a year of prayer: 365 Rosaries

Today, July 9, we celebrate the feast of Saint Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727), Capuchin mystic and stigmatist. Regarded as one of the most extraordinary mystics of her time, Veronica was the recipient of the stigmata and visions of Christ in 1697. She impressed her fellow nuns by remaining remarkably practical despite her numerous ecstatic experiences, leading her order toward union with Christ in His suffering.


Saint Veronica was born named Ursula, in Binasco, Italy (near Milan), the daughter of pious parents. From an early age, Veronica demonstrated signs of sanctity. It is told that when she was only eighteen months old, she uttered her first words a shop clerk who was trying to sell her mother a false measure of oil, saying distinctly, "Do justice, God sees you."

At the age of three, Ursula was first graced with Divine communications, and as a result, began to show great compassion for the poor. Each day, she would set aside a portion of her food for them, and was even known to literally give the clothes off her back to poor children whom she would encounter. As she grew older, her devotion to God, especially her great love for the Cross and for the suffering of Christ, grew exponentially. By all reports, Ursula very much wished others to join her in her religious pursuits, prayer, fasting, and penance. However, her family and peers were less devout, and in these moments, she tended to demand their piety and participation in her routines—a character weakness she corrected following a vision of her heart as a heart of steel when she was sixteen.

Sometime in Ursula’s adolescence, her mother passed away, after first consecrating her daughter to the wounds of Christ. Her father, raising five girls on his own, also received a significant promotion at the time, becoming the superintendent of finance at Piacenza. In her writings, Ursula confessed that she enjoyed the privileges and wealth that her father’s position afforded the family, but through a series of visions came to realize that a religious life was her calling. Despite her father’s urging to marry—and his arrangement of several suitors for her—Ursula refused. She fell ill, and only recovered upon receiving her father’s permission to join the convent of Capuchin Poor Clares in Citt' di Castello.

Ursula joined the order in 1677, taking the name of Veronica in memory of the Passion. At the conclusion of her reception, the presiding bishop said to the abbess: "I commend this new daughter to your special care, for she will one day be a great saint." In her writings, Saint Veronica details the trials and struggles she underwent during her novitiate, tempted to leave the order and return to the world. However, she embraced her calling, and demonstrated obedience, Christian meekness, and submissiveness to her superiors, earning her the respect and admiration of her sisters. The following year, in 1678, she professed her entrance into the Capuchin Order, and began receiving heavenly visions, desiring to suffer in union with Christ for the conversion of sinners.

Saint Veronica’s first vision occurred one day, while praying alone in her cell. Jesus appeared to her, carrying His cross on His shoulder. He asked her, “What do you wish?”

Veronica replied, “That Cross, and I wish for You, for Your love.”

Jesus took the cross from His shoulder, placing it on hers. As Veronica wrote in her diary, the cross was too heavy, and she fell to the ground beneath its weight, but the Lord lifted her back up. Following this vision, she reported a physical pain in her heart for the remainder of her life, and upon examination following her death, an imprint of the cross was discovered on her heart.

In 1693, Jesus again appeared to Saint Veronica, showing her a chalice full of liquid, which seemed to be on fire. He told her, “If you want to be Mine, you must taste this liquid for my love.” Veronica later wrote that when He placed just a few drops of the liquid on her tongue, she was filled with such indescribable bitterness and sadness, she thought she would die. Her tongue became dry and from that day on, she could not taste anything. From that time on, the suffering of the Passion of Christ was continuously experienced by Saint Veronica, causing her extreme suffering and sadness. Despite this great weight, she never complained, joining her suffering to that of Christ for the conversion of sinners.

On another occasion, in 1694, Jesus appeared again to Veronica, covered with sores, the crown of thorns on His head, and actively bleeding. He said to her, “See what sinners have done to me?”

Veronica wrote in her diary, following that vision: “Seeing the great agony that my Lord was in, I begged Him to give Me His Crown. He placed it on my head; I suffered so much, I thought I was dying.” Veronica received the stigmata of the crown of thorns, which remained permanently etched on her forehead. She could be observed to be bleeding beneath her veil, such was the wound she suffered. Her superior, and eventually her bishop, ordered her to receive medical care, which she obediently undertook. However, she received little comfort.

The last of her visions occurred on Christmas Day, when the Infant Jesus appeared to Veronica. She awoke with a deep pain in her heart, and found herself to be bleeding. Her heart ached so painfully, she was unable to sleep. Jesus told her that she would have to bears the marks of His wounds, feeling the lance and nails he felt on the cross. She wrote in her diary:

“In an instant, I saw five shining rays shooting out from His Wounds, coming towards me. I watched as they turned into little flames. Four of them (the flames) contained the nails, and the fifth one contained the lance, golden and all aflame, and it pierced my heart. The nails pierced my hands and feet.” Embracing the crucifix from her wall, Veronica said: “My Lord, pains with pains, thorns with thorns, sores with sores, here I am all Yours, crucified with You, crowned with thorns with You, wounded with You.”

Veronica was appointed Mistress of Novices, a role she filled for 34 years, guiding the novices with great prudence, and refusing to let them read any related to visions or mysticism, insisting that they instead become practical brides of Christ. During that time, she began to physically relive the Passion each night, carrying a heavy cross through the garden of the monastery. While she did so, she wore a robe lines with sharp thorns which pierced her body. She would often carry this heavy cross until the point of collapse, at which time her sisters observed her levitating. She further engaged in fasting, eating little more than bread and water in penance for sinners.

In 1716, Saint Veronica was elected Abbess, a position she held until her death eleven years later. Her body remains beautifully incorrupt and can be seen at the Monastery of St. Veronica Giuliani in Citt` di Castello, Italy.

Saint Veronica’s willingness to suffer—her desire to suffer—is remarkable. She endured the physical, emotional, and spiritual pain of the Passion without complaint. She never tried to prove her stigmata to be real, despite the scorn of some of her community, and would not have sought medical help without being ordered to do so. Instead, she bore her cross—the Cross of Christ—and turned to Him for comfort and assistance. The beautiful symbolism of her first vision, in which she fell beneath the weight of the cross, only to be lifted by Jesus, is a message that we can each carry into our own lives. While we may not be graced with the spiritual gifts of vision, ecstasy, or stigmata, we each have struggles and personal crosses to carry. In looking to the Lord, in joining with Christ’s suffering on Calvary, we find our own sorrows to be eased, our burdens to be lighter, our crosses to be lifted by He who suffered and died for us!


Year 2: Day 190 of 365
Prayer Intentions: Comfort in our suffering; Union with Christ.
Requested Intentions: For a daughter’s successful examination results (A); Occupational success, health and safety of family (S); Reduction in anxiety for husband, financial freedom (S); Healing for a sister-in-law (J); For a family experiencing a difficult child custody case (M); Reunification of a family struggling with separation (M): For a son struggling with mental illness (M); Successful examination results (B); To be freed from the chains of sin (J); Admission to a good university (M); For successful surgery (T); For a mother’s mental health and for kindness and forgiveness, for housing problems, for dental health (T); For the soul of a departed friend (X); Restoration of health (D); Successful employment for couple (N); For employment for children (K); For health of friend, for successful relationships for children, for safe pregnancy for daughter (C); For the health of a mother (J); Virtue for daughter (V); Successful acceptance to college for nephew (M); For the health of a cousin (T); Freedom from legal difficulties for husband (S); Husband’s freedom from illness (L).