St Veronica Giuliani was an Italian Capuchin nun and mystic who lived in the 1600s and early 1700s. Jesus gifted her with the stigmata and many visions.
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Who Was St Veronica Giuliani?
St Veronica Giuliani was an Italian Capuchin nun and mystic who lived in the 1600s and early 1700s. Jesus gifted her with the stigmata and many visions. Pray this novena photographers, the poor, and the sick.
Veronica was born Orsola (or Ursula) Giuliani at Mercatello in the Duchy of Urbino on December 27th 1660.
She was the youngest of seven children, all daughters, three of whom became nuns.
As early as three years old, she saved food from her meals and gave them to the poor, and gave them some of her own clothes as well.
Ursula’s mother died when she was just seven years old.
Gifted from an early age with devotion, Ursula was unrelenting when her family did not go along with all her religious practices.
She became obstinate about this, until Jesus spoke to her when she was 16 and showed her that her “heart of steel” did not entail that she had to force her family to adopt all the practices she was called to do.
Her father wished her to marry, but Ursula wanted to enter religious life, and her father allowed her to pursue it.
When she was 17 years old, she went to the Capuchin Poor Clares monastery in Umbria and took the religious name “Veronica” in honor of St Veronica who wiped Jesus’ face while He carried the Cross.
Her first years in the monastery were difficult, with God letting the devil tempt her to leave her vocation, but she persevered and became the novice mistress, a position she would hold for the next 34 years.
She went on to become the abbess, and did so for the next 11 years.
Veronica was devoted to Christ crucified and in 1694, God gave her the marks from His crown of thorns on her own head.
Three years later He gave her the five wounds that He Himself suffered on the Cross.
Her bishop treated her stigmata with great skepticism: he separated her from her community and had her watched closely for signs of deception.
Ultimately, however, he realized that her stigmata was authentic, and she returned to normal life in the convent.
St Veronica Giuliani died on July 9th, 1727 at Citta di Castello.
After her death, the shape of a cross was found imprinted over her heart.
When examined later, her body was found to be incorrupt.
She was beatified on June 17th, 1804 by Pope Pius VII. She was canonized May 26th, 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI.