ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL
Saints celebrated on the 23rd of April
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| A page of one of Fortunatus Hueber's Saints' books, "Stammenbuch..." (1693) |
Blessed Helena, a member of the Third Order of Saint Augustine, was born of noble parents in Udine (Friuli) in the Venetian region. Her father was descended from the old Valentini family, her mother was Elizabeth of Maniago, whose ancestral seat is located between Udine and Belluno. Helena married Antonio de Cavalcanti, a Florentine, from which marriage many children were born, whom she brought up in piety and the fear of God. Their names and numbers have not come down to us. One son, named Charles, was present at her death.
When her husband died, she cut off her beautiful hair and laid it on his coffin with all the jewelry. "Just for your sake," she said, "I wore this hair and this jewellery; now take both with you under the earth!" After the death of her husband she dedicated herself to holy widowhood.
A sermon on the sanctity of the Augustinian Order persuaded her to enter the same as a tertiary. From that moment on she devoted her entire time to prayer and works of Christian love and mercy. Since she once read a quote by Saint Augustine that "great rewards can only be attained after great effort", she practised extraordinary penances, chastised her body, ate neither meat nor milk, sprinkled ashes on her bread, put gall into her drinking water, and constantly devoted herself to mental and oral prayer and spiritual reading.
Of the Provincial of the Augustinians she asked to be bound by the duty of perpetual silence, and that she might only break it with the permission of her confessor. She then received this permission each time on Christmas Eve, where she had her siblings, children and relatives visit her.
The evil enemy, however, tried to tempt her as an angel of light by advising her to leave the monastery; and at other times he afflicted her with severe physical violence.
Once he threw her into the water, another time he lifted her in the air and dropped her, breaking her thigh twice; on yet another occasion he chased her about the cell until she dropped, as if dead, in front of the Crucifix. He also made menacing noises to disturb her prayers. On the other hand, Helena experienced great consolations in her life. She was deemed worthy to see her Saviour with bodily eyes. During holy communion, too, which she took almost every day, she really saw our Lord dwelling in her heart. When she received the last viaticum, she saw countless saints; the sky was indeed opened to her. So she died, with her head raised, looking at the crucifix, on April 23, 1458, in the 62nd year of her age. Because of the countless miracles, her veneration began immediately after her death. She rests in the Church of Saint Lucia at Udine.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 2, Augsburg, 1861, pp. 618-19)
Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of blessed Helena may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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