A Modest Angel

Today is the feast of the extraordinary St. Juliana Falconieri, who her uncle St. Alexis likened unto an angel. She was born in answer to the prayers of her aged parents and from her infancy displayed signs of her future sanctity. As a girl she delivered herself to the pursuit of Christian virtue, excelling in the virtue of modesty which she maintained by avoiding gazing at men or mirrors. Even the mention of scandal or sin caused her distress.

At the age of fifteen she renounced her inheritance and took a vow of virginity, receiving the habit from St. Philip Benizi. Later she founded the Order of Mantellate Nuns after large numbers of Florentine ladies, mostly daughters of nobleman, became attracted to her way of life. As superior she took to heart the words of our Lord to be a servant and slave of all, lovingly attending to the most menial of duties. Her days were spent either in penance and prayer, often experiencing a divine rapture, or in works of charity and mercy.

At the age of seventy she developed a disease of the stomach brought on by her ministry and mortifications, which prevented her keeping down any food but above all from receiving Holy Communion. One day she asked her priest to bring the Blessed Sacrament to adore and place it upon her breast. To the amazement of all the host disappeared just as Juliana entered her soul's final rapture. When her body was prepared for burial, an imprint was found on her breast of Christ Crucified where the host had previously been laid. Her incorrupt remains are in the Church of the Holy Annunciation, Florence, which her father had built.

O faithful bride of Jesus and humble servant of Mary, Saint Juliana, thou who by practicing the most heroic virtues, especially the virtue of penance and the love of Jesus in His Sacrament didst arrive at the highest peak of Christian perfection and didst merit to be fed miraculously with the Bread of Angels in thy last agony; obtain for me the grace to live a holy life in the exercise of every Christian duty and to be able to receive at the moment of death the comfort of the holy Sacraments in order to come with thee to the blessed happiness of heaven. Amen

Hinc morte fessam proxima,

Non usitato te modo,

Solatur et nutrit Deus,

Dapem supernam porrigens