Today is the feast of Blessed Villana de'Botti according to the Domincan Ordo. (It is Feb. 28 in the Ordinary calendar of the Roman Rite.) Bl. Villana tried to enter religious life by running away to a convent when she 13 years old. Expectedly, she was turned away. This prompted her father to arrange an early marriage for her to a wealthy man. She gave into a worldly life of the idle rich. Eventually, she saw the effects of how her turning away from God had sullied her soul.
She sought the help of the nearby Dominican Fathers of Santa Maria and made herself right with God. She became a third-order/lay Dominican, living the rest of her short life in a holy marriage while also given to prayer, doing penance, and studying. She was publically ridiculed but remained strong in her spiritual life and duties. She was only 30 years old when died in AD 1361. Beacause of the constant amounts of mourners, it was a month before the Dominican Fathers could bury her.
Prayer
O God, our merciful Father, you called Blessed Villana back from the emptiness of the world and aroused in her a spirit of humility and true penitence. Recreate in our hearts the power of your love and, filled by that same spirit, may we serve you in newness of life. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Tomb of Bl. Villana de'Botti
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