ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 1st of September
BL. JULIANA OF COLLALTO, ABBESS
Blessed Juliana, from the aristocratic family Collalto (Colalto), which had come to Italy with the German emperors, was a daughter of Tolbertus, who held the post of first cavalry captain with the House of Scaliger of Verona. Her mother's name was Johanna. These her parents had two sons, Rambaldus and Manfredus, and two daughters, Clara and Juliana.
HER STAY AT ST MARGARET MONASTERY
Blessed Juliana was born in 1186. At the age of ten she was admitted to the monastery of St Margaret in Salarola in the Padua area. Blessed Beatrix from the famous house of Este also lived here, but in 1222, because of unrest due to war, she left this monastery with ten other virgins to a lonely, more peaceful place. Beatrix' brother Azo III von Este founded a monastery and church in the new location. Among Beatrix' ten companions was Juliana, by now 36 years old.
SHE FOUNDED A NEW NUNNERY
When Blessed Beatrix died four years later, Bl. Juliana had a vision of St Blasius (St Blaise) instructing her to leave the monastery and to go to Venice instead. In Venice, she founded on the so-called Giudecca or Jews Island a nunnery near the church of St Blasius and St Cataldus. The church had been donated by some distinguished Venetian families along with a hospice for foreigners. It had been consecrated on November 6, 1188.
A SHINING EXAMPLE OF HOLINESS AND ALL VIRTUES
The convent followed the Rule of St Benedict. Here, Blessed Juliana, the Abbess, was a shining example of holiness and all virtues to the sisters who soon gathered around her.
Many heavenly graces were given to her. She died on September 1, 1262 in the odour of sanctity at the age of 76, after having previously suffered from headaches.
SOME FISHERMEN SAW LIGHT EMITTING FROM HER GRAVE AT NIGHT
Immediately after her death she was venerated as a saint, and several miracles took place at her intercession. She is called upon in particular as intercessor to help with severe headaches.
Initially, Bl. Juliana was buried in a wooden coffin, but after 35 years, on July 22, 1297, when the influx of the people kept growing, and some fishermen frequently saw light emitting from her grave at night, her body was officially raised.
HER BODY WAS FOUND INCORRUPT
The shrine in which it was located was intact, and her body was found incorrupt, whereupon it was exposed for veneration in a precious monument on an altar consecrated to her. The Bollandists in their book provide a picture of this shrine and of her person; she is depicted as the abbess with a shepherd's staff, her right hand on her chest.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)
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