skövde (Sköfde),
Widow M (AC) Died c. 1145-1160; canonized in 1164 by Alexander III.
Saint Sigfrid, apostle of Sweden, brought the noble matron Helen of
Vastergötland to the faith. When she was widowed at a youthful age,
she dedicated her wealth to the service of the poor and the Church. Thereafter,
Helen made a pilgrimage to Rome (or the Holy Land), and upon her return
she was murdered as the result of a family feud--her son-in-law's relatives
believed that she had plotted to kill him. Helen was buried at Skövde
in the church which she had built and was canonized on the strength of
the miracles that occurred there. Until the Reformation, Saint Helen was
highly honored in Sweden and on the isle of Zeeland in Denmark, which
claimed some of her relics. Her body was richly enshrined in a church dedicated
to her eight miles from Copenhagen. There a miraculous well, called Saint
Lene Kild or Saint Helen's Well, still draws even Lutherans.
|
1176 Blessed Clementia
of Oehren, OSB Widow (AC) Clementia, the daughter of Count Adolph of Hohenburg, was a model wife until the death of her husband. Thereafter she became a nun at Oehren in Trier, Germany (Benedictines). |
1213 June 23 Blessed Mary
(Marie) d'Oignies turned their house
into a leper hospital, and tended the sick
miraculously "see the Blessed Sacrament", Widow (AC)
able to discern the past history of relics (hierognosis,
psychometry).
She is invoked by women in childbirth
and against fever (Roeder).
BD MARY OF OIGNIES, VIRGIN (A.D. 1213) THE life of Mary of Oignies was written by Cardinal James de Vitry, who had been her friend, her disciple, and probably at one time her confessor. It was through her influence that he had been led to take holy orders; but, when expatiating upon her virtues, he warns his readers that her example is not one to be recommended for general imitation. She was born of wealthy parents at Nivelles in Brabant, and, though all her aspirations were directed towards the religious life, her parents as soon as she was fourteen gave her in marriage to a worthy young man of good position. If they anticipated that he would induce her to adopt a more conventional outlook, they were soon disillusioned; for Mary, young as she was, acquired a great ascendancy over her husband. At her persuasion he consented not only that they should undertake to live in continency, but also that her house should be turned into a hospital for lepers. The young couple nursed their patients with their own hands, sometimes sitting up with them all night, and distributed alms so lavishly and indiscriminately as to call forth the remonstrances of relations on both sides. These activities did not prevent Mary from practising great austerities. She used the discipline freely, wore a rough rope-girdle next to her skin, and stinted herself of food and sleep. We are told that throughout an exceptionally rigorous winter, from Martinmas until Easter, she spent every night in a church, lying on the bare ground without extra wraps of any kind, and that she never suffered as much as a headache in consequence. In her home, when engaged in spinning or other sedentary manual work, she did her best to avoid distractions by keeping before her an open psalter, upon which she could cast her eyes from time to time. Her biographer lays stress on her abnormal tearfulness, which he and others regarded as a spiritual grace. Even if in these days we should be more disposed to treat it as the physical reaction from the nervous strain to which she subjected her body, it must not be forgotten that the gift of tears was deemed by many to be a mark of true compunction of heart. To the present time a set of collects, pro petitione lacrymarum, stands in the Roman Missal, and St Ignatius Loyola, from a fragment still preserved of his spiritual diary, evidently regarded the days on which he did not shed tears during Mass as a time of desolation when God, so to speak, averted His face. Mary herself maintained that weeping relieved and refreshed her. The fame of the sanctity of the holy ascetic attracted many visitors, few of whom left her without being edified and helped by her admonitions or counsels; but a few years before her death she felt the call to retire into solitude. With the consent of her husband she accordingly left Willambroux, and took up her residence in a cell close beside the Austin canons' monastery at Oignies. She had in the past had many visions and ecstasies; now she seemed to be constantly surrounded by the denizens of Heaven. She died at the age of thirty-eight, on June 23, 1213, after a long and painful illness, which she had long foreseen. What is perhaps most remarkable about Mary of Oignies is the fact that she and a group of mystics in the Netherlands, notably the Beguines, seem to have anticipated by some few years that change in the spirit of Catholic devotion which is commonly considered to date from the Franciscan movement. Cardinal James de Vitry, in his preface to the Life of Bd Mary, appeals to Bishop Fulk of Toulouse, who had himself been an eye-witness of the extraordinary wave of affective piety of which Belgium was then the nucleus. He undoubtedly had Mary of Oignies most prominently in mind when he addressed Bishop Fulk in these terms: I well remember your speaking to
me of having left the Egypt of your own diocese, and after passing over a
weary desert, of your finding in the country of Liege the promised land....You
found, too, as I have heard you say
with joy, many holy women amongst us, who
mourned more over one venial sin than the people of your
own country would have done over a thousand mortal ones
...You saw large bands of these holy women, despising earthly
delights and the riches of this world through their longing
desire after a heavenly kingdom, and clinging to the Eternal
Spouse by the bands of poverty and humility. You found them earning
a poor subsistence by the work of their hands, and though their
parents abounded in wealth, yet preferring to forget their own
people and their father's house, and endure the straits of poverty,
rather than enjoy ill-gotten affluence.
A tender devotion to the passion
of our Lord was specially characteristic of the
movement, and it must be remembered that when Mary
wept so copiously that, as Vitry says, "her steps might
be traced in the church she was walking in by her
tears on the pavement", these tears, so he goes on to tell
us, "were poured forth from the wine-press of the Passion",
and that “from this time she could not for a long while either
look at a crucifix, or speak of the Passion, or even hear
others speak of it, without fainting". Equally remarkable was that anticipation of devotion to our Lord's real presence in the Blessed Sacrament of which, up to this date, there is little trace in the devotional literature. But of Mary of Oignies James de Vitry says: "Sometimes she was permitted to take rest in her cell; but at other times, especially when some great festival was approaching, she could find no rest except in the presence of Christ in the church." Further, any doubt which might be felt as to the meaning of the words, "in the presence of Christ in the church", seems to be dispelled by an examination of that other brief account of Mary of Oignies, written by Thomas of Cantimpré, which the Bollandists have printed as an appendix to James de Vitry's biography. In this other narrative reference is made to a very wealthy man who was in some sense a convert of Mary's. She told him, we learn, at a time when he was in great spiritual distress, "to go into the church near by"; whereupon he obeyed, and "falling on his knees before the holy altar, directed his mental gaze intently upon the pyx containing the Body of Christ, which hung above it". It then seemed to him in a sort of vision that the pyx three times over moved from its place, came through the air in his direction where he knelt praying, and remained stationary close in front of him. When this happened for the third time, he was rapt out of his senses and held secret communion with God. The following passage, bearing in mind the date to which it belongs, is in many ways interesting : Mary's comfort and great delight,
till she arrived at the land of promise,
was the manna of life which comes down from
Heaven. The sacred Bread strengthened her heart, and
the heavenly Wine inebriated and gladdened her soul.
She was filled with the holy food of Christ's flesh, and
His life-giving blood cleansed and purified her. This was
the only comfort she could not endure to be without. To receive
Christ's body was the same thing with her as to live, and
to die was, in her mind, to be separated from her Lord by not
partaking of his Blessed Sacrament.... The saying, "Unless a
man eat the Flesh...", so far from being a hard one to her,
as it was to the Jews, was most sweet and comforting; since she
experienced not only all interior delight and consolation
from receiving Him, but even a sensible sweetness in her mouth,
like the taste of honey....And as her thirst for the life-giving
Blood of her Lord was so great that she could not bear it, she sometimes
entreated that, at least, the bare chalice might be left on the
altar after Mass, that she might feast her sight with it.
Mary was also one of the earliest
mystics of whom are recorded, in some detail,
examples of what we should now be tempted to call psychic
gifts. She is said to have known, in certain cases, what
was taking place at a distance, she had strange premonitions
about the future, and she was believed to be able to discern
the past history of relics (hierognosis, psychometry). James
de Vitry was undoubtedly speaking of himself when he related
her inexplicable knowledge of the details of what passed
when "a friend of hers" was ordained in Paris. It is important to remember that James de Vitry is a most reliable witness. Not only had he spent some five years, from 1208 to her death in 1213, in Mary's company, but his whole career and his writings prove him to have been a man of scrupulous integrity and of sober judgement. He always regarded Mary as his spiritual mother, and considered himself to have been highly honoured by the fact that she looked upon him as her special “preacher" and identified herself with his apostolic work. The biography of Mary seems to have been written shortly after her death and before James became a cardinal, but he retained his devotion to her and to Oignies until the end of his days. She always declared that he had been given to her in answer to her prayers that since she, on account of her sex, could not teach the faithful and draw them to God, she might do it by deputy. There was certainly a great bond between them, and during her last sickness she prayed for him continually, begging first of all that God would so preserve him that when he came to die she might offer up his soul as one which God had entrusted to her and which she restored with usury. She mentioned all the trials and temptations and even the sins of "her preacher", which he had formerly been guilty of, and then prayed God to keep him from such for the time to come. The prior, who knew his conscience from hearing his confessions, heard her repeat all this; so he went to him and asked him whether he had told the saint all his sins, for, he added, in the course of her singing she has related all that you have done, just as if she had read it out of a book. "Singing" refers to the extraordinary rapture of Mary's last days when she spoke in Romance rhythmical prose, or possibly verse. Even the physical conditions under which she lived were extraordinary. Thus we are told that “in the depth of winter she needed no material fire to keep off the cold, but even when the frost was so severe as to turn all the water into ice, she, wonderful to say, burned so in spirit that her body partook of the warmth of her soul, especially in time of prayer; so that sometimes she even perspired, and her clothes were scented with a sweet aromatic fragrance. Oftentimes also the smell of her clothes was like the smell of incense, while prayers were ascending from the thurible of her heart." One would suspect such statements, if they depended merely on tradition. But James de Vitry was there himself, and he was undoubtedly a devout and honest man, who told the truth fearlessly. Practically speaking all that is
known of the life of Mary of Oignies will be found in the Acta Sanctorum,
June, vol. v. To the text of the biography
by Cardinal James de Vitry the Bollandists
have appended a certain supplementary notice by Thomas
de Cantimpré. There is an excellent translation
of Vitry printed in the Oratorian series of
Lives of the Saints: it is included in the second volume
of the Life of St Jane Frances de Chantal
(1852). See also P. Funk Jakob van Vitry (1909), pp. 113-130;
and on Oignies, U. Berlière, Monasticon BeIge,
vol. i, pp. 451-452. Further, there is an article in The
Month, June, 1922, pp. 526-537, by Fr Thurston, from
which much of what is written above has been borrowed. An
important study of Mary by R. Hanon de Louvet was reviewed
in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lxxi (1953),
pp. 481-485. Bd Mary had influence on the founding of the
Canons Regular of the Holy Cross (Crosiers) by Theodore of
Celles, at Clair-Lieu, near Huy, in 1211.
Born at Nivelles, Belgium, c. 1177; died in Oignies, Belgium, in 1213. Marie d'Oignies was only 14 when she married, but she persuaded her husband not to consummate the marriage. They lived together as brother and sister. They then turned their house into a leper hospital, and tended the sick there. Finally, Marie became a recluse in a cell near the church of Oignies, where she was favored by supernatural charismata. In a near contemporary biography, Marie d'Oignes, is said to have had a similar intense contemplation of the Passion 12 years before that of St. Francis. Wounds were detected on her body when it was washed at her death; however, it is not possible to know whether these were self- inflicted or of mystical origin. Marie could miraculously "see the Blessed Sacrament" Marie's relics were placed in a silver shrine behind the altar at Oignies, a monastery of canons regular in the diocese of Namur. He vita was written by Cardinal James of Vitry, once a canon regular in that monastery, afterwards bishop of Acon in Palestine, and later of Tusculum. Her name is inserted in the calendars of several churches in Flanders, in some of which she has been honored with an office (Benedictines, Harrison, Martindale). In art, Blessed Marie is pictured as a recluse visited by an angel. She may sometimes be shown (1) with an angel by her side; (2) spinning or praying in her cell; (3) interceding for the souls in purgatory; or (4) as the Virgin spreads her mantle over her to protect her from rain (Roeder). |
1228 BD JUTTA
OF HUY, Jan 13
Widow an extraordinary
power of reading the thoughts
of others, and apparently a knowledge of distant
events; she also displayed the greatest
charity in directing and helping the many souls
who came to consult her in her anchorage. |
1247 May 16 St.
Margaret of Cortona established a hospital
and founded a congregation of tertiary sisters devoted
to the Eucharist and the passion of Jesus b. 1297 Some people have called Margaret the Mary Magdalene of the Franciscan movement. Margaret was born of farming parents in Laviano, Tuscany. Her mother died when Margaret was seven; life with her stepmother was so difficult that Margaret moved out. For nine years she lived with Arsenio, though they were not married, and she bore him a son. In those years, she had doubts about her situation. Somewhat like St. Augustine she prayed for purity—but not just yet. One day she was waiting for Arsenio and was instead met by his dog. The animal led Margaret into the forest where she found Arsenio murdered. This crime shocked Margaret into a life of penance. She and her son returned to Laviano, where she was not well received by her stepmother. They then went to Cortona, where her son eventually became a friar. There she established a hospital and founded a congregation of tertiary sisters. The poor and humble Margaret was, like Francis, devoted to the Eucharist and to the passion of Jesus. These devotions fueled her great charity and drew sinners to her for advice and inspiration. She was canonized in 1728. Comment Seeking forgiveness is
sometimes difficult work. It is made easier
by meeting people who, without trivializing our sins,
assure us that God rejoices over our repentance. Being
forgiven lifts a weight and prompts us to Quote: "Let us raise
ourselves from our fall and not give up hope as long as we
free ourselves from sin.
Jesus
Christ came into this world to save sinners. ‘O come,
let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD,
our Maker!’ (Psalm 95:6). The Word calls us to repentance,
crying out: ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying
heavy burdens and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11:28). There
is, then, a way to salvation if we are willing to follow it"
(Letter of Saint Basil the Great).acts of charity. In 1277, three
years after her conversion, Margaret became a Franciscan tertiary.
Under the direction of her confessor, who sometimes had to
order her to moderate her self-denial, she pursued a life of
prayer and penance at Cortona. |
1260 May 05 St. Jutta Widowed noblewoman of Thuringia noted for visions and miracles |
1261 Blessed Ela foundress monastery of Carthusians convent of Augustinians nuns, Widow (PC) |
1261
Blessed Ela foundress monastery of Carthusians convent
of Augustinians
nuns, Widow Feb 01
Feast day |
1268 Bl. Salomea
princess became a Franciscan tertiary; did her best to make her court
a model of Christian life; founding a convent of Poor Clares; 28 yrs a Poor
Clare; abbess 1268 BD SALOME, WIDOW SOME time about the year 1205 Bd Vincent
Kadlubek, Bishop of Cracow, was commissioned to take a child of three years
old to the court of King Andrew II of Hungary. She was Salome, daughter of
Leszek the Fair of Poland, who had arranged a marriage for her with Andrew’s
son, Koloman. Ten years later the marriage was solemnized. But Salome lived
more like a nun than a princess she became a tertiary of the Franciscan Order,
and did her best to make her court a model of Christian life. About 1225
Koloman was killed in battle. Salome continued to live in the world for
some years, being a liberal benefactress of the Friars Minor and founding
a convent of Poor Clares, to which she herself retired eventually. She
was a nun for twenty-eight years, and was elected abbess of the community.
Bd Salome died on November 17, 1268, and her cultus was approved by Pope
Clement X.
There is a medieval Latin life printed in the Monumenta Poloniae Historica, vol. iv, pp. 776—796 and some account in Wadding, Annales Ord. Min., vol. iii, pp. 353—355 and vol. iv, pp. 284—285. See also Leon, Aureole Seraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. iv, pp. 71—74. The daughter of a Polish prince, she was betrothed at the age of three to Prince Coloman of Hungary, son of King Andrew II. She became a widow in 1241 when Coloman was killed in battle. She then entered the Poor Clares, founding a convent at Zawichost (later moved to Skala). She later became the abbess of the convent and died there on November 17. She was beatified in 1673. |
1262 Blessed Beatrix II of Este founded Benedictine convent of Saint Antony at Ferrara (AC) |
1300 May 06 Blessed
Bonizella Piccolomini; Widow,
devoted herself and all her wealth to service
of the poor (PC) When Naddo Piccolomini died, his Sienese wife Bonizella devoted herself and all her wealth to the service of the poor in the district of Belvederio, Italy (Benedictines). |
June 12 1298 Blessed
Jolenta (Yolanda) of Poland daughter
of Bela IV, King of Hungary. Her sister,
St. Kunigunde miracles, down to our own day, occurr
at her grave
1299 BD JOLENTA OF HUNGARY, WIDOW JOLENTA, or Helena as she is
called by the Poles, was one of four
sisters who are honoured with the title
of Blessed. They were the daughters of Bela IV, King
of Hungary, the nieces of St Elizabeth, the
great-nieces of St Hedwig, and lineal descendants
of the Hungarian kings St Stephen and
St Ladislaus.
When she was five years old, Jolenta was committed to the care of her elder sister, Bd Cunegund, or Kinga, who had married Boleslaus II, King of Poland. Under their fostering care, the little girl grew up a pattern of virtue. She became the wife of Duke Boleslaus of Kalisz, with whom she spent a happy married life. Both of them were addicted to good works, and together they made various religious foundations. Jolenta was beloved by all, but especially by the poor, for whom she had a tender love. After the death of her husband, as soon as she had settled two of her daughters, she retired with the third and with Bd Cunegund, now, like herself, a widow, into the convent of Poor Clares which Cunegund had established at Sandeck. Jolenta's later years, however, were spent at Gnesen as superior of the convent of which she had been the foundress. She died there in 1299. See J. B. Prileszky, Acta Sanctorum Hungariae, vol. ii, Appendix, pp. 54-55; Hueber, Menologium Franciscanum, p. 918; and cf. the bibliography attached to Bd Cunegund on July 24.She was married to the Duke of Poland. Jolenta was sent to Poland where her sister was to supervise her education. Eventually married to Boleslaus, the Duke of Greater Poland, Jolenta was able to use her material means to assist the poor, the sick, widows and orphans. Her husband joined her in building hospitals, convents and churches so that he was surnamed "the Pious." Upon the death of her husband and the marriage of two of her daughters, Jolenta and her third daughter entered the convent of the Poor Clares. War forced Jolenta to move to another convent where, despite her reluctance, she was made abbess. So well did she serve her Franciscan sisters by word and example that her fame and good works continued to spread beyond the walls of the cloister. Her favorite devotion was the Passion of Christ. Indeed, Jesus appeared to her, telling her of her coming death. Many miracles, down to our own day, are said to have occurred at her grave. Comment: Jolenta’s
story begins like a fairy tale. But fairy tales seldom include the death
of the prince and never end with the princess living out her days in a convent.
Nonetheless, Jolenta’s story has
a happy ending. Her life of charity toward
the poor and devotion to her Franciscan sisters indeed
brought her to a “happily ever after.” Our lives may
be short on fairy-tale elements, but our generosity and
our willingness to serve well the people we live with
lead us toward an ending happier than we can imagine.
|
1305 March 21
Blessed Santuccia
Terrebotti Benedictine abbess OSB
Widow (AC) 1305 Blessed Santuccia Terrebotti Benedictine abbess OSB Widow (AC). 1305 BD SANTUCCIA, MATRON THE picturesque town of Gubbio
in Umbria was the birthplace of Santuccia
Terrebotti. She married a good man and they had
one daughter, called Julia, who died young. The bereaved
parents thereupon decided to retire from the world and
to devote the rest of their days to God in the religious life.
For some time Santuccia ruled a community of Benedictine nuns
in Gubbio, but upon receiving the offer of the buildings which
had once been occupied by the Templars on the Julian Way,
she transferred herself and her sisters to Rome. There she inaugurated
a community of Benedictine nuns who called themselves Servants
of Mary, but were popularly known as Santuccie. The
cultus of Bd Santuccia has never been
confirmed.
See
Garampi, Memorie ecclesiastiche;
Spicilegium Benedictinum (1898), vol.
ii; and Acta Sanctorum, March, vol.
iii. Born in Gubbio, Umbria, Italy; Santuccia married
and bore a daughter who died young. She and her husband mutually agreed
to separate and enter religious life. She became a Benedictine at Gubbio
and rose to be an abbess. Under her the community migrated to Santa Maria
in Via Lata, on the Julian Way, Rome. There she inaugurated a stricter adherence
to live the Benedictine Rule, although the sisters are usually called the
Servants of Mary, popularly called Le Santuccie (Attwater2, Benedictines).
|
1309 St. Aldo (Aldobrandesca)
Widow she gave away all possessions ministering to sick visions
almsdeeds and mortification and ecstasies Siena (also known as Aldobrandesca, Aude, Blanca,
Bruna) 1309 BD ALDA, OR ALDOBRANDESCA, Widow won the veneration of all, and many were the cures attributed to her ministrations. THE tomb of Bd Alda was formerly a great centre of devotion in the church of St Thomas at Siena. She was a matron of good position who, upon finding herself a childless widow, retired into a little house outside the walls of Siena. There she devoted herself to almsgiving, and by mortifications tried to fill up the chalice of the sufferings of Christ. She had many visions in which she beheld scenes in the earthly life of our Lord. Gradually she gave away all her possessions and finally she determined to sacrifice her solitude, and went to live in the hospital that she might devote herself to nursing the sick poor. She still continued to be subject to ecstasies. When first she was seen in a state of trance resembling catalepsy, some members of the staff were sceptical and scoffed—even going so far as to pinch her, pierce her with needles, and apply lighted candles to her hands. When she recovered consciousness she felt intense pain from the wounds thus made, but all she said to her tormentors was, “God forgive you”. The experiments were not repeated. Before her death Bd Alda won the veneration of all, and many were the cures attributed to her ministrations. A short life
was published in 1584 by C. Lombardelli this has been translated
into Latin and printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April,
vol. iii.
Born in Siena, Italy, 1249; Blessed Alda
married a very pious man and lived with him in conjugal continence.
Upon his death, Alda joined the third order of the Humiliati and devoted
her life to almsdeeds and mortification. She is greatly honored in
Siena (Benedictines).(also known as Esperance, Exuperance) A virgin whose relics are venerated in Troyes, France. Nothing else is known about her (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). 28 febbraio 1245 - Siena, 26 aprile 1309 A native of Siena, and also known as Aude and Aldobrandesca, she gave away all her possessions on the death of her husband and devoted herself to aiding the poor. She spent the last part of her life ministering to the sick in the hospital at Siena, subjecting herself to great mortifications. She experienced visions and ecstasies during her lifetime. Nacque il 28 febbraio 1245 dal nobile Pietro Francesco Ponzi e da Agnese Bulgarini, alla quale Dio aveva mostrato in sogno di aver scelto la nascitura per sé; dopo essere stata educata e istruita con ogni cura, fu data in sposa al concittadino Bindo Bellanti, uomo «virtutibus ornatissimus», dal quale, però, non ebbe figli. Dopo la morte prematura del marito, A. vestì l'abito del Terz'Ordine degli Umiliati e si diede, ancor più di prima, a far vita penitente nella solitudine di una sua piccola proprietà, dove operò miracoli ed ebbe estasi e visioni. Passò gli ultimi anni nell'ospedale di S. Andrea, che in seguito fu detto di S. Onofrio, dedicandosi tutta al servizio dei poveri, degli infermi e dei pellegrini. Alda morì il 26 aprile 1309 e fu sepolta nella chiesa di S. Tommaso in Siena, appartenente agli Umiliati. Le sue ossa nel 1489 furono levate da terra e poste in una parete a lato di un altare, da dove nel 1583 furono trasferite. Il suo culto, oltre che a Siena e in altre città, ebbe molta diffusione nell'Ordine degli Umiliati. February 28 was born 1245 from the noble Pietro Francesco Ponzi and from Agnese Bulgarini, to which God had shown in dream of to have chosen the nascitura for oneself; after to to be been educated and taught with every care, was given in bride to the fellow-citizen Bindo Bellanti, man «virtutibus ornatissimus», from which, however, not ebbe sons. After the premature death of the husband, TO. dressed the clothing of the Terz' Order of the Humiliated and it is given, even more of first, to make life penitente in the solitude of an its small property, where operò miracles and ebbe ecstasy and sights. It passed the last years in the hospital of S. Andrea, that later on had said of S. Onofrio, dedicating itself all to the service of the poor, of the ill and of the pilgrims. Alda 26 April 1309 died and was buried in the church of S. Tommaso in Siena, belonging to the Humiliated. His bone in 1489 had been easts from land and mail in a wall to side of an altar, from where in 1583 had been transferred. Its religion, beyond that to Siena and in other town, much ebbe spread in the order of the Humiliated. |
1309 BD ANGELA OF FOLIGNO, WIDOW must always take her place among the great mystics and contemplatives of the middle ages, side by side with Catherine of Siena and Catherine of Genoa. |
1309 April 26 St. Aldo (Aldobrandesca) Widow she gave away all possessions ministering to sick visions almsdeeds and mortification and ecstasies Siena (also known as Aldobrandesca, Aude, Blanca, Bruna) |
1310 May 22 Humility
of Faenza, OSB Vall. Widow
heroic fasting and savagely austere life
(AC) |
1336
July 04 St. Elizabeth of Portugal exercises
of piety, including daily Mass, but also through
her exercise of charity, by which she was able to
befriend and help pilgrims, strangers, the sick, the poor—in
a word, all those whose need came to her notice.
Stremótii, in Lusitánia, natális sanctæ Elísabeth Víduæ, Lusitanórum Regínæ, quam, virtútibus et miráculis claram, Urbánus Octávus, Póntifex Máximus, in Sanctórum númerum rétulit. Ejus tamen celébritas octávo Idus mensis hujus recólitur, ex dispositióne Innocéntii Papæ Duodécimi. At Estremos in Portugal, the birthday of St. Elizabeth the Widow, queen of Portugal, whom Pope Urban VIII, mindful of her virtues and miracles, placed among the number of the saints. Pope Innocent XII ordered her feast to be kept on the 8th of July. Sanctæ Elísabeth Víduæ, Lusitanórum Regínæ, quæ ad regnum cæléste quarto Nonas hujus mensis transívit. St. Elisabeth, widow, queen of Portugal, whose birthday is observed on the 4th of July. ST ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL, WIDOW (A.D. 1336 THIS Elizabeth was daughter
of Peter III, King of Aragon. She was born in 1271, and received at the font
the name of Elizabeth, from her great-aunt,
St Elizabeth of Hungary, but she is known
in her own country by the Spanish form of that name;
Isabella. Her birth was an omen of that title of "the
Peacemaker" which she was to earn in after-life, for by
it was established a good understanding between her grandfather
James, who was then on the throne, and her father, whose
quarrelling had divided the whole kingdom. The young princess
was of a sweet disposition, and from her early years had
relish for anything that was conducive to devotion and goodness.
She desired to emulate every virtue which she saw practised
by others, for she had been already taught that mortification of the
will is to be joined with prayer to obtain the grace which restrains
our tendency to sin. This is often insufficiently considered
by those parents who excite the wilfulness and self-indulgence
of their children by teaching them a love of worthless things
and giving in to every whim and want. Certainly, fasting is
not good for them; but submission of the will, obedience, and consideration
for others are never more indispensable than at this time; nor
is any abstinence more fruitful than that by which children are
taught not to drink or eat between meals, to bear little denials
without impatience, and never to make a fuss about things. The victory
of Elizabeth over herself was owing to this early training.
At twelve years of age she was
married to Denis, King of Portugal. That prince
admired her birth, beauty, riches and personality
more than her virtue; yet he allowed her an entire
liberty in her devotion, and esteemed her piety without
feeling called on to imitate it. Elizabeth therefore
planned for herself a regular distribution of her time,
which she never interrupted unless extraordinary occasions
of duty or charity obliged her. She rose early every
morning, and recited Matins, Lauds and Prime before Mass;
in the afternoon she had other regular devotions after
Vespers. Certain hours were allotted to her domestic affairs,
public business, or what she owed to others. She was abstemious
in her food, modest in her dress, humble and affable in conversation,
and wholly bent upon the service of God. Frequent attempts were
made to induce her to modify her life, but without success. Charity
to the poor was a distinguishing part of her character. She gave
orders to have pilgrims and poor strangers provided with lodging
and necessaries, and made it her business to seek out and relieve
persons who were reduced to necessity. She provided marriage
dowries for girls, and founded in different parts of the kingdom
charitable establishments, particularly a hospital at Coimbra,
a house for penitent women at Torres Novas, and a refuge
for foundlings. Nor with it all did Elizabeth neglect any
of her immediate duties, especially those of respect, love
and obedience to her husband, whose neglect and infidelity she
bore with much patience. For Denis, though a good ruler, was a bad subject: just, brave, generous and compassionate in public life, devoted to his realm, but in his private relations selfish and sinful. The queen used all her endeavours to reclaim him, grieving deeply for the offence to God and the scandal given to the people; she never ceased to pray for his conversion. She strove to gain him by courtesy and constant sweetness, and cheerfully cherished his natural children and took care of their education. St Elizabeth had two children, Alfonso, who afterwards succeeded his father, and a daughter, Constance. This son when he grew up showed a very rebellious spirit, partly due to the favour in which his father held his illegitimate sons. Twice he rose in arms and twice his mother brought about a reconciliation, riding out between the opposing forces. But evil tongues suggested to the king that she secretly favoured her son and for a time she was banished from the court. Her love for concord and qualities as a peacemaker were indeed very notable; she stopped or averted war between Ferdinand IV of Castile, and his cousin, and between that prince and her own brother, James II of Aragon. Her husband Denis became seriously ill in 1324, and Elizabeth gave all her attention to him, scarcely ever leaving his room unless to go to the church. During his long and tedious illness the king gave marks of sincere sorrow for the disorders of his life, and he died at Santarem on January 6, 1325. After his burial the queen made a pilgrimage to Compostela, after which she wished to retire to a convent of Poor Clares which she had founded at Coimbra. However, she was dissuaded, and instead she was professed in the third order of St Francis, and lived in a house which she built near to her convent, leading a life of great simplicity. The cause of peace that had been so dear to her all her life was the occasion of Elizabeth's death, which came about on July 4, 1336 at Estremoz, whither she had gone on an errand of reconciliation in spite of her age and the great heat. She was buried in the church of her monastery of Poor Clares at Coimbra, and honoured by miracles; and eventually in 1626 her cultus was crowned by canonization. The Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. ii, have printed
a life of the queen which seems to
be of almost contemporary date, and a good
deal of information may also be found in the chronicles
of the period. See also P; de Moucheron, Ste Elisabeth d'Aragon
(1896); and a short sketch by Fr V. McNabb
(1937). The story (told by Butler in company
with many others) of the innocent page saved miraculously
from death in a lime-kiln is a mere fiction which can
be traced back to the folk-lore of ancient India. See Cosquin
in the Revue des Questions
historiques, vol. lxxiii (1903), pp, 3-12,
with vol. lxxiv, pp, 207-217; and Formichi in
Archivio delle tradizioni
popolari, vol. xxii (1903), pp. 9-30.
It is only in 1562 that we find it christianized and
told in connection with St Elizabeth.
Elizabeth is usually depicted in royal garb with a dove or an olive branch. At her birth in 1271, her father, Pedro III, future king of Aragon, was reconciled with his father, James, the reigning monarch. This proved to be a portent of things to come. Under the healthful influences surrounding her early years, she quickly learned self-discipline and acquired a taste for spirituality. Thus fortunately prepared, she was able to meet the challenge when, at the age of 12, she was given in marriage to Denis, king of Portugal. She was able to establish for herself a pattern of life conducive to growth in God’s love, not merely through her exercises of piety, including daily Mass, but also through her exercise of charity, by which she was able to befriend and help pilgrims, strangers, the sick, the poor—in a word, all those whose need came to her notice. At the same time she remained devoted to her husband, whose infidelity to her was a scandal to the kingdom. He too was the object of many of her peace endeavors. She long sought peace for him with God, and was finally rewarded when he gave up his life of sin. She repeatedly sought and effected peace between the king and their rebellious son, Alfonso, who thought that he was passed over to favor the king’s illegitimate children. She acted as peacemaker in the struggle between Ferdinand, king of Aragon, and his cousin James, who claimed the crown. And finally from Coimbra, where she had retired as a Franciscan tertiary to the monastery of the Poor Clares after the death of her husband, she set out and was able to bring about a lasting peace between her son Alfonso, now king of Portugal, and his son-in-law, the king of Castile. Third Order of St. Francis Elizabeth was a Spanish princess who was given in marriage to King Denis of Portugal at the age of twelve. She was very beautiful and very lovable. She was also very devout, and went to Mass every day. Elizabeth was a holy wife, but although her husband was fond of her at first, he soon began to cause her great suffering. Though a good ruler, he did not imitate his wife's love of prayer and other virtues. In fact, his sins of impurity gave great scandle to the people. Later, to make matters worse, the King believed a lie told about Elizabeth and one of her pages by another page, who was jealous of his companion. In great anger the King ordered the one he believed guilty, to be sent to a lime-burner. The lime-burner was commanded to throw into his furnace the first page who came. The good page set out obediently, not knowing death was waiting for him. On his way he stopped for Mass, since he had the habit of going daily. The first Mass had begun, so he stayed for a second one. In the meantime, the King sent the wicked page to the lime-burner to find out if the other had been killed. And so it was this page who was thrown into the furnace! When the King learned what had happened, he realized that God had saved the good page, punished the liar, and proven Queen Elizabeth to be innocent. This amazing event helped greatly to make the King live better. He apologized to his wife in front of everyone and began to have a great respect for her. In his last sickness, she never left his side, except for Mass, until he died a holy death. St. Elizabeth lived for eleven more years, doing even greater charity and penance. She was a wonderful model of kindness toward the poor and a successful peacemaker between members of her own family and between nations. Because St. Elizabeth was faithful
to daily Mass, she found strength
to carry her many great crosses. And because
her page was faithful to daily Mass, he escaped death.
We should try our best to make it a habit to go to Mass
daily.
Comment: The work of promoting peace is anything but a calm and quiet endeavor. It takes a clear mind, a steady spirit and a brave soul to intervene between people whose emotions are so aroused that they are ready to destroy one another. This is all the more true of a woman in the early 14th century. But Elizabeth had a deep and sincere love and sympathy for humankind, almost a total lack of concern for herself and an abiding confidence in God. These were the tools of her success. July 4, 2010 St. Elizabeth of Portugal (1271-1336) Elizabeth is usually depicted in royal garb with a dove or an olive branch. At her birth in 1271, her father, Pedro III, future king of Aragon, was reconciled with his father, James, the reigning monarch. This proved to be a portent of things to come. Under the healthful influences surrounding her early years, she quickly learned self-discipline and acquired a taste for spirituality. Thus fortunately prepared, she was able to meet the challenge when, at the age of 12, she was given in marriage to Denis, king of Portugal. She was able to establish for herself a pattern of life conducive to growth in God’s love, not merely through her exercises of piety, including daily Mass, but also through her exercise of charity, by which she was able to befriend and help pilgrims, strangers, the sick, the poor—in a word, all those whose need came to her notice. At the same time she remained devoted to her husband, whose infidelity to her was a scandal to the kingdom. He too was the object of many of her peace endeavors. She long sought peace for him with God, and was finally rewarded when he gave up his life of sin. She repeatedly sought and effected peace between the king and their rebellious son, Alfonso, who thought that he was passed over to favor the king’s illegitimate children. She acted as peacemaker in the struggle between Ferdinand, king of Aragon, and his cousin James, who claimed the crown. And finally from Coimbra, where she had retired as a Franciscan tertiary to the monastery of the Poor Clares after the death of her husband, she set out and was able to bring about a lasting peace between her son Alfonso, now king of Portugal, and his son-in-law, the king of Castile. Comment: The work of promoting
peace is anything but a calm and
quiet endeavor. It takes a clear mind, a
steady spirit and a brave soul to intervene between people
whose emotions are so aroused that they are ready
to destroy one another. This is all the more true of
a woman in the early 14th century. But Elizabeth had a deep
and sincere love and sympathy for humankind, almost a total
lack of concern for herself and an abiding confidence in God.
These were the tools of her success.
Elisabeth von Portugal Katholische
Kirche: 4. Juli
Elisabeth, Tochter des Königs
Pedro von Aragon, wurde um 1270 geboren. In
der Taufe erhielt sie nach ihrer Großtante
den Namen Elisabeth. Sie wird auch Isabella von Aragon
genannt. 1282 heiratete sie König Dionysius von
Portugal. Ihr Sohn Alfons lag laufend mit seinem Vater
und anderen Königen im Streit und Elisabeth konnte mehrmals
erfolgreich vermitteln. Bei ihrer letzten Mission starb
sie am 4.7.1336 in Estremoz. Elisabeth unterstütze
zahlreiche kirchloche Einrichtungen. Nach dem Tod ihres Mannes
1325 zog sie sich in ein von ihr errichtetes Kloster zurück
und wurde später Franziskaner-Tertiarin. Elisabeth
ist Patronin von Portugal, Coimbra, Estremoz und Saragossa. |
1356 Blessed Michelina Metelli Franciscan tertiary OFM Tert. Widow (AC) |
1391
June 14 Bd Castora
Gabrielli, Widow |
1394 St. Dorothy of Montau, WIDOW visions and spiritual gifts patroness of Prussia |
1414 BD JOAN MARY DE MAILLE Nov 6 , WIDOW; No gambling or bad language was permitted in their château, which became the asylum of the poor of the neighbourhood; and they adopted and educated three orphans; became destitute; Many conversions and miracles of healing worked by her, finally her the fame and recognition which she was far from desiring was gift of prophecy; remarkable revelations about future, some she felt constrained to impart to the king. |
1431 January 28 Blessed Mary of Pisa Widow miraculous favors saw guardian angel from childhood OP Tertiary (AC) (also known as Catherine Mancini) |
1435
Blessed Angeline of Marsciano founded the first community of Franciscan
women other than Poor Clares to receive
papal approval 1435 Bd Angelina Of Marsciano, Widow assumed the dress of a tertiary of St Francis and converted her household into what was in effect a body of secular tertiaries living in community Angelina and her companions travelled about recalling sinners to penance, relieving distress, and putting before young women the call of a life of virginity for Christ's sake first convent of regular tertiaries with vows and enclosure, and its success was immediate. Angelina was born at Montegiove, near Orvieto, in 1377, her father being James Angioballi, Lord of Marsciano, and her mother Anne, of the family of the counts of Corbara, whence Angelina is sometimes called by that name. When her beloved mother died in 1389 her thoughts turned to the life of the cloister, but when she was fifteen she married, her husband being the count of Civitella, John of Terni. He, however, lived less than two years longer, leaving his widow chdatelaine of the castle and estate of Civitella del Tronto. Angelina now assumed the dress of a tertiary of St Francis and converted her household into what was in effect a body of secular tertiaries living in community. Those of her female attendants, relatives and friends who were able and willing to do so gathered round her, intent on personal sanctification and ministering to the spiritual and material needs of others. Angelina and her companions travelled about recalling sinners to penance, relieving distress, and putting before young women the call of a life of virginity for Christ's sake. She was not the first nor the last saint to inculcate celibacy with such vigour that the civil authorities were alarmed; what happened to St Ambrose happened to her, and she was denounced for sorcery (in her influence over girls) and heresy (in that, they alleged, she taught the Manichean doctrine of the iniquity of marriage). Ladislaus, King of Naples, summoned her before him at Castelnuovo, having secretly made up his mind that if the woman was guilty she should be burnt, great lady or no. But Angelina had a premonition of his intention, and when she had demonstrated the orthodoxy of her faith and the lawfulness of her behaviour, she added, "If I have taught or practised error I am prepared to suffer the appropriate punishment". Then, it is said, she shook out the folds of her habit, displaying some burning embers that she had concealed there, exclaiming, "Behold the fire!" Ladislaus dismissed the charge against her, but complaints of her activities continued to be made, and shortly after he exiled Angelina and her companions from the kingdom. She was yet only eighteen and now went straight to Assisi. There, in Santa Maria degli Angeli, God made plain to her what He would have her do, namely, to found an enclosed monastery of the third order regular of St Francis at Foligno. The following day she set out, and laid her project before the bishop of that city, who approved it. When the building was ready, early in 1397, it was dedicated in honour of St Anne (and doubtless in memory of the saint's mother), and Angelina was elected abbess over the community of twelve sisters. This is generally esteemed to be the first convent of regular tertiaries with vows and enclosure, and its success was immediate. In 1399 Bd Angelina founded another, St Agnes's, at Foligno, then others at Spoleto, Assisi, Viterbo, and eleven others were begun during her lifetime; she insisted that for the sake of good observance the communities must be small. Angelina died at the age
of fifty-eight, and her cultus was
approved in 1825.
Besides frequent references in
such great collections as Wadding's
Annales, there is a popular Italian life by
L. Jacobilli (1627) which has been more than once translated
and reprinted, another by Nicholas de Prato (1882),
and another by Felix da Porretta (1937). See also Mazzara,
Leggendario Francescano
(1679), vol. ii, pp. 107-114, and Leon,
Auréole Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. ii, pp. 491-303.
Angeline was born 1374
to the Duke of Marsciano (near
Orvieto). She was 12 when her mother died. Three
years later the young woman made a vow of perpetual
chastity. That same year, however, she yielded to her
father’s decision that she marry the Duke of Civitella.
Her husband agreed to respect her previous vow.When he died two years later, Angeline joined the Secular Franciscans and with several other women dedicated herself to caring for the sick, the poor, widows and orphans. When many other young women were attracted to Angeline’s community, some people accused her of condemning the married vocation. Legend has it that when she came before the King of Naples to answer these charges, she had burning coals hidden in the folds of her cloak. When she proclaimed her innocence and showed the king that these coals had not harmed her, he dropped the case. Angeline and her companions later went to Foligno, where her community of Third Order sisters received papal approval in 1397. She soon established 15 similar communities of women in other Italian cities. Angeline died on July 14, 1435,
and was beatified in 1825.
Comment:
Priests, sisters and brothers cannot be signs of
God’s love for the human family if they belittle
the vocation of marriage. Angeline respected marriage
but felt called to another way of living out the gospel.
Her choice was life-giving in its own way. Quote:
Pope Paul VI wrote in 1971: "Without in any way undervaluing
human love and marriage— is not the latter, according to
faith, the image and sharing of the union of love joining Christ
and the Church?— consecrated chastity evokes this union in
a more immediate way and brings that surpassing excellence
to which all human love should tend" (Apostolic Exhortation on
the Renewal of Religious Life, #13). |
1440
St. Frances
of Rome widow,
renowned for her noble family, holy life,
and the gift of miracles. Romæ sanctæ Francíscæ Víduæ, nobilitáte géneris, vitæ sanctitáte et miraculórum dono célebris. At Rome, St. Frances, widow, renowned for her noble family, holy life, and the gift of miracles. |
1457 May 22 St.
Rita of Cascia wife mother widow
religious community member legendary
austerity prayerfulness charity |
1472 Feb 28 Blessed
Antonia
(Antoinette) of Florence,
OFM Widow (AC) Born in Florence, Italy, in 1400; died 1472; cultus confirmed in 1847. Twice widowed, twice prioress, Antonia joined the Franciscan tertiaries when she was widowed while still very young. She was chosen as superioress of Aquila and adopted the original rule of the Poor Clares. She contracted a painful disease, which afflicted her for 15 years, but this and other trials she bore bravely under the guidance of Saint John of Capistrano (Benedictines, Encyclopedia). |
1478
Blessed Seraphina Sforza, Poor Clare V (AC) Born at Urbino, Italy, 1434; died in Pesaro, Italy beatified in 1754. Seraphina was the daughter of Count Guido of Urbino, lord of Gubbio. In 1448, she married Duke Alexander Sforza of Pesaro, who treated her with contempt and finally threw her out. She took refuge in the convent of the Poor Clares, where she was professed and later became abbess (Benedictines). 1478 BD SERAPIIINA SFORZA, Widow SHE was born at Urbino about the year 1432, the daughter of Guy, Count of Montefeltro, by his second wife, Catherine Colonna. In baptism she received the name of Sueva. Her parents died while she was a child, she was sent to Rome to be brought up in the household of her uncle, Prince Colonna, and at the age of about sixteen she was joined in marriage to Alexander Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. This man was a widower, with two children, and for some years she lived very happily with her husband. Then he was called away to take up arms on behalf of his brother, the duke of Milan, leaving his estate to the care of Sueva, and his absence was prolonged. On his return, none the better man for so long a period of campaigning and absence from home, Alexander began an intrigue with a woman called Pacifica, the wife of a local physician. Sueva used all the means at her disposal to win her husband back, but with so little success that he added physical cruelty and insult to unfaithfulness. He even tried to poison her, and thence-forward the unhappy woman gave up active efforts towards reconciliation, and confined herself to prayer and quietness.This served only to irritate Alexander, and he at last drove her from the house with violence, telling her to take herself off to some convent. Sueva was received as a guest by the Poor Clares of the convent of Corpus Christi, where she lived the life of the nuns; eventually she was clothed and took the name of Seraphina. This was exactly what Alexander wanted, and, feeling himself free, he went from bad to worse; Pacifica was flaunted about Pesaro as though she were his lawful wife, and she even had the insolence to visit the convent wearing Sueva’s jewels. Sister Seraphina was an exemplary nun and she did not forget her obligations to her husband. She never ceased to pray and offer her penances for his conversion, and before his death in 1473 her desire was fulfilled. That is the substance of Bd
Seraphina’s story as it is commonly told. Unhappily
further research in contemporary evidence suggests
that at the time of her leaving the world she was not
so entirely an innocent victim as has been assumed. Even if
her husband’s charges of unfaithfulness were false, there is
some evidence that she was privy to a plot against him. We find
ourselves very much in the Italian beau monde
of the quattrocento. But Sueva entered
the convent in 1457, when she was twenty-five years old, and
whatever she may have had to repent of she had more than twenty
years in which to grow holy in the living of a most austere religious
rule. This she did, and the local cultus
of Bd Seraphina was approved by Pope Benedict XIV in 1754. |
1485 Nov. 04 Blessed Frances d'Amboise great benefactress of the Carmelite Blessed John Soreth Carmelite at the convent she had founded at Nantes OC (AC) |
1503 BD LOUISA
OF SAVOY, WIDOW . THE very high, mighty and illustrious lady, Madame Louisa of Savoy, who was destined by God to become a humble nun of the Poor Clares, was born in 1461, the daughter of Bd Amadeus IX, Duke of Savoy, grand-daughter through her mother Yolande of King Charles VII of France, niece of King Louis XI, and cousin to St Joan of Valois. Her father died before she was nine and she was admirably brought up by her mother and showed from a very early age indications of spiritual qualities out of the ordinary; Catherine de Saulx, one of her maids-of-honour, wrote that “she was so sweet and generous, debonair and gracious, that she gave affection to everyone and was engaging and charming to all”. At the age of eighteen she married Hugh de Châlons, Lord of
Nozeroy, a man as good as he was wealthy and powerful, and together they set
themselves to live a truly Christian life. Both by example and precept they
set a high standard for all living on their estates, and their house seemed
a monastery by contrast with many noble establishments of that time;
loose swearing and profanity was particularly discouraged, and Madame Louisa
provides the first recorded example of a poor-box into which every person
who indulged in bad language had to put a contribution: but men had to kiss
the ground because that was a more effective deterrent for them. Louisa exercised a wide charity towards the sick and needy, widows
and orphans, and especially lepers, and she used
to say of the dances and shows that took place in her
house that they were like mushrooms, “of which the best
are not worth much”. After nine years of wedded happiness her husband died, and, having
no children, Louisa began to prepare to retire
from the world. It took two years to set her affairs
in order, during which time she wore the Franciscan tertiary
habit and learned to recite the Divine Office, getting up at
midnight for Matins. Every Friday she took the discipline, she
distributed her fortune, and overcame, or disregarded, the
objections of her relatives and friends, Then with her two maids-of-honour,
Catherine de Saulx and Charlotte de Saint-Maurice, she was
admitted to the Poor Clare convent of Orbe, which monastery had
been founded by the mother of Hugh de Châlons and occupied
with a community by St Colette in 1427.
Bd
Louisa had been a model for maids, for wives
and for widows, and henceforward was to he an exemplary
religious. As with so many of high birth, her humility,
was sincere and unaffected: if she was to wash dishes, help
in the kitchen, sweep the cloisters, well; if she was to be
an abbess, well also. In this office she was especially solicitous
in the service of the friars of her order, and any whose journeyings
took them past the convent were always most carefully looked
after: the presence of the fathers and brothers was a blessing
from God, and nothing would lack that was required for the sons of
“our blessed father, Monseigneur St Francis”. The ancient
cultus of this servant of God, who was
called to Him when only forty-two years old, was approved in 1839. |
1510
St Catherine (Caterinetta) of Genoa, Widow; blood
from her stigmata gave off exceptional heat; “He who purifies himself from his faults in
the present life, satisfies with a penny a debt of a thousand ducats; and
he who waits until the other life to discharge his debts, consents to
pay a thousand ducats for that which he might before have paid with a
penny.” Saint Catherine, Treatise on purgatory. (RM) Génuæ sanctæ Catharínæ Víduæ, contémptu mundi et caritáte in Deum insígnis. In Genoa, St. Catherine, a widow, renowned for her contempt of the world and her love of God. Born in Genoa, Italy, 1447; died there, September 14, 1510; beatified in 1737 and equipollently canonized by Pope Benedict XIV a few years later (others say she was canonized in 1737); feast day formerly on March 22. Caterina_by Tommasina Fieschi.jpg “We should not wish for anything but what comes to us from moment to moment,” Saint Catherine told her spiritual children, “exercising ourselves none the less for good. For he who would not thus exercise himself, and await what God sends, would tempt God. When we have done what good we can, let us accept all that happens to us by Our Lord's ordinance, and let us unite ourselves to it by our will. Who tastes what it is to rest in union with God will seem to himself to have won to Paradise even in this life.” The biography of Saint Catherine of Genoa, who combined mysticism with practicality, was written by Baron Friedrich von Hügel. She was the fifth and youngest child of James Fieschi and his wife Francesca di Negro, members of the noble Guelph family of Fieschi, which had produced two popes (Innocent IV and Adrian V). After her birth, her father later became viceroy of Naples for King René of Anjou. From the age of 13 Catherine sought to became a cloistered religious. Her sister was already a canoness regular and her confessor was the chaplain of that convent. When she asked to be received, they decided that she was too young. Then her father died and, for dynastic reasons, her widowed mother insisted that the 16-year-old marry the Genoese Ghibelline patrician, Guiliano Adorno. Her husband was unfaithful, violent, and a spendthrift. The first five years of their marriage, Catherine suffered in silence. In some ways it seems odd that he did not find her attractive, because Catherine was a beautiful woman of great intelligence, and deeply religious. But they were of completely different temperaments: she was intense and humorless; he had a zest for life. Then she determined to win her
husband's affection by adopting worldly airs.
As it turns out, this only made her unhappy because she
lost the only consolation that had previously sustained
her-- her religious life. Ten years into her marriage, Catherine
was a very unhappy woman; her husband had reduced them to poverty
by his extravagance. On the eve of his feast in 1473, Catherine
prayed, “Saint
Benedict, pray to God that He make me stay three months sick in bed.” Two days later she was kneeling for
a blessing before the chaplain at her sister's convent. She had visited her
sister and revealed the secrets of her heart. Her sister advised her to go
to confession.
In following her sister's advice, Catherine experienced a sort of ecstasy. She was overwhelmed by her sins and, at the very same time, by the infinite love of God for her. This experience was the foundation for an enduring awareness of the presence of God and a fixed attitude of soul. She was drawn back to the path of devotion of her childhood. Within a few days she had a vision of our Lord carrying His cross, which caused her to cry out, “O Love, if it be necessary I am ready to confess my sins in public!” On the Solemnity of the Annunciation she received the Eucharist, the first time with fervor for ten years. Thus began her mystical ascent under very severe mortifications that included fasting throughout Lent and Advent almost exclusively on the Eucharist. She became a stigmatic. A group of religious people gathered around Catherine, who guided them to a spirit- filled life. Eventually her husband was converted, became a Franciscan tertiary, and they agreed to live together in continence. Catherine and Giuliano devoted themselves to the care of the sick in the municipal hospital of Genoa, Pammatone, where they were joined by Catherine's cousin Tommasina Fieschi. In 1473, they moved from their palazzo to a small house in a poorer neighborhood than was necessary. In 1479, they went to live in the hospital and Catherine became its director in 1490. The heroism of Catherine's charity revealed itself in a special way during the plagues of 1493 and 1501. The first one killed nearly 75 percent of the inhabitants. Catherine herself contracted the disease. Although she recovered, she was forced to resign due to ill health three years later. After Giuliano's death the following year (1497), Catherine's spiritual life became even more intense. In 1499, Catherine met don Cattaneo Marabotto, who became her spiritual director. Her religious practices were idiosyncratic; for instance, she went to communion daily when it was unusual to do so. For years she made extraordinarily long fasts without abating her charitable activities. Catherine is an outstanding example of the religious contemplative who combines the spiritual life with competence in practical affairs. Yet she was always fearful of "the contagion of the world's slow stain" that had separated her from God in the early years of her marriage. Her last three years of life were a combination of numerous mystical experiences and ill health that remained undiagnosed by even John-Baptist Boerio, the principal doctor to King Henry VII. In addition to her body remaining undecomposed and one of her arms elongating in a peculiar manner shortly before her death, the blood from her stigmata gave off exceptional heat. A contemporary painting of Catherine,
now at the Pammatone Hospital in Genoa, possibly
painted by the female artist Tomasina Fieschi, shows
Catherine in middle age. It reveals a slight woman with a
long, patrician nose; pronounced, cleft chin; easy smile of
broad but thin lips (and, surprisingly, deep laugh lines); high
cheekbones; and large dark eyes punctuated by thin, graceful
eyebrows.
Dialogue between the soul and the body and Treatise on purgatory are outstanding works in the field of mysticism, which were inspired by her and contain the essence of her, but were actually composed by others under her name. She is the patron of Genoa and of Italian hospitals (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, Harrison, Schamoni, Schouppe, Walsh). Of interest may be The Life and
Doctrine of Saint Catherine of Genoa.
1510 ST CATHERINE OF GENOA,
WIDOW The Fieschi were a great Guelf family of Liguria, with a long and distinguished history. In 1234 it gave to the Church the vigorous Pope Innocent IV, and in 1276 his nephew, who ruled for a few weeks as Adrian V. By the middle of the fifteenth century it had reached the height of its power and splendour in Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy. One member was a cardinal, and another, James, descended from the brother of Innocent IV, was viceroy of Naples for King René of Anjou. This James Fieschi was married to a Genoese lady, Francesca di Negro, and to them was born at Genoa in the year 1447 the fifth and last of their children, Caterinetta, now always called Catherine. Her biographers give particulars of her premising childhood which may perhaps be dismissed as common-form panegyric, but from the age of thirteen she was undoubtedly strongly attracted to the religious life. Her sister was already a canoness regular and the chaplain of her convent was Catherine’s confessor, so she asked him if she also could take the habit. In consultation with the nuns he put her off on account of her youth, and about the same time Catherine’s father died. Then, at the age of sixteen, she was married. It is alleged of many saints, both male and female, that, though wishing to enter a monastery, they married in obedience to the will of those in authority over them, and of some of them these circumstances are only doubtfully true. But about St Catherine of Genoa there is no question. The star of the Ghibelline family of the Adorni was in decline, and by an alliance with the powerful Fieschi they hoped to restore the fortunes of their house. The Fieschi were willing enough, and Catherine was their victim. Her bridegroom was Julian Adorno, a young man with too poor a character to bring any good out of his marriage as a marriage. Catherine was beautiful in person (as may be seen from her portraits), of great intelligence and sensibility, and deeply religious; of an intense temperament, without humour or wit. Julian was of very different fibre, incapable of appreciating his wife, and to that extent to be commiserated; but if he failed to win more than her dutiful submission and obedience it was either because he did not try, or because he set about it in the wrong way. He was, on his own admission, unfaithful to her; for the rest, he was pleasure-loving to an inordinate degree, undisciplined, hot-tempered and spendthrift. He was hardly ever at home, and for the first five years of her married life Catherine lived in solitude and moped amid vain regrets. Then for another five she tried what consolations could he found in the gaieties and recreations of her world, and was little less sad and desperate than before. She had, however, never lost trust in God, or at least so much of it as was implied in the continued practice of her religion, and on the eve of the feast of St Benedict in 1473 she was praying in a church dedicated in his honour near the sea-shore outside Genoa. And she asked that saint, “St Benedict, pray to God that He make me stay three months sick in bed”. Two days later she was kneeling for a blessing before the chaplain at her sister’s convent when she was suddenly overcome by a great love of God and realization of her own unworthiness. She repeated over and over interiorly, “No more world! No more sins!” and she felt that “had she had in her possession a thousand worlds, she would have cast them all away”. She was able to do nothing but mumble an excuse and retire, and within the next day or two she had a vision of our Lord carrying His cross which caused her to cry out, “0 Love, if it be necessary I am ready to confess my sins in public!” Then she made a general confession of her whole life with such sorrow “as to pierce her soul”. On the feast of the Annunciation she received holy communion, the first time with fervour for ten years, and shortly after became a daily communicant, so remaining for the rest of her life—a most rare thing in those days, so that she used to say she envied priests, who could receive our Lord’s body and blood daily without exciting comment. At about this time his luxury and extravagance had brought Julian to the verge of ruin, and his wife’s prayers, added to his misfortunes, brought about a reformation in his life. They moved from their palazzo into a small house, much more humble and in a poorer quarter than was necessary agreed to live together in continence and devoted themselves to the care of the sick in the hospital of Pammatone. Associated with them was a cousin of Catherine, Tommasina Fieschi, who after her widowhood became first a canoness and then a Dominican nun. This went on for six years without change, except in the development of St Catherine’s spiritual life, till in 1479 the couple went to live in the hospital itself, of which eleven years later she was appointed matron. She proved as capable an administrator as she was a devoted nurse, especially during the plague of 1493, when four-fifths of those who remained in the city died. Catherine caught the distemper off a dying woman whom she had impulsively kissed, and herself nearly died. During the visitation she first met the lawyer and philanthropist Hector Vernazza, who was soon to become her ardent disciple (and also the father of the Venerable Battista Vernazza) and to whom is due the preservation of many precious details of her life and conversation. In 1496 Catherine’s health broke down and she had to resign the control of the hospital, though still living within the building, and in the following year her husband died after a painful illness. “Messer Giuliano is gone”, she said to a friend, “and as you know well he was of a rather wayward nature, so that I suffered much interiorly. But my tender Love assured me of his salvation before he had yet passed from this life.” Julian provided in his will for his illegitimate daughter Thobia, and her unnamed mother, and St Catherine made herself responsible for seeing that Thobia should never be in want or uncared for. For over twenty years St Catherine lived without any spiritual direction whatever, and only rarely going to confession. Indeed, it is possible that, having no serious matter on her conscience, she did not always make even an annual confession, and she had, without fussiness, found no priest who understood her spiritual state with a view to direction. But about 1499 a secular priest, Don Cattaneo Marahotto, was made rector of the hospital, and “they understood each other, even by just looking each other in the face without speaking. “To him” she said, “Father, I do not know where I am, either in soul or body. I should like to confess, but I am not conscious of any sin.” And Don Marabotto lays bare her state in a sentence “And as for the sins which she did mention, she was not allowed to see them as so many sins thought or said or done by herself. She was like a small boy who has committed some slight offence in ignorance, and who, if someone tells him, ‘You have done wrong’, starts and blushes, yet not because he has now an experimental knowledge of evil.” We are also told in her life “that Catherine did not take care to gain plenary indulgences. Not that she did not hold them in great reverence and devotion and consider them of very great value, but she wished that the selfish part of her should be rather chastised and punished as it deserved....” In pursuance of the same heroic idea she but rarely asked others, whether on earth or in Heaven, to pray for her; the invocation of St Benedict mentioned above is a very notable exception and the only one recorded as regards the saints. It is also noteworthy that throughout her widowhood St Catherine remained a laywoman. Her husband on his conversion joined the third order of St Francis (and to become a tertiary of any order was in those days a far more serious matter than it is now), but she did not do even that. These peculiarities are mentioned neither for commendation nor reprobation; those to whom they appear surprising may be reminded that those who examined the cause of her beatification were perfectly well aware of them the Universal Church does not demand of her children a uniformity of practice compatible neither with human variousness nor the freedom of the Holy Spirit to act on souls as He wills. From the year 1473 on St Catherine without intermission led a most intense spiritual life combined with unwearying activity on behalf of the sick and sad, not only in the hospital but throughout Genoa. She is one more example of the Christian universality which those who do not understand call contradictions complete “other-worldliness” and efficient “practicality”; concern for the soul and care for the body; physical austerity which is modified or dropped at the word of authority, whether ecclesiastical, medical or social; a living in the closest union with God and an “all-thereness” as regards this world and warm affection for individuals in it. The life of St Catherine has been taken as the text of a most searching work on the mystical element in religion—and she kept the hospital accounts without ever being a farthing out and was so concerned for the right disposition of property that she made four wills with several codicils. Catherine suffered from ill health for some years and had to give up not only her extraordinary fasts, but even to a certain extent those of the Church, and at length in 1507 her health gave way completely. She rapidly got worse, and for the last months of her life suffered great agony; among the physicians who attended her was John-Baptist Boerio, who had been the principal doctor of King Henry VII of England, and he with the others was unable to diagnose her complaint. They eventually decided, “it must be a supernatural and divine thing”, for she lacked all pathological symptoms, which they could recognize. On September 13, 1510, she was in a high fever and delirium, and at dawn of the 15th “this blessed soul gently breathed her last in great peace and tranquillity, and flew to her tender and much-desired Love”. She was beatified in 1737 and Benedict XIV added her name to the Roman Martyrology, with the title of saint. St Catherine left two written works, a treatise on Purgatory and a Dialogue of the soul and the body, which the Holy Office declared were alone enough to prove her sanctity. They are among the more important documents of mysticism, but Alban Butler says of them very truly that “these treatises are not writ for the common”. Apart from
a short notice by Giustiniano, Bishop of Nibio,
in his Annali di Genova (1537), the earliest biographical
account of St Catherine seems to be preserved in manuscripts
varying considerably in their Italian text and belonging
to the years 1547—1548. From these in the main was compiled
the first book concerning her which was printed in any detail.
It is commonly known as the Vita e Dottrina,
and was issued in 1551. This work, which has been
often reprinted, is our principal source of information
concerning the saint, and it contains also a collection of her
sayings and meditations. The many problems connected with its
text have been discussed in great detail by Baron Friedrich von Hügel
in his important work, The Mystical Element of Religion
(2 vols., 1908); see especially vol. i, pp. 371—466.
His conclusions are beyond doubt justified in the main, but
there is room for some difference of opinion as to details,
as noted, e.g. in The Month, June, 1923, pp. 538—543. See also
the Acta Sanctorum, September,
vol. v. The numerous modern lives of St Catherine are based
on the Vita e Dottrina; among the
more recent are Lili Sertorius, Katharina von Genua
(1939), and L. de Lapérouse,
La vie de Ste Catherine de Gênes
(1948). A new translation of the Purgatory treatise
and the Dialogue was published in 1946, made by Helen Douglas
Irvine and Charlotte Balfour.
|
1533 Feb 28 BD LOUISA ALBERTONI, WIDOW. LOUISA’S (Lodovica) father, Stephen Albertoni, and her mother, Lucrezia Tebaldi, belonged to distinguished Roman families. She was born in 1473, and lost her father while yet an infant. Her mother married again, and Louisa was brought up first by her grandmother, and then by two of her aunts; and she was induced by family influence to marry James de Cithara, a young man of noble family and great wealth. She bore him three daughters and lived with him on terms of deep affection, but he died in i~o6. Becoming in this way her own mistress, Louisa gave herself up almost entirely to prayer, assuming finally the habit of the third order of St Francis. Her contemplation of the Passion was so uninterrupted, and the devotion with which she called to mind the sufferings of our Lord so intense, that she is said to have nearly lost her sight by the tears in which these hours of prayer were spent. What remained of her time was given to the service of the sick and the poor, and to visiting the seven great basilicas of Rome. She lived in the deepest poverty, her whole fortune expended in alleviating the distress of those around her. The methods of relief which her humility adopted were often somewhat original, as when, for example, she baked a great batch of bread to be distributed at random to the poor, putting into the loaves gold and silver coins of different values, and praying at the same time that the largest alms might providentially find their way to those who most needed help. Louisa in fact stripped herself so generously of all she possessed that the time came when she had nothing left to give : her relatives supplied her with her daily food, but she kept little even of this for herself. In these last years of her life she enjoyed profound peace of soul and was constantly rapt in ecstasy, during which times, as we are told by her biographers, she was nots eldom raised physically from the ground. She fell asleep in the Lord on January 31, 1533, as she repeated, like her Divine Master, the words “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”. Many miracles are said to have taken place when her body lay in the church awaiting burial, and afterwards at her tomb. Her cultus was confirmed in 1671. |
1510 St Catherine (Caterinetta) of Genoa, Widow; blood from her stigmata gave off exceptional heat; "He who purifies himself from his faults in the present life, satisfies with a penny a debt of a thousand ducats; and he who waits until the other life to discharge his debts, consents to pay a thousand ducats for that which he might before have paid with a penny." Saint Catherine, Treatise on purgatory. (RM) |
1601 St. Anne Line English 1/40 martyr from Dunmow,
Essex Widow. The daughter of William Heigham, she was disowned by him when she married a Catholic, Roger Line. Roger was imprisoned for being a Catholic
and was exiled and died in 1594 in Flanders, Belgium.
Anne stayed in England where she hid Catholic priests in
a London safe house. In this endeavor she aided Jesuit Father
John Gerard until her arrest. Anne was hanged in Tyburn on February
27, 1601. Pope Paul VI canonized Anne Line in 1970 as
one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
1601 BD
ANNE LINE, MARTYRED WIDOW This Anne was daughter to
William Heigham, a gentleman of Dunmow in Essex and
a strong Protestant, who disinherited his son and daughter
when they became Catholics. Anne married Roger Line, of Ringwood,
in the New Forest of Hampshire. Shortly afterwards Mr
Line was imprisoned for recusancy and then allowed to go abroad,
to Flanders, where he died in 1594. His widow, who suffered
from extreme ill-health, then devoted the rest of her life to the
service of her hunted co-religionists. When the Jesuit, Father
John Gerard, organized a house of refuge for clergy in London,
Mrs Line was put in charge of it; but after Father Gerard’s escape
from the Tower in 1597
she began to come under suspicion of the authorities,
and had to find a new residence. But this also was tracked down,
and on Candlemas day 1601 the pursuivants broke in just as Father
Francis Page, s.j., had vested for Mass. He managed to remove his vestments
and escape detection, but Mrs Line, Mrs Gage and others were taken.
A friend at
court brought about the release of Mrs Gage, but Anne
Line was brought before Lord Chief Justice Popham at the
Old Bailey, charged with having harboured a priest from overseas.
She was so ill at the time that she had to be carried into court
in a chair. When asked if she were guilty of the charge, she replied
in a loud voice for all to hear, “My lords, nothing grieves me
more but that I could not receive a thousand more.” The prosecution,
which had only one witness, signally failed to prove its case; the
jury nevertheless, at the judge’s direction, found a verdict
of guilty, and Anne was sentenced to death. She spent her last days
and hours with composure and spiritual comfort, and when brought
to Tyburn to be hanged she kissed the gallows and knelt in prayer up
to the last moment. There suffered with her Roger Filcock, a Jesuit,
who had long been Mrs Line’s friend and confessor, and Bd Mark Barkworth.
Father Filcock’s cause is among those still under consideration. See MMP., pp.
257—259; John Gerard’s autobiography (tr. P. Caraman, 1951), pp.
82—86; and Gillow, Biog. Dict.
|
1618
BD MARY OF THE INCARNATION, WIDOW. To St. Barbara Acarie—la belle Acarie—afterwards
known as Bd Mary-of-the Incarnation, is due the credit of
having introduced into France the Carmelites of the reform initiated
in Spain by St Teresa. She also had some part in establishing
in Paris the Ursulines and the Oratorians.
The daughter of Nicholas Avrillot, a high
government official, Barbara showed unusual piety and astonished
the nuns of her aunt’s convent at Longchamps, where she was educated,
by her austerities when, as a girl of twelve, she was preparing
for her first communion. She would fain have embraced the religious
life, preferably as a Franciscan at Longchamps, or failing that
as a nursing sister of the poor at the Hotel-Dieu in Paris, but
her parents had other plans for the only one of their children they
had been able to rear. She complied with their wishes, saying resignedly,
“If I am unworthy through my sins to be the bride of Christ, I can
at least be His servant”. At the age of seventeen she was given in marriage
to Peter Acarie, an aristocratic young advocate who held an important
post in the treasury. He was a man of piety and charity who did much
to help the exiled English Catholics reduced to poverty by the penal
laws of Queen Elizabeth; but though so well-meaning he was also rather
foolish, and he caused his wife no little suffering. However, the
marriage was on the whole a happy one, and Madame Acarie proved herself
a devoted wife and mother. She took so much trouble over the spiritual
training of her six children that she was asked if she intended them all
for the religious life. “I am preparing them to carry out God’s will .
. .” was her reply. “A religious vocation can only come from God.”
Eventually all her three daughters
entered the Carmelite Order, whilst of her three sons one
became a priest and the other two maintained throughout their
careers in the world the principles they had imbibed in childhood.
Her glowing piety seems to have communicated itself to her whole
household, whose welfare she constantly sought and whom she nursed
with the utmost tenderness when they were ill. Her personal maid,
.Andrée Levoix, in particular became her associate in her
devotions and charities. Great temporal trials were in store for this
happy family circle. Peter Acarie had been a prominent supporter of
the Catholic League, on whose behalf he had incurred heavy financial
liabilities. After the accession of Henry IV he was banished from
Paris, and his property was immediately seized by his creditors. Madame
Acarie and her children were at one time reduced to such extremities
that they had not enough to eat.
The intrepid wife rose to the occasion. Herself conducting the defence of her husband in the courts, she proved his innocence of the charge of conspiracy against the king, and was able to help him to compound with his creditors. She even obtained leave for him to return to Paris, with a diminished fortune indeed but with an untarnished name. Madame Acarie’s far-reaching but discriminating
charity became so widely known that she was entrusted by many
people with the distribution of their alms. Mary of Medici and
Henry IV themselves honoured her with their esteem, and she was
able to obtain from them the sanction and help required to bring
the Carmelite nuns to Paris. Her sympathies were so wide that they
included every kind of person: she fed the hungry, she befriended the
fallen, she assisted “decayed” gentlefolk, she watched beside the dying,
she instructed heretics, she encouraged religious of every order.
Madame Acarie was moved to work
for the introduction of the Teresian Carmelites into France
by two visions of St Teresa; it was nearly three years from
the second of these to the opening of the convent of Spanish nuns
in Paris in November 1604. Four more foundations elsewhere followed
during the next five years. Madame Acarie was not only the prime
mover in bringing all this about: she also trained
young women for the Carmelite life—she was, in fact, a sort of
unofficial married novice-mistress. Among her advisers and helpers
at this time were St Francis de Sales and Peter de Bérulle,
the founder of the French Oratorians.
It was not then surprising that soon after her husband died in 1613 she asked to be received among the Carmelites, as a lay-sister. But she was a nun for only four years; Barbara Acarie was essentially a woman who attained holiness in the married state’—she was a saint before ever she put on the habit of Carmel. Taking the name of Mary-of-the-Incarnation, she entered the convent at Amiens, where her eldest daughter was shortly after appointed sub-prioress. Sister Mary was the first to promise her obedience, and she was happy to scour the pots and pans in the house she had helped to found—yet she could walk only with difficulty add great pain, through having three times broken a leg over twenty years before. Afterwards, owing to regrettable disagreements with Father de Bérulle, she was transferred to Pontoise. Underlying the outward activities of Bd Mary was a mystical life of a high order. Great spiritual truths were revealed to her whilst she was in a state of contemplation bordering upon ecstasy. These effects of the life of grace already showed themselves in the early years of her married life, and occasioned misunderstandings in her family and grave trials for her. Among the well-known spiritual directors who helped her was that Capuchin from Canfield in Essex, Father Benet Fitch. In February 1618 she developed symptoms of apoplexy and paralysis which showed that her end was near. When the prioress asked her to bless the nuns gathered about her bedside she first raised her eyes and hands to Heaven with the prayer, “Lord, forgive me the bad example I have set”. After giving her blessing she added, “If it should please Almighty God to admit me to eternal bliss I will ask that the will of His divine Son should be accomplished in each one of you”. At three o’clock on Easter morning she received her last communion, and died whilst being anointed. She was fifty-two years old. Barbara Acarie was beatified in 1791. There are
many biographies of Madame Acarie, beginning with that of André du
Vat (1621 1893). It will be sufficient to mention those of Boucher, Cadoudal,
Griselle, and the summary by E. de Brogue in the series
“Les Saints”. But Fr Bruno’s La belle Acarie (1942)
is by far the best life, and it contains a very full bibliography.
Mother Mary’s influence upon her generation was sufficiently
great to claim notice in such works as Pastor’s Geschicte der Pupae, vols. xi and xii, and in
H. Bremond, Histoire littéraire du
sentiment religieux en France, vol. ii (Eng. trans.),
pp. 193—262. There is an excellent life in English, Barbe Acarie (1953), by L. C.
Sheppard.
|
1771 St. Marguerite
d'Youville Catholic Canadians long honored as a saint
this native daughter who allowed no obstacle to stand in
the way of her helping others.
Marie-Marguerite Dufrost de Lajemmerais, born near Montreal in 1701, came from a notable French-Canadian family. After two years of convent schooling, she returned home to help her widowed mother raise the five younger children. At 20, Marguerite married François d'Youville, a confidential agent of the Governor. She bore him six children. But it was a sad marriage. Four of the children died young. Furthermore, her husband treated her with cool indifference. Meanwhile, he was incurring the hatred of French-Canadians and Indians by his unethical business practices. He died young, but Marguerite fell heir only to his debts. She had to open a small shop to earn enough money to discharge the debts and to educate her two surviving sons who were eventually ordained priests. Mme. d'Youville's own poverty
only sharpened her natural sympathy for the poor.
As a widow she devoted ever
more time to the corporal works of mercy. She gave alms to the poor
but of her own meager funds, and mended their threadbare clothing.
She visited the sick and jailed, and begged money for the burial of criminals.
Three other laywomen, impressed by her good deeds,
asked to join her in this labor of love. In 1737 all
four made a profession to serve the needy. A year later
they began to live together, and welcomed several homeless
persons as permanent guests. But they remained laypersons.
At the outset, these "ladies of charity" were unpopular, mostly
because the avarice of François d'Youville was all too
well remembered and his innocent wife was considered tarred by
his misdeeds. They were shouted at and stoned in the streets,
and sometimes priests even denied them Holy Communion. But
the Widow d'Youville would not let her companions grow discouraged.
By 1749, the Montreal
authorities, finally recognizing Marguerite's goodwill
and talents, begged her to take over the management of the
faltering General Hospital. King Louis XV confirmed the
appointment. Her duty involved paying off the whole great debt of the
institution, and this she achieved. Then she opened the hospital not
only to whites and Indians but to epileptics, the mentally ill, lepers, the
blind, the victims of contagious diseases, foundlings and the aged. In 1766,
fire destroyed the hospital and all she had made it, but she accepted the
disaster with resignation to God's will, and instead of complaining, led
her associates in the recitation of a Te Deum in praise of God. Then
they started all over again.
In 1754, Mme. d'Youville took
the now inevitable step of forming her women auxiliaries
into a new religious order.
Their official title was "The Sisters
of Charity of the General Hospital." For their religious
habit she chose a grey material. One reason for the choice
was rather witty. In their early years their enemies
had sometimes called these women "les soeurs grises," which meant,
"the drunken sisters." But it can also mean "the grey sisters."
So ever since its foundation, Mother d'Youville's large
congregation, today divided into several distinct communities,
has been called by the nickname she adopted, the "Grey Sisters."They rapidly expanded throughout Canada, always welcome because they were ready to undertake not only all the corporal works of mercy but also the spiritual works of mercy, including school teaching at all levels. This comprehensive order eventually branched out into both Americas, Africa, and the Far East. (They made a foundation in Buffalo in 1857. Out of this came D'Youville College.) From the start, the Grey Nuns were mission-minded. In 1755, when the Indians of the Quebec Province were suffering a severe smallpox epidemic, Mother d'Youville and all 12 of her sisters volunteered to go nurse the Indian victims, willing to risk their own lives by so doing. The Indians were touched by this devotion. These same Native Americans had earlier complained to the Governor about François d'Youville, who was disobediently selling them liquor. "We cannot pray God because d'Youville made us drink every day. If you don't expel him from this island, we don't want to go there again." Thus did Mother d'Youville make reparation for the sins of her husband. Her nuns continued this restitution by becoming pioneer missionaries among the natives of Canada's West and Northwest. One cannot know St. Marguerite d'Youville without admiring her. She was one of the most remarkable Catholic women in the history of the Western Hemisphere. --Father Robert F. McNamara |
1533 Blessed Louise degli Albertoni Widow spent her life in works of charity |
1601
St.
Anne Line English
1/40 martyr from Dunmow, Essex Widow Feb
27 |
1617 Mary Victoria Fornari a vision of Mary established "Le Turchine", i.e. the "Turquoise Annunziate", or "Blue Nuns" sky-blue scapulars and cloaks |
1618
BD MARY
OF THE INCARNATION, WIDOW |
1821
Bd Elizabeth Ann Seton
(neé bayley) . Born In New
York City, 1774; married Wiliam Seton, 1794;
widowed in 1803; received into the Catholic Church
in 1804; made religious vows, 1809; died at Emmitsburg
in Maryland, 4 January 1821. Mother Seton
founded the American Sisters of Charity and was the
first native-born American citizen to be beatified,
in 1963. |
1854 May 22 Joaquina Vedruna de Mas, Widow Foundress founded the Institute of the Carmelites of Charity, whose sisters are dedicated to tending the sick and teaching. (AC) |
1865 Dec 24 BD PAULA CERIOLI,
WIDOW, Foundress OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE HOLY FAMILY
OF BERGAMO
CONSTANCE
CERIOLI was born
at Soncino, near Bergamo, in 1816, the last
of the sixteen Children of Don Francis Cerioli
and his wife Countess Frances Corniani, and
was educated by the Visitation nuns. At the age
of nineteen she was married to a wealthy widower
of sixty, Gaetano Buzecchi-Tassis. He was a worthy
man but misanthropic and unattractive, and in any case
Constance’s agreement to the marriage was only passive.
The match was made by the parents in accordance with
the custom of the time and place, of which custom her biographer,
Father Federici, says, “It is not so much illogical...as
a usurpation”. The results in this case were certainly
painful, but not tragic, for from very early years Constance
was drawn to God and sincerely relied upon His grace. The
marriage subsisted for nineteen years, and three children
were born. Two died in infancy the eldest, Charles, lived to
be only sixteen, and his memory was an important influence
throughout his mother’s life. Gaetano
Buzecchi died in 1854,
leaving his widow extremely well off. That
the orphans of the countryside should be the real
heirs of this fortune was finally decided by a
chance word of her parish priest. Constance at once
took two motherless children into her mansion of Comonte,
at Senate in Lombardy; and she determined to devote
herself and her estate to the welfare of orphans, boys
and girls, specifically the children of peasants, who should
be brought up and trained with the life of the land in
view. Her first helper and always her right-hand was Louisa Corti. Her advisers and faithful friends were Canon Valsecchi and the bishop of Bergamo, Mgr Speranza.
On the other side were
those who said she was cracked”, as the
bishop reported to her. “So I am”, she replied,
“by the lunacy of the Cross!” Other
helpers soon joined,
and in 1857 Constance Cerioli made her religious
vows, taking the names Paula Elizabeth;
a few months later the Sisters of the Holy Family
came officially into being. They increased and prospered,
and in another five years the second part of Sister
Paula’s project was born a brothers’ branch of the
congregation, to look after male orphans, was established
at Villa Campagna, near Soncino, in the care of John
Capponi, a hospital official from Leffe. Sister
Paula always resolutely
confined her work to the preparation of
children and young people for rural life.
In those days agriculture and its workers
were not the public concern that they are today,
and Italy owes not a little in the matter to the Institute
of the Holy Family, notably to the agricultural training
given at the boys’ establishments. It is appropriate
that this work should have been begun not a great way from
Virgil’s Mantua. 0 fortunatos nimium,
sua Si bona norint, agricolas: “How blest indeed
are husbandmen, did they but know their happiness l “ It
was part of Ed Paula’s vocation to help them to know
it, in spite of the atrocious poverty of Italian peasant
life. She
did not long survive the foundation at Villa Campagna. She had always been
delicate, with a slight spinal deformity, and her heart became increasingly
troublesome. She died in her sleep at Comonte in the early hours of Christmas
eve, 1865. She had named her foundation after the Holy Family, her devotion
to St Joseph was outstanding: the day could not have been better. And the
quietness of her passing was of a piece with a life that, for all its activities,
was always marked by interior peace and devotion to Jesus Christ. Bd Paula
Cerioli was beatified in 5950. In addition to the documents of the beatification process there are the memoirs of Mother Corti and the writings of the beata. A biography by Mgr P. Merati was published in 1899. These were all fully used by the Rev. E. Federici in his official life of Bd Paula (1950) |