Veronica Giuliani

This year the feast of St. Veronica Giuliani, Capuchin Poor Clare abbess and one of the great characters of our Capuchin tradition, is suppressed by the XV Sunday of Ordinary Time tomorrow.

This past week, however, was my turn taking the morning Mass at the General Curia of the Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto, and the sisters asked me if I would celebrate St. Veronica's Mass today, on Saturday. It seemed a little irregular to me, but no other celebration in particular obliged today, and since I'm more flexible when I'm a guest (cf. how I once celebrated the previously unknown liturgical day of Ash Sunday) I said fine, nice idea.

(Left to my own devices I probably would have taken either the optional memorial of Nicholas Pieck and companions, the Franciscans among the Martyrs of Gorkum, or the regular memorial of Our Lady on Saturday.)

Never having read St. Veronica and feeling thus inadequate to preach about her, I brought a selection from another priest's words on her:

In particular, Veronica proved a courageous witness of the beauty and power of Divine Love which attracted her, pervaded her and inflamed her. Crucified Love was impressed within her flesh as it was in that of St Francis of Assisi, with Jesus’ stigmata. “‘My Bride’, the Crucified Christ whispers to me, ‘the penance you do for those who suffer my disgrace is dear to me’.... Then detaching one of his arms from the Cross he made a sign to me to draw near to his side... and I found myself in the arms of the Crucified One. What I felt at that point I cannot describe: I should have liked to remain for ever in his most holy side” (ibid., I, 37). This is also an image of her spiritual journey, of her interior life: to be in the embrace of the Crucified One and thus to remain in Christ's love for others.

(Pope Benedict XVI, general audience of December 15, 2010)

St. Veronica Giuliani

Today is the feast of St. Veronica Giuliani, Capuchin Poor Clare abbess and stigmatic (+1727). She's really one of the great characters of Capuchin history. A couple of times my current assignment has found me scanning a page from her diaries for someone, and I always remark on how much she wrote and that one of these days I should get around to reading it.

At some moment or other here in Rome, I picked up a little booklet, 'The Rosary with St. Veronica Giuliani.' It's from Shalom, which publishes a lot of such helpful little things here in Italy. For each of the mysteries of the rosary, it has the corresponding passage of Sacred Scripture and then a text from St. Veronica's diaries. I've been praying my rosary with the booklet for a few months now. The texts are simple, but striking. Here are some examples.

For the Nativity:

"While I was looking at the Baby in the nativity scene, it seemed to me as if I saw him moving and giving me a look at he said: 'I am all for you.' And I said: 'I am all for you.' I would have wanted to give him anything. He said to me: 'I want your heart.'"

For the Flagellation:

"After Matins, there came to me a recollection in which there was a vision of our Lord's scourging at the pillar. I saw him bound to the pillar, all wounded. He said to me, 'Do you see where love has led me?'"

For the Resurrection:

"I seemed to be in a beautiful and spacious place and I felt a great desire to unite myself totally to God. Right away the Lord appeared, completely glorified, and he said to me: 'What do you want?' And I answered: 'I long for you alone, to give me everything according to your will.' At this point the Lord showed me his holy wounds and said to me: 'These are the keys and the doors for entering me.' Oh! What happiness, what joy try the soul when she has found the one for whom she was longing!"

Four Days of Veronica Giuliani

St. Veronica Giuliani is one of the great characters from our Capuchin tradition. Our current Roman-Franciscan breviary and sacramentary celebrate her feast day on July 10. The 1962 Missale Romano-Seraphicum celebrates her on July 9. This creates the curious situation of being able to celebrate the same saint two days in a row, in the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms, respectively.

Even more confusing, the 1942 M R-S puts her day on July 11, and her English wikipedia article puts it on the 12th.

Veronica Giuliani

Today we remember St. Veronica Giuliani, an Italian Capuchin Poor Clare of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. She acquired some fame even in her own lifetime for her intense and sometimes outlandish mystical experiences, as well as some stigmata.

Part of the selection from her diary that is in the Office of Readings grabbed me this morning:

For several days now I am experiencing a certain disposition in my heart which I do not understand, so I will merely describe the effects it produces in me.

It reminded me of the advice of a wise spiritual director. He told me not to expect or be greedy for any experiences of God during prayer or meditation. Instead, I should try to notice the effects of the meditation in the rest of my life.

"What do you usually do right after your meditation?" he asked me.

I told him that I usually have coffee or wash the dishes from the morning.

"And do you have coffee or wash dishes differently, with more recollection and peace, because you have meditated?" he asked.

He taught me to try to discern the presence of God in this sort of way.