Bl. Diana, Bl. Cecilia, Bl. Amata

Today is an optional memorial for Dominican nuns to remember Bl. Diana d’Andalò and Bl. Cecilia Caesarini. (That doesn’t mean we all can’t remember them!)

The marvelous cloistered nuns were the first branch of our Dominican family! Bl. Diana & Bl. Cecilia is among the earliest and both knew St. Dominic.

Both came from noble families of note: Bl. Diana's family were powerful nobles in Bologna (with her former title of Lady Diana) while Bl. Cecilia came from the ancient Caesarini noble family of Rome.

Bl. Diana was both beautiful and spoiled. Her life changed when she heard Blessed Reginald of Orleans preach. Becoming enamored with the Dominicans, she longed to start a life as a member of the new order but her family was firmly opposed. Meeting St. Dominic when he stopped in Bologna, she obtained his permission to start a community of sisters, with St. Dominic, himself, putting four of the brothers in that local community under obedience to assist the building of her convent. It wasn’t until after the death of St. Dominic that Bl. Diana was able to overcome the forceful resistance of her family not allowing her to enter religious life. Having a great correspondence with Blessed Jordan of Saxony, the Monastery of St. Agnes was built and she entered in 1223 and was its first prioress.

Bl. Cecilia was the youngest nun in the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria in Tempulo when St. Dominic was founding the Monastery of St. Sixtus in 1220. The Monastery of St. Sixtus was founded by combining various female communities with Bl. Cecilia’s being among them. She received the Dominican habit from St. Dominic. About 1223, she and some others sisters were sent to Bl. Diana’s new Monastery of St. Agnes. Bl. Cecilia became the new prioress.

From both of these blessed we have a fantastic legacy. Through Bl. Diana’s letters are long lost, she kept all her letters from Bl. Jordan of Saxony, giving us great insights to the early days of the Dominican family as well as both BB Jordan and Diana. Bl. Cecilia left us the only physical description we have of St. Dominic! Both women remained at the Monastery of St. Agnes for the remainder of their earthly lives.

Not to be forgotten is Blessed Amata. She was a nun at St. Sixtus with Bl. Cecilia also receiving the habit from St. Dominic. She was beatified in 1891 with Diana and Cecilia but was not included on the calendar because so little is known of her.

The book, St. Dominic's Family by Sr. Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P writes this about her:

Of Sister Amata, we know practically nothing, but that she was a good friend of St. Dominic, which should, after all, be enough to know about anybody. He, according to legend, gave her the name Amata--which means 'beloved'--and very probably he either sent her to the convent in the first place or was the means of her staying there at the time of the drastic reforms, when the nuns left St. Mary's trans Tiber and went to S. Sixtus. There was a Sister Amata from whom St. Dominic is said to have cast out seven devils, but it could hardly have been this one. The facts that he personally named her, and that she is buried with the other two, will have to be her title to honor.

Bl. Cecilia, Bl Diana, Bl. Amata
Let us pray:

Merciful Lord, we welcome in joy the feast of Blessed Diana and Blessed Cecilia. With the help of their prayers may devotion to truth and love for our brothers and sisters fill our hearts and our lives. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Saint Agnes of Montepulciano

SAINT AGNES was born in Montepulciano, a neighborhood in Tuscany, c.1268. Not uncommon among many saints, St. Agnes showed great piety since childhood. While still very young she succeeded in convincing her parents to grant permission to enter a very strict monastery. After a few years she was sent to assist in the foundation of another monastery for the education of young girls at Procena. She became Abbess by a special dispensation from the Holy See when only fifteen! She was at Procena for 20 years (some sources say 17). By her own self-discipline, she lived on bread and water for fifteen years and slept on the floor with a stone for a pillow. Her great piety resulted in many signs and wonders: visually beautiful and fragrant flowers would spring up on the spot where she had prayed; she was sometimes showered with manna in the shape of little white crosses, witnessed by crowds; she was a visionary and t received Holy Communion from an angel's hand 10 times.

After her years at Procena the people Montepulciano requested her to establish a monastery. St. Agnes was unsure which rule to adhere in starting the new monastery, so she prayed and received her answer in a vision. From her vision of St. Augustine, St. Francis and St. Dominic she knew she was to begin a new community of woman according to the rule of St. Dominic. St. Dominic made known to her she was to start a community of virgins at Montepulciano on a hill which previously had the site of brothels.

It is said she was granted a warning of her purgatory before going to Heaven and mystical experiences on many consecutive Sundays when, shortly afterwards, she began her painful terminal illness.

Her sisters took her to the medicinal baths at Chianciano but they did not help her. However, while she was there, a miraculous hot water spring gushed (later named for her) and she miraculously brought a child back to life that had drowned there.
St. Agnes died when she was 49.

Another great female Dominican saint, St. Catherine if Siena, made a famous pilgrimage to St. Agnes’ tomb. St. Agnes’ incorrupt body lifted her foot for St. Catherine to kiss. St. Agnes was canonized AD 1726.

Let us pray...

O God who was ofttimes pleased to shed a heavenly dew over Thy Holy Virgin, Blessed Agnes, and to deck the places of her prayer with divers fresh blown flowers, mercifully grant that we, through her prayers, may be sprinkled with the unfailing dew of Thy blessing, and made fit to receive the fruits of immortality.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The incorrupt body of St. Agnes

Blessed Christian of Perugia

As it was missed yesterday, let's mention that yesterday was also the memorisl of Bl Christian of Perugia.

He was a contemporary of St. Dominic, being one of his first spiritual students. He helped to found the friary at Purugia, Italy that was established by Blessed Nicholas Palea. It was in Purugia that Franciscan writers record the famous meeting of St. Dominic and St. Francis.

"Truth suffers, but never dies"

The title of the post is just one of the myriad of quotes by the incredible St. Teresa of Avila who is truly one of Christ's greatest saints! Today is the Church's memorial of this extraordinary Church doctor, mystic, reformer, founder, virgin and poet!




Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He lookscompassion on this world
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.



"Be gentle to all and stern with yourself."



"It is love alone that gives worth to all things."



Prayer to Redeem Lost Time

O my God! Source of all mercy! I acknowledge Your sovereign power. While recalling the wasted years that are past, I believe that You, Lord, can in an instant turn this loss to gain. Miserable as I am, yet I firmly believe that You can do all things. Please restore to me the time lost, giving me Your grace, both now and in the future, that I may appear before You in "wedding garments. Amen.




"Untilled soil, however fertile it may be, will bear thistles and thorns; and so it is with man's mind."