424 ST. JAXE yerj sharp axe. raised liis arm to cat a bough. He fell to the groand with sach force that he was serionsly hurt, and the edge of his axe was found to have grown quite thick and broad. She performed many miracles of healing. Broocbi, Santi FiorentinL Cahier. Prayer-book and Calendar of the Franciscans. St. Jane no;, March 30, Sept 1, Oct. 27, 1301-1367. B. Giovanna S^iDERiM, bom at Florence, was a nun of the 3rd Order of Servants of the B. Y. Makt, called Mantellate, and disciple of St. Jcuana Falcoxieri, their founder. Feliciana Tamia, her pious governess, being near death, indicated St. Juliana Falconieri as the fittest person to edu- cate Giovanna, who thenceforward became her devoted disciple, and under her guidance, dedicated herself to Gx)d and the Virgin Mary, at the age of twelve. She was the first to discover the miracu- lous mark of the cross of Christ, like a seal, on the heart of her dead mistress, also that Juliana's hair shirt had grown into the flesh. She aspir<^ to walk in the steps of Juliana, and emulate her penance and holiness. She was chosen directress of the Mantellate and survived her mistress twenty-six years. She was honoured as a saint in her own order from the time of her death, and this veneration spread to other orders and countries long before any recognized authority had sanctioned her worship. A.R.M,, Sept. 1. AA.8S,, Oct. 27. B. Jane ( 1 1 ; or Juax a, Dec. 8, abbess of the Cistercian monastery of St. Bene- dict do Castris, near Evora in Portugal, -f 1383. She was of royal Portuguese descent. In 1383, during a war between Portugal and Castile, soldiers broke into the house, took the ornaments from the church, and seized the nuns. The priests endeavoured in vain to protect them. The abbess having tried to convert the soldiers, they dragged her about the town, tore her clothes off, and loft her for d(tad ; nobody interfered. The monks of St. Francis took her up to bury her in their church, although neither they nor any one else, but only this one woman, had dared to reprove the soldiers for their sacrilege and brutality. The same day that Kho was killed the people tmrst in to murder the nans ealliiif them Castillians, They were stmck blind, and thus the nans escaped. For two hundred years afierwrnids no abbev ever died in the exercifle of tlie dignitj in that convent : each one hmd to resigi on account of serions illncBB or seme insurmountable cause. Henriqnez, IMk. BB. Jane (^12; and Mary (52i,or B6. Jcaxa and Masia, Aug. 9, VV. MM. c. 1-KK). Two sisters of Torrezimeiio, t village near Granada, which then be- longed to the Moors. They were d poor but honest parents. Thejr used to wash clothes at a fountain. One day they were seized by Moors and oanied to Granada, where, after some <shangeB of masters, they became the property of two Moors who held important oSuoob about the court. The two Moors wanted to marry these very pretty girls, but could not on account of their religion ; 80 they tried by every possible artifice to induce them to apostatise. Jane and Mary instead laughed at the Moham- medan fsiith and blasphemed the prophet At last the love of the two Moors wis worn out by so many refusals, so that they began to hate their captives, and took them before the cadi and accused them of blasphemy. The cadi took the young women apart from their masters and represented to them the advantages they would derive from adopting the religion of Mahomet and being married to these knights ; but as they vehemently refused to abandon their faiiii, he thought himself compelled to make an example of them. He ordered them to be dragged to the common place of execution and there beheaded. Accordingly, they were taken from the heights of the Alhambra to a place called by the Moors Macahau — the burial-place of the accursed — where now stands the Church of St. Gregory near the Darro. There they were beheaded in presence of a great multitude of people. It appeared that their martyrdom was accepted by Christ, for their bodies remained Imeeling, instead of falling to the ground when their heads were cut off, and a light shone round them brighter than the noonday sun, which was then at its height.
