BLESSED PAULA GAMBARA COSTA, WIDOW - 29 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 29th of March

 WELCOME!

BLESSED PAULA GAMBARA COSTA, WIDOW

Blessed Paula Gambara Costa, of the Third Order of Saint Francis of Assisi, was a noble but humble and penitent woman from Brescia, who gladly forgave for Christ's sake even her servants' mockery and contempt. She supported the poor, afflicted and needy of every kind with self-sacrifice and by performing the meanest services for them, so that her husband, Count Ludwig von Costa, became peevish about it. However, she did not neglected anything of her job as a housewife. 

Following her husband's death his pious widow was even more keen to contemplate the suffering of Jesus, to exercise great austerity, and to venerate the mother of Jesus and all Christians with childlike love and devotion. Finally, in A.D. 1505, she went to the Lord. Her relics rest in Bene (Benae, formerly Augusta Vagiennorum). Pope Gregory XVI confirmed her cult after examining the miracles that happened at her tomb. Paula's name is inserted in the Seraphic Roman Martyrology*.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 4, Augsburg, 1875)

*A hagiography source used by the authors 

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of the blessed Paula 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.

Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org