Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/129

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B. BENVENUTA BOJANI 115 remembered, and a chapel was bnilt in hor hononr. Bncolinus, Men, Ben. St Benedicta (15). nth century. Danghter of St. Anfroy, connt of Hny and Louvain, afterwards Bishop of Utrecht. She succeeded her mother, 8t. Herswind, as Abbess of Torenno or Thora. They are numbered among the saints of Liege. Stadler, from Bartho- lomew Lesen, Flores Eccletnse Leodierms. B. Benedicta (16), March 16, Oct. 19, V. fl^^*^- Succeeded St. Clara as Abbess of St. Damian's, at Assisi, in Umbria, 1253. Held in great veneration at Assisi, but has not been inserted in the martyrologies. AA,SS. B. Benedicta (17). f l^l*^- Sue ceeded B. Catherine Morioia, in 1478, as second Abbess of Monte Yarasio. Benedicta enriched the community and enlarged the convent. By the desire of the sisters and permission of the Pope, she continued abbess until her death, notwithstanding the rule that each superior should hold office for three years only. She was succeeded by the '^Illumined Sister," Lucretia Alciati, who brought a largo fortune to the sisterhood. Helyot, Hist, Ord. Mon., iv. cb. 9. St. Benigna, Jnne 20, V. M. 1241. Cistercian nun at Wratislaw, in Poland. Taken captive and slain for her adhe- rence to her innocence and Christian flEuith, by the Tartars who overran Poland in the time of Henry the Pious, son of St. Hbdwio. Bucelinus, Men, Ben. AAJ38.J Preeier. Henriquez, Lilia Ciai,^ Jane 19. St. Benilda, June 15. fSoa. A Yeiy old woman. One of the martyrs of Cordova. Beheaded the day after St. Dion a. B,M, Henschenius, in Boll., AA,S8. St. Eulogius, Mem, Sanct, BaiUet, Vies. St. Benonia, or Bononus, April 29. It is uncertain whether this is the name of man, woman, or place. AA,SS, St. Benu, Jan. 15, is honoured by the Copts as a martyr. B. Benvenuta (i) Bojani, Oct. 29 or 30. 1254-1292. O.S.D. When she was bom at Cividale of Austria, in Frinli, no one dared to tell her father that he had a seventh daughter, as he was very anxious for a son. When at last he heard it, he said, " She is welcome ; let her be named Benvenuta " (Welcome). She and her sister Mary made a vow of celibacy at a very early age. Benvenuta had a special devotion to St. Dominic, saw diabolical and celestial apparitions, and practised wonderful austerities from her child- hood. She suffered so much from numbness, tremor, and breathlessness that she could not lie down, and had for some years to take all her rest sitting in a chair. She was carried to church once a week. At last she was cured by St. Dominic, and, accompanied by her brother and sister, made a pilgrimage to his shrine at Bologna, in fulfilment of a vow. They passed through Venice and Padua, and returned home to Cividale, where she lived in perfect health for some years. The Dominican nuns there were much edified by her piety, and invited her to stay with them in their convent of Cella whenever she chose By her prayers she cured one of the sisters of a mysterious and painful dis- order to which she was subject every winter. She cured another of blindness. She delivered the souls of several of her friends and relations from purgatory ;. had the gift of prophecy ; took the form of absent persons, and performed their duties; had frequent raptures and ecstasies. She died in her own house,. 1292. Many people of rank, as well as many of the lower class, came from the surrounding towns to make a visit of devotion to her body, touching it with rings, beads, etc., that they might thereby receive the virtue of holy charms. The abbess and nuns of the great Bene- dictine convent were among those wha visited her before her burial. She waa carried to the Dominican church by th& friars, and a short sermon was preached by her confessor, Conrad, prior of Verona, in which he related two of her miracles — that of her cure by St. Dominio already mentioned, and that of the rope. While yet very young she girt herself so tightly with a rope that as she grew it became embedded in her flesh, and caused her great suffering. It could only bo removed by a surgical operation. As