ST MARY FRANCES OF THE FIVE WOUNDS, VIRGIN - 6 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER 

Saints celebrated on the 6th of October

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SAINT MARY FRANCES OF THE FIVE WOUNDS, VIRGIN 

The daughter of Francesco Gallo and Barbara Basinsin, Anna Maria was born on March 25, 1715. Her family lived in Naples.

When Anna Maria was sixteen, her father, a quite well-to-do weaver of gold lace, attempted to force her into a marriage with a young man of means who was seeking her hand. She refused and asked to join the Franciscan Third Order, through which she could live out a religious life in the family home. The friars of Naples were part of the reform of Peter of Alcantara, and they and the tertiaries under their rule were known for the strictness of their lives. Through the intervention of a friar, Father Theophilus, permission to enter the Order was eventually granted by her father.

Anna Maria was received into the Order on September 8, 1731 and began wearing the religious habit of the Order. She continued to live in the family home to serve God as a consecrated virgin, as was customary in those days.

She took as her spiritual director, the Franciscan friar, John Joseph of the Cross, while her confessor was the Barnabite priest, Francis Xavier Bianchi, and she began to be known among her neighbours for her work of charity, helping the poor. She was a person of deep prayer, often spending long hours in meditation.

In 1753 she joined with another Franciscan tertiary, known only as Maria Felice, and they moved into a small palace owned by a priest, Giovanni Pessiri, who became their spiritual director. The two women occupied the second floor, sleeping on the floor, and the priest the floor above. She is said to have received the wounds of the stigmata while living there and suffered patiently many physical afflictions and spiritual trials. She would wear gloves to cover the marks on her hands, while she did her work. She is also said to have had visions of St Raphael the Archangel, who healed her of several afflictions. 

St Mary Frances of the Five Wounds died on October 7, 1791. She was beatified on November 12, 1843, and canonised on June 29, 1867. Her shrine is located in Naples. 

Information from Wikipedia