From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Blessed the Peacemakers!   
      
   "Some people are peacemakers in themselves. By conquering and subjecting to   
   reason all the motions of their souls, and taming their carnal desires, they   
   become, in themselves, a kingdom of God.   
      
   They enjoy the peace that is given on earth to persons of goodwill, the life   
   of the consummate and perfect person of wisdom."   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon on the Mount 1, 2   
      
   Prayer: Lord, whatever you give me is too little for me. Be you yourself my   
   inheritance! I love you with all my heart and all my soul and all my mind. Of   
   what value is anything you give me that is not yourself!   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon 334, 3   
      
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   February 16th - Bl. Verdiana, Virgin   
   d. 1240   
      
   VERDIANA, whose name is variously written Viridiana and Veridiana, was   
   born at Castelfiorentino in Tuscany of a noble family which had fallen   
   from its high estate. When she was twelve years old, a well-to-do   
   relation took her as a companion for his wife, who made her   
   housekeeper. Even at that time she had a reputation for sanctity, and   
   when she obtained permission to join a pilgrimage to St. James of   
   Compostela she had first to promise that she would come back to   
   Castelfiorentino. Upon her return, her fellow pilgrims gave such an   
   account of her holiness that the people begged her to stay permanently   
   amongst them. This she consented to do if they would allow her to live   
   the life of a recluse and would build her a hermitage. They erected   
   one near the river Elsa, adjoining a little oratory it is reputed to   
   have measured ten feet by four and to have been furnished only with a   
   narrow stone ledge to serve as a seat. She lived for thirty-four years   
   in her cell, and all the communication she had with the outside world   
   was through a little window which opened into St. Antony’s oratory.*   
   [* Just such a window or hatchway can be seen at the site of an   
   anchorhold at Lewes in Sussex, giving on to the church of St. Anne.]   
      
    She ate once a day, mainly bread and water with, occasionally, a few   
   vegetables. She slept on the bare earth except in winter when she used   
   a plank. She had a very great love for the poor, to whom she gave   
   nearly everything which the piety of visitors brought to her, and she   
   only cared to receive the poor and the afflicted.   
      
   Wonderful miracles were ascribed to Bl. Verdiana. It was commonly   
   reported that two serpents had entered her cell through the tiny   
   window and that they remained with her for years, being allowed to   
   torment her and even eating from her plate but that the saint kept   
   their presence a secret, as she did not wish her sufferings to be   
   known. She had a visit from St. Francis of Assisi himself in 1221, The   
   two saints talked together of heavenly things and he admitted her, it   
   was said, into his third order.   
      
   She was divinely warned of her approaching death, and she closed her   
   window and was heard reciting the penitential psalms. Tradition tells   
   that her passing was miraculously announced by the sudden pealing of   
   the bells of Castelfiorentino. In Florentine art Bl. Verdiana appears   
   in the habit of a Vallombrosan nun, carrying a basket with two snakes   
   in it. It seems certain that she was associated with the Vallombrosan   
   Order, but her connection with the Franciscan third order is by no   
   means so clearly established. The cultus was approved by Clement VII   
   in 1533.   
      
   0. Pogni, Vita di S. Verdiana (1936), published a Latin text written   
   soon after her death. A later one, translated back from an Italian   
   version, is in the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. i. Canon Pogni also   
   published Canon M. Cioni’s account of the beata and her church and   
   hospital at Castelfiorentino (1932-34). See also Gonnelli, Vita di S.   
   Verdiana (1613). There is a notice in Leon, Aureole Séraphique (Eng.   
   trans.), vol. i.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   When anyone places his whole trust in God, hoping in and serving Him   
   faithfully at the same time, God watches over him, to the extent of   
   his confidence, in every danger. Infinite is the love which God bears   
   to souls who repose in His protection. Diffidence in ourselves and   
   confidence in God are like the scales of a balance; the elevation of   
   the one is necessarily connected with the depression of the other. The   
   more we have of diffidence in ourselves, the greater is our confidence   
   in God; the less we possess of confidence in God, the more   
   presumptuous shall we be of our own powers; but if we have no sort of   
   confidence in our own strength, we may be assured that our hopes   
   center completely in God.   
   -- St. Francis of Sales   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   "For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in   
   word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body." [James   
   3:2]   
      
      
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   Holy Holy Holy,   
      
   Holy Holy Holy, O Lord of Hosts, Heaven and earth are full of Thy   
   glory and Thy dignity. Have mercy O God the Father Almighty. O Holy   
   Trinity have mercy on us. O Lord God of powers be with us, for we have   
   no other helper in our tribulations and adversities but Thee.   
      
   O God, release, remit, and forgive us our transgressions which we have   
   committed willingly and which we have committed unwillingly, which we   
   have committed knowingly and which we have committed unknowingly, the   
   hidden and the manifest. O Lord, remit them for us, for the sake of   
   Thy Holy Name, which is called upon us according to Thy mercy, O Lord,   
   and not according to our sins.   
      
   (One Our Father)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)