Bl. Veronica of Milan
Born: c. 1445
Died: January 13, 1497
Feast day: January 13
Patron saint of: Binasco, Italy
Veronica grew up in Binasco, a small village outside of Milan, where she grew up in a poor peasant family and tried unsuccessfully to teach herself to read. The miracle of her catechesis occurred through visions of the life of Christ and visitations by the Blessed Mother, who taught Veronica the catechism. After joining a convent, she suffered alternating bouts of physical pain and religious ecstasy, and developed great gifts of prophecy: Christ would give her important messages in prayer to carry to influential people, and Veronica even prophesied the exact date of her own death. Her holiness was not tied to traditional academic intellect, but to her efforts to deepen her faith and pureness of heart. Blessed Veronica inspires us to be attentive not just to the perceived intelligence or accolades others hold, but more so to what God is saying to us and calling us to be.
Image: G. Scuri, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
