BL. VILLANA DE BOTTI, WIDOW - 29 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 29th of January

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BLESSED VILLANA DE BOTTI, WIDOW

Blessed Villana is commemorated on February 28, January 29, August 21, or August 26. She was the daughter of a merchant, named Andreas de Botti (hence her surname, Bottia). As a girl and a teenager, she exerted herself by vigils, flagellations, and other penitential practices, and was even trying to run away from her parental home to hide in a convent. 

PRAYER AND PENANCE

The attempted escape failed and her father gave her in marriage to a Florentine merchant named Pietro Popolo in order to prevent the recurrence of such scenes. 

A CHANGED PERSON

As a wife she seemed suddenly changed; she surrendered to a vain and luxuriant life in the world. Divine love was gradually fading out of her heart, and it was only a matter of time for love of the world and love of self to completely ensnare her. 

One day, dressed in a magnificent dress studded with pearls and jewels, she was preparing to attend a dinner party, and before she left the house, contemplated herself in the mirror. But how terrified she was when she saw not her own image but an ugly devil in the mirror. She now tried another and third mirror, but from each the same horrid grimace looked back at her. This was the cause of her conversion.

THE SAME HORRID GRIMACE STARED HER IN THE FACE

She immediately put aside the festive gown and hurried to the church of St Maria Novella, where she confessed, and soon afterwards joined the Third Order of St Dominic. From now on she remained faithful to the Lord. 

HER CONVERSION

She performed the duties of a good housewife with all zeal, devoting every spare moment to prayer, giving alms abundantly from the abundance of her wealth, and diligently partook in Holy Mass and the sacraments. Her reading and constant meditation were now the scriptures, especially the epistles of St Paul and the lives of the saints. 

A LIFE OF GRACE

The earlier monastic thoughts returned, and if her husband had consented, she would have withdrawn from the world altogether. When she eventually became a widow, the life of grace and the spirit grew stronger day by day, and she often fell into raptures, especially during spiritual conversations and lectures. 

SHE OFTEN FELL INTO RAPTURES

The pleasures and goods of the world became so repugnant to her that, if she had had her way, she would have chosen extreme poverty and to beg for her meagre food. 

SUFFERINGS

Once she carried a poor patient whom she had met on her way to the hospital on her own shoulders. In vain the evil enemy exerted all his strength to bring her back to her former ways. He aroused enmity and hatred against her, slanderous tongues attacked her honour and innocence, inexplicable physical ailments and diseases weakened her strength. But she suffered and bore everything with heroic patience. 

HEAVENLY CONSOLATION

The Saviour Himself also comforted her in many ways during her inward and outward afflictions; she had apparitions of the Blessed Virgin, too, and of other saints. Her dwelling often shone with heavenly light, she received the gift of prophecy. 

SHE RECEIVED THE LAST RITES

As her hour of death approached, she received the Last Rites with devotion, had the Passion of the Lord read to her, and passed away as the passage was read: "He bowed his head and died." 

"HE BOWED HIS HEAD AND DIED"

Her body was buried in the habit of the Third Dominican Sisters, as she had requested, at St Maria Novella. The faithful flocked in droves and cut bits off her clothes to take home with them as relics. Only after 37 days, during which she remained exposed in the Catharina Chapel, could her burial take place. 

UNINTERRUPTED DEVOTION

The devotion to this Blessed was never interrupted, which is why Pope Leo XII - in 1824 - allowed the Order of Preachers and the Archbishopric of Florence to celebrate her memory with a special Office and Mass. Her anniversary of death is January 29. The Dominicans celebrate her memorial on February 28. On August 26, 1569, her body was transferred. The writer Arthur affirms her translation to have taken place on August 21.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)