Saints celebrated on the 31st of May
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SAINT BATTISTA CAMILLA DA VARANO, VIRGIN
[One of the saints canonized by Pope Benedict in October 2010 is] Saint Battista Camilla da Varano. She was born in 1458 in Camerino, Italy, out of wedlock to Prince Giulio Cesare da Varano.
The Prince brought Saint Camilla up and educated her in his palace. When she was about nine years old, Saint Camilla made a vow to meditate every Friday on the Passion of Christ and to shed at least one tear.
This resolution opened up to Saint Camilla an unexpected horizon of grace to an intense spiritual life.
From the age of 18 years until 21, she went through a time of deep spiritual struggle to resist the attraction of this world but she did not abandon her suffering Lord, on the contrary she began to lead a more austere life.
In Lent 1479 Saint Camilla received an illumination that enabled her to understand the precious gift of consecrated virginity. Having thus prepared herself to belong totally to Christ, and overcoming parental resistance, St Camilla entered the monastery of the Poor Clares in Urbino, taking the name of Sr Battista.
Daily meditation on Sacred Scripture and the Liturgy and living constantly in God’s presence enabled Saint Camilla to write texts whose lofty spirituality was appreciated by others.
Saint Camilla was elected Abbess of the community, an office she held for several terms. From 1488 to 1493 Saint Camilla experienced spiritual dryness, not hearing any sounds from God. Her second trial was the excommunication of members of her family. In 1505 Pope Julius II sent Saint Camilla to found a new community of Poor Clares in Fermo, and then later a new community at San Severino Marche. After 43 years of cloistered life as a nun Saint Camilla died in 1524.
In his homily at the Canonization Mass, Pope Benedict said of Saint Camilla: ‘Her life, totally immersed in divine depths, was a constant ascent on the way of perfection, with a heroic love of God and neighbour. She was marked by profound suffering and mystic consolation; in fact she had decided, as she herself writes, ‘to enter the most Sacred Heart of Jesus and to drown in the ocean of his most bitter suffering.’ In a period in which the Church was going through a period of moral laxity, she took with determination the road of penance and prayer.’
May we follow Saint Camilla’s example and make prayer and penance the road we travel to take us to eternal life, never afraid to suffer alongside Jesus.
Source: Spiritual Thought from Fr Chris
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Camilla Battista 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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