Blessed Mark of Modena, C.O.P.

Mark was born in Modena and entered the convent of the order there in young manhood. He observed the rules with great fidelity, and became noted both for his learning and his holiness, which is a sentence that would fit into nearly every Dominican biography written, and tells us nothing in particular about Mark as a person. However, when we recall the times in which he lived , it becomes clearer to us that anyone who kept the Dominican Rule in its entirety is truly to our notice . The abuses which stirred Savonarola to thundering speech in the pulpits of Ferrara and Florence could not have been absent from all of Italy. It look solid virtue to hold out against the opulent worldliness of the times, and Mark of Modena apparently did a thorough job of it, since he has been beatified.
Mark was made prior of the convent of Pesaro, and the only miracle we have on record (he is supposed to have performed many) took place at his convent. A woman’s little boy had died, and she pleaded with Mark to restore the child’s life. After praying for awhile, Mark turned to her and said, “Madam, your little boy is in paradise. Do not try to get him back again, for his second loss will be worse than this one.” However, she insisted on his working the miracle, and he did so. The child returned to life, and, ten years later, covered with disgrace and opprobrium, died a second time, leaving his mother in worse grief than ever.
Mark of Modena died in 1498, the year that the city of Florence burned Savonarola at the stake. It was a time of terrible happenings in Italy and all Europe. The people of Modena mourned the death of Mark, and went to pray at his tomb. Many of their needs were answered there, and a number of prodigies were reported in connection with the translation of his relics to the Rosary chapel of the church. The bells were said to have rung by themselves, and sweet perfume filled the air. Until recently, his relics were still exposed yearly for veneration during the week of Whitsunday.
Born: in Modena at the beginning of the 15th century
Died: in at Pesaro in 1498
Beatified: by Pope Pius IX in 1857

A Reflection On Love ~ The Very Rev. Sister Lady S. Sherwood

Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law. Romans 13:10b

Today I want to talk about Love, The Love of Our Father,
The meaning of What true love actually is seems to be something which many have lost over the years. I see an increasingly disturbing trend toward the message people tend to give out these days: that God hates this or God hates that. This is far from the actual reality. We seem to have lost sight of the fact that “these three things remain; faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these by far is love!!!.”

Love has also been recast in our Hollywood-centered world. Too often love is equated with sex, or at very least, lust. Love is shown as a touchy-feely type of emotion. But in reality, love is far greater, far deeper, than a simple emotion. Love is a way of being. When you are in love, love permeates all of your existence. You cannot do anything without love.

And just because the emotional tingle of love is gone does not mean that love itself is dead. I know married couples who are visibly in love with each other that would tell you that the emotional tingle left years ago. But you could not cut these people apart. They have discovered true love. Love that endures. Love that is patient. Love that is kind. Love that is trusting and hopeful.

That is the kind of love Saint Paul was talking about It is not touchy feely. It is solid and substantial. Saint Paul says to the Romans that “love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.”
(Romans 13:10b)

It is that kind of substantial love that we should show to those around us daily. It is the love of Christ. It is a love that will endure beyond this age and beyond our own existence. It is a love that can change lives; one life at a time.

How can we show people that kind of love? Open the door for a perfect stranger. Offer to help someone with that heavy box or grocery bag. Be willing to listen to that person who just needs to talk. Just be there to love someone with your presence.

That is true love. That is the love of Our Father..

A New Dominican!

The Order of Preachers is thrilled to announce the acceptance of The Very Reverend Lady Sheila Sherwood into the Dominican Order. She is currently the International Old Catholic Churches’ Vicar General of the United Kingdom, an ordained priest, and is very experienced in serving Our Lord and His people.

Please join us in our prayers for our newest member, that she continue to grow in service to Our God.

Blessed Francis Posadas, C.O.P.

Few Dominicans have had more difficulty getting into the Order than Blessed Francis de Posadas, and he was one of the glories of the convent of the Scala Coeli, in Cordova. It is embarrassing for us to read that the reason for his exclusion was plain and simple snobbery on the part of the superiors of the convent of St. Paul, in Cordova.
Francis was born of a poor young couple who were war refugees, and who had been shunted from place to place until, when Francis was very small, his father’s health failed, and he died in Cordova. The young widow tried several types of work, and finally she was reduced to selling eggs and vegetables at a street stand. She tried to educate her child, for she knew he was very talented, but, without money, it simply was not possible to send him to school. She encourage him to go to the Dominican Church of St. Paul, and he served Mass there every morning from the time he was six or seven years old.
While he was still a very tiny child, he used to gather the other children together for rosary processions or other devotions. The smile of God seemed to rest upon him. For all his poverty, he was a very happy and attractive child, like by everyone; and he was a natural leader among his fellows. Twice during his childhood, he was miracuously saved from death. This fact and his undoubted piety, should have seemed sufficient reason for admitting him into a religious order. However, by the time Francis was old enough, there were two reasons to make his entry difficult: his mother had remarried, and the step-father would not permit him to enter. The Dominicans, moreover, would not have him. They said that they did not want the son of a street peddler.
Francis had friends in the Order, but the prior of the house he wished to enter took a violent dislike to him. It was several years before the young man could overcome the resistance of this man, who, having some influence with the provincial, was stubbornly determined that Francis should not be allowed to enter. Even when the fathers in the convent of Scala offered to take the boy and train him in Latin- so that he could qualify for clerical studies-the vindictive dislike of the prior followed him and almost prevented his acceptance.
Francis was finally accepted, made his novitiate, and gradually overcame all dislike and distrust by his charming manner and his unquestioned talents as student and preacher. After his ordination, he was sent out to preach, and he earned the reputation of being a second St, Vincent Ferrer. His talents as a preacher were rivaled only by his gifts as a confessor. He not only could read hearts and discover sins that had been willfully concealed, but sometimes he was called to one place or another by an interior spirit and shown someone badly in need of the sacraments.
Francis hated the thought of holding authority in the Order. When appointed prior of one of the convents, he remarked that he would much sooner be sentenced to the galleys. He twice refused a bishopric, and he skillfully eluded court honors.
Several remarkable conversions are credited to Francis Posadas. His last tears were a series of miracles wrought in the souls of his penitents. People followed him about to hear him preach, regarding him as a saint and miracle worker. One of his most noted converts was a woman more than one hundred years old- a Moor- with no intention of deserting Mohammedanism.
Francis of Posadas was the author of a number of books which he wrote to assist him in his apostolate. One was a life of St. Dominic. and several were biographies of other saintly people.
After a life filled with miracles, Francis died in 1713. Being forewarned of his death, he made private preparations, but to the last minute he was busy in the confessional before dying suddenly. By the time of his death, not only the Dominicans of Cordova, but the people of all Spain were happy to have him as a fellow countryman. He was beatified a century after his death, in 1818.
Born: Cordona in Spain in 1644
Died: In 1713 of natural causes
Beatified: He was declared Blessed by Pius VII in 1818

Blessed John of Massias, C.O.P.

John Masias was born in Ribera, in Spain, and, when very small, he was left as orphan. He was adopted by a kindly uncle who set him to herding his sheep. The little boy was naturally pious, and passed his spare time in sayingthe Rosary. Our Lady and the Christ Child appeared to him several times, and he was often visited by his patron, St. John the Eveangelist, who once showed him a vision of heaven, telling him: “This is my country.”
When John was about twenty, he went to Mass in the church of the Dominicans in a neighboring city. For the moment, it seemed to him that vocation was joining the Friars Preachers now, but St. John appeared to him, telling him he must go elsewhere. In 1619 he embarked for the Indies, where many Spaniards were going, either to convert the natives or to seek a fortune. After a long and hazardous journey, he arrived in Lima.
There were at the time four convents of the Friar Preachers in Lima: the College of St. Thomas; the house of St. Rose, where Sister Rose of St. Mary had died just five years before; Santo Domingo or Holy Rosary, where the holy lay brother, Martin de Porres, was performing such astounding miracles; and the convent of St. Mary Magdalen, which was small and poor. John decided to enter St. Mary Magdalen and, in 1622, he received the habit of a lay brother there. On the night of his profession, devils appeared to tempt and reproach him. He was attacked bodily, and, although he was called on Jesus, Mary and Joseph for help, the demons continued what was to become twelve years of torture, by actually throwing him from one cloister to another.
John was appointed assistant to the porter, and lived in the gatehouse. There the poor came for food, and the rich for advice. He became adept at begging for the poor, always managing to find enough for the more than two hundred people who came daily for help. He had little use for the wealthy and curious, and would sometimes baffle them by simply disappearing while they were looking at hi,. Also, legend relates that he had a little burro that he would send out by itself, with a note asking for what was needed in one of the empty panniers on its back. Told where to go, the burro made his route faithfully; and if the rich man on whom he called was ungracious, or even hid himself to avoid giving alms, the little burro made quite a noise, and it quickly brought the desired results.
Rays of light streamed from the blessed’s face as he taught the catechism to the poor, or prayed by himself in the gatehouse. He said an amazing number of rosaries and made no less than twenty daily visits to the Blessed Sacrament. He is said to have liberated more than a million souls in purgatory, many of whom came back , while he was at prayer , to thank him for his help.
One day a certain ship captain came to the gatehouse and asked to look around. John took him by the arm and led him to the crucifix, warning him to look well on it and think of his sin. Terrified, the captain fell to his knees, confessing that he was an apostate religious, thirty years away from the sacraments, and he begged for a priest. On another occasion, the brothers were building a flight of steps and, having measured a beam wrong, they were annoyed because it did not fit. John took the beam in his hands and stretched it to fit their needs. These, and many other miracles, led people to venerate him as a saint during his lifetime. His recreation was to talk of the things of God with the other holy lay brother, Martin de Porres
At the time of his death, Our Lady, St. Dominic, his patron, St. John and many other saints, came to accompany him to heaven. They were seen by some of the brothers.
Born: March 2, 1585 at Ribera del Fresno, Estramadura, Spain
Died: September 16, 1645 in Lima, Peru of natural causes
Beatified: In 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI

Sacred space~ by Fr. Bryan Wolf

For those of you who might have had the opportunity to read my article, Where is your church?  (Convergent Streams magazine, Third Quarter 2013. Volume 1. Number 1), I am going to build upon those thoughts. If you have not read it, the premise is simple- there are many clergy who do not have a “physical church building” in which to worship.  There are some options, limited as they maybe.  There are hospital or nursing home chapels to be solicited, other houses of worship willing to open their doors to other congregations (United Churches of Christ, as an example) or outdoor venues; such as parks or beaches.  Initially I tried such an option, a nearby hospital chapel, but was met with courteous questions: how many people did I expect and what were my insurance protections for limited liability?  Needless to say, two questions without adequate answers.

We should always be reminded of the most basic, Christ tells us: “For where two or more gather in my name, there am I also.” (Matthew 18:20)  So in the worship and adoration of God, it shouldn’t- and needn’t, be a concern as to where worship, praise and prayer takes place.  For that matter, form and format should not be a concern either. Again Christ tells us: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners so they may be seen by others. But when you pray, go into your room alone and close the door and pray to your Father in heaven. For your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:5-6)

Nevertheless, for those of us clergy and religious- it is a spiritual comfort and inspiration to have a sacred space in which to pray, reflect and be at one with God.  Surprisingly, it is something easily achieved and maintained.  We have all seen those outdoor tributes, statues of the Blessed Mother or Christ in gardens or in front of homes. Forgive me for being judgmental, but I wonder if these ever receive the attention and inspiration they deserve. I digress.  As a resident of the seasonal and temperamental northeast- not to mention restrictions places upon me by apartment community restrictions, such outdoor tributes are not possible.

So I- we, need to set apart a sacred space within our homes where we can go and be with God- to worship God.  It does not have to be grand- adorned with the trappings of a cathedral, but it does have to be reverent, respectful and sincere. A place or area within the home where a visitor would know- you are a Christian and indeed, Christ is present in this place.

For me it is a sacred space in the corner of our dining room.  A high top table which supports a wine rack underneath. On this table sits a collection of green plants surrounding my most prized religious possession- a ceramic and porcelain statute of Jesus on the cross.  (Such a simple statue purchased in a hospital gift shop to watch over my mother in her final days.) And to the side my husband’s most prized possession, a porcelain statute of our Blessed Mother. (A statute that was his mothers and may be perhaps eighty years old.)  Together the sight and placement of these holy statutes, demand the reverence and respect.  It is here, or from a nearby chair, that I can worship and pray.

To add to the beauty and adoration of this sacred space, I ensure that Christ is always present and mindful.  This is done by the purchase and placement of a ‘seven day’ religious candle. (The kind easily purchased at any supermarket)  Lit in transition and prayer- the “light of Christ” never goes out in our apartment.

In a useful pastoral handbook, The Book of Occasional Services (2003), there is even a format- “Setting Apart Secular Space for Sacred Use”.

“Blessed are you, O God, ruler of the universe. Your gifts are many, and in wisdom you have made all things to give you glory. Be with us now and bless us as we dedicate our use of this space to your praise and honor. As often as we worship you here, precede us and abide with us. Be known to us in the Word spoken and heard, in fellowship with one another, and in the breaking of bread. Give us joy in all your works, and grant that this space may be a place where your will is done and your name glorified; through Jesus Christ our Savior, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.” (BOS p.245)

So dedicate such a place within your home, apartment or even your room. A place for reflection and reverence- for you Mass Sine Populo, to pray for the Church Suffering and celebrate the Church Triumphant!  We rejoice for those who have actual churches- to call the attention of the world to the love and promise of our Lord, but no less is the splendor and majesty of our Sacred Space in a Secular Place!

Oh yes- for those of you that did read my “Where is your church?” I am still praying and searching for that church building to celebrate a beautiful Mass.  Nothing extravagant mind you, but a pipe organ would be nice.

Whoever~ by Fr. Bryan Wolf

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” ( John 3:16 NIV )

Perhaps one of the most quoted passages in the Bible.  Perhaps the single most important verse.  The one line that can sum up what everything else in the Bible is laying the foundation for.  It is this one line- like a one sentence guarantee in a long written contract, that God is telling us; no matter what your situation is in life or what sins you have committed- you are being offered the promise of eternal life.

Throughout scripture, indeed throughout his life- Jesus is embracing or found in the company of those many of us would consider “undesirables”.  Unlike Jesus, we are quick to condemn and judge.  We point fingers and offer our unsolicited opinion, as well as our expertise- and how people should live their lives.  On the other hand, Jesus surrounded himself with prostitutes, tax collectors, the sick, the insane, the destitute and dispossessed. Any and all forms on the social maladies affecting mankind, Jesus would be with them and embraced them. Inviting and encouraging. They sought to be with him. Jesus belonged to them, even before they believed or, for that matter- behaved.

There are many people- many religions and religious leaders, who seek to impose their judgment upon others. Their morality.  From the pulpit, there are those who would state the requirements of those needed to be accepted by God or entitled to His love.  These clerics will issue the criterion by which it will be determined who is worthy of God or accepted by God.

They must remember, God is love. Jesus is love. Jesus is grace and mercy.  In his book, Jesus Is– Pastor Judah Smith warns us; “when the sin becomes more important that the sinner, an alarm bell should go off in our heads.” God sees us and accepts us unconditionally as we are. With whatever sins, faults or baggage we carry with us.  Society is quick to judge and condemn the sinner; forgetting for the most part that their own guilt and shame torment them.  “All they [ the sinner ] can see,” Pastor Smith continues, “is a Jesus who glares down from the ceiling of a cathedral or hangs bloodied on a cross. They heard that Jesus was a good man, but do they know he is a close friend of sinners?  Do they know that he is not angry with them? Do they know he is here to help?”

Pastor Smith shares a most profound though- Jesus is not angry with them-  with us.  Perhaps, like a good close personal friend, Jesus is disappointed- much as we are disappointed in ourselves for our shortfalls, but he is not angry with us. We are probably more angry with ourselves.

But Jesus is there for us- always. He understands our concerns and anxieties, and God has already addressed answered these in his once sentence guarantee.  Our contract with God.  Iron clad.  “Whoever believes”

God has not reserved his great promise of eternal life and salvation for the righteous. Not only for the faithful or the weekly church goers.  It is not just for the ones who can quote chapter and verse from scripture and those who are chaste or beyond reproach.  Indeed eternal life and salvation is not just for the saints- but for the sinner as well.  Pastor Smith writes; “whether we are good people or bad people, whether we have followed Jesus for decades or are just now finding him, whether we are pastors or prostitutes- we all need Jesus.”

So God has given us his guarantee.  His unconditional love, acceptance, forgiveness and salvation.  It is in Christ Jesus. “that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” ( John 3:16 NIV )

Blessed James of Mevania, C.O.P.

(Also known as James Bianconi; James of Bevagna; Jacobus de Blanconibus de Mevania)

Very early in life, prodigies surrounded Blessed James, for on the day of his birth three brilliant stars, each containing the image of a friar preacher, appeared in the sky over Bevagna. Children ran through the streets crying : “To the schools! To the schools! behold the new masters heaven is sending us !” The three preachers were later understood to be James, Blessed Ambrose of Siena, and St. Thomas Aquinas.

James was given a good education and was carefully trained in the ways of holiness. The power of his prayers was seen early. When still a small child, he brought about peace between two quarreling families. At the age of sixteen, he met the Dominicans. Two friars had come to preach in his native city during Lent. Deciding, after much prayer, that God was calling him to the Dominican apostolate, he went home with the two missioners and began his novitiate.

The early promises of his great learning were well fulfilled. In and age that shone with the brilliance of Albert, Thomas and Bonaventure, the preaching of James of Bevagna was still remarkable. He was particularly gifted at reconciling enemies and bringing peace to warring families and cities.

James was very severe with himself, particularly in the matter of poverty. On one occasion, his mother, shocked at the poor condition of the habit he was wearing, gave money to buy a new one. As he wanted very much more to get a crucifix for his cell, he did so. His mother reminded him that the money was given for clothing. James replied with the text, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,” assuring her that this was the garment he had bought with her gift.

At another time, praying before the same crucifix, James was overcome with a sense of his own unworthiness and begged of God some sign that his soul was to be saved. Blood gushed from the hands and side of the figure on the cross, and a voice from heaven told him that his token of God’s favor would reassure him. Some of the miraculous blood was preserved for more than two centuries. Kept at the tomb of Blessed James, it worked many miracles, but it was stolen by heretics.

Forewarned of the hour of his death, James was assured that Our Lady would come to meet him, because he had often sacrificed to adorn her altars. She came at the time foretold, and James went happily with her into the presence of God.

Born: Bevagna in Umbria, Italy in 1220

Died: 1301 at Mevania, Italy of natural causes

Beatification: 1400 (Cultus confirmed) by pope Boniface IX; again on May 18, 1672 (cultus confirmed) by Pope Clement X

 

 

 

Blessed Emily Bicchieri, V.O.P.

Direct ancestor of thousands of Dominican sisters, who today are engaged in all the active charities of the Order, was Blessed Emily Bicchieri. She built the first convent for conventual Third Order Sisters in 1256.

Emily was born in 1238, the fourth of seven daughters. Before her birth, her mother was privileged to see in a dream something of the future work of her daughter. She saw a magnificent church-one that she had never seen before-and a beautiful young girl wearing white robes and a veil with a wreath of white roses. Around the young woman gathered other girls, all dressed in the same fashion, and, as the good woman watched, enthralled by the beauty of the scene, they formed into a procession and marched singing around the church. An old Dominican to whom she related the dream explained to her it concerned the child she was bearing, and that this child, a daughter, would be a saint.

Emily grew up among her sisters and received, for that time, a good education. They were all taught to read and embroider, and Emily very early developed a talent for seeking out the poor and the troubled, using her talents to relieve miseries. She was her father’s favorite, in spite of the fact that she emptied her purse as fast as he could fill it. While her three older sisters were concerning themselves about making advantageous marriages, she was already planning her future, she would be a nun-just what kind, she did not know.

When Emily was seventeen, the first and the greatest grief of her life came to her- her father died. She had been his constant companion for several years, and she had dreaded breaking the news to him that she wanted to enter a convent. However, faced with death, he had quite easily given her the permission she desired, and, after his estate was settled and her mother provided for, Emily set about accomplishing her desire. Her portion of the sizeable estate she used to build a convent for sisters of the Third Order Conventual of Saint Dominic. It is not known that any such institution existed before her time, but it must have been both in mind of Saint Dominic and in the plans of his successors, because the Dominican fathers of Vercelli enthusiastically supported her in her project.

The papal brief authorizing the new foundation, the Convent of Saint Margaret, bears the date 1256. On the feast of Saint Michael, Emily and her companions- who now numbered more than thirty-were dressed for their bridal day in white gowns, with veils and wreaths of white roses. Emily’s mother, coming into the church for the first time to attend the ceremony, was amazed to see the details of her dream worked out in actuality. The young aspirants were questioned concerning their intentions, and then were taken out and dressed in the Dominican Habit. A Dominican nun from the Second Order has been appointed by the Cardinal to train in the tradition of the Order, and their novitiate began.

It was perhaps inevitable that the band of young novices would recognize Emily as their natural superior. She had all the qualities of leadership that one hopes for in a superior, as well as being the foundress of the convent. Consequently, when the borrowed novice mistress completed her work and saw them all professed, Sister Emily, in spite of her youth, was unanimously named superior. She was called “Mother Emily,” which was a great trial to her.

We wish that we knew more about this interesting household. We know that it was designed for good works as well as prayer, which indicates that the cloister was not strict as it was in the Second Order houses of the time, though even Second Order nuns traveled considerably in the late thirteenth century. One of the differences, and it may well be one of the principal differences, between the Convent of St. Margaret and the Second Order foundations, was that Blessed Emily’s house had no lay sisters; all the sisters were of the same category and shared in the work of the house. The Divine Office was said, though we do not know whether the sisters rose at midnight Matins. Blessed Emily herself discouraged the contact with seculars which was to bring so many religious houses to ruin, and set up her horarium so that the sisters would have time and privacy for the life they were expected to lead. The rich gifts that she and the other sisters received from friends and relatives were promptly given out to those who came seeking help at the alm’s gate.

Blessed Emily was not spared the agonies of spiritual doubt. Anxious as she was to receive Holy Communion frequently, the practice at the time was to go only rarely to the altar rail. Overly conscientious about her small faults, and battered about by the opinions of people less fervent that she was, she entered upon a long period of worry. Finally, our Lord Himself came to relieve her of it, and assured her that it was much more pleasing to Him for her to receive Him through love than for her to abstain from receiving through fear of unworthiness.

One of the convent tasks that Blessed Emily particularly enjoyed was that of infirmarian. This gave her the double joy of helping the sick and of mortifying herself. Once, in the exercise of this office, she had to make a difficult choice. It was Christmas Day, the time when she wanted with all her heart to receive Communion. There were three very sick sisters in the infirmary, and one of them could not be left alone. Emily had to remain with her during Mass, only hurrying out to receive her Lord and rushing back again, without time for the long thanksgiving that she felt the occasion demanded. However, as she came back to the infirmary and glanced at the three sick sisters, she acted on divine inspiration and said to them, ” I am not alone, my sisters; see. I bring Jesus to bless you.” Whereupon, our Lord chose that moment to cure the three sick sisters. They promptly rose up and joined in the celebration of the feast. On another day, Emily arrived in the chapel too late for Communion. Sad and regretful, she knelt in prayer. An angel came and gave her Holy Communion, miraculously.

Emily had always been a devotee of mortification. She made use of the usual medieval methods of conquering self-fastings, disciplines, hairshirts- and added others as she thought of them. Her special devotion was to the Holy Crown of Thorns. This famous relic had been brought from the Holy Land in the year that Emily was born, and, although she could hardly have seen it, she must have heard a great deal about it. She meditated often on it and on the terrible pain that it caused our Lord. One day she bravely asked our Lord to let her share this pain, and He granted this request. The stigmata of the crown of thorns was impressed on her head for three days of intolerable suffering, and during that time she was visited by several of the saints associated with our Lord’s Passion. At the end of three days, the pain disappeared, but she retained her great devotion to the Crown of Thorns all her life.

Blessed Emily was a strict superior, but a beloved one. Many times she saved her sisters from grief of one kind or another by her parents in their behalf, and her corrections were so gentle that they had great power over the culprit.

At least twice Our Lady is said to have come to see Blessed Emily, both times to teach her prayer. Miracles were worked by the prayers of the Blessed on the occasion of a disastrous flood, and also when a fire broke out inside the convent. She cured many sick people by her prayers, but she was always embarrassed at this sort of thing, as though she had somehow committed a fault.

Born: in Vercelli, Italy, c. 1238

Died: She died in1314 after a half century of prayer and good works in the convent which she had founded.

Beatified: She was beatified in 1769 by Pope Clement XIV

Let us Pray: O God who, who didst give unto Blessed Emily, Thy Virgin, grace to despise all earthly things, grant through her merits and intercession that, despising all perishable allurements, we may love Thee with our whole heart. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.