Veridiana (Virginia Margaret del Mazziere) (1182 – 1 February 1242) is an Italian saint.
Born at
Castelfiorentino
Castelfiorentino is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, central-northern Italy, halfway between Florence (distance 30 km), Pisa (45 km) and Siena (55 km). The population is approximate ...
,
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze'').
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...
, of a noble family, somewhat impoverished but still prestigious, Verdiana was noted from an early age for her generosity and sense of
charity
Charity may refer to:
Giving
* Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons
* Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing
* Ch ...
. She made a
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
to
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of St ...
. Upon returning to Castelfiorentino and feeling a desire for solitude and penance, she had herself walled up as an
anchorite
In Christianity, an anchorite or anchoret (female: anchoress) is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society so as to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. While anchorites are ...
in a little cell contiguous to the
oratory of San Antonio. She remained secluded there for 34 years under the obedience of a
Vallumbrosan
The Vallombrosians (alternately spelled Vallombrosans, Vallumbrosians or Vallumbrosans) are a monastic religious order in the Catholic Church. They are named after the location of their motherhouse founded in Vallombrosa ( la, Vallis umbrosa, shad ...
abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conce ...
(however, the
Franciscans
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
claim her as one of their
tertiaries).
Like many recluses of her era, it is not certain whether Verdiana belonged to any particular monastic order. The Dominican order appropriated her after her death through the redaction of her vita, but probably belonged to none of the
mendicant orders during her lifetime. One late account suggests that in 1221 she was visited by Francis of Assisi, who admitted her into his Third Order. It is more likely that she was associated with the local monastery in Castelfiorentino, which belonged to the Vallombrosan order, the economic success of which had so worried the bishops of Florence. Even this affiliation, however, most likely occurred after her death, as various monastic orders vied for “possession” of yet another popular saint.
[André Vauchez, ''Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages'', Trans. Jean Birrell (Cambridge, 1997), 208.]
From a little window she spoke to visitors and received an insufficient amount of food. Tradition holds that two
snake
Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...
s penetrated her cell in the last years of her life. These increased her
mortification of the flesh
Mortification of the flesh is an act by which an individual or group seeks to mortify or deaden their sinful nature, as a part of the process of sanctification.
In Christianity, mortification of the flesh is undertaken in order to repent for s ...
, but she never revealed their existence. Another local tradition holds that upon her death, the
bells of Castelfiorentino began to ring unaided by any human hand, unexpectedly and simultaneously.
She was canonized by
Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII ( la, Clemens VII; it, Clemente VII; born Giulio de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the ...
in 1533. Her feast day is 1 February.
Vitae
Knowledge of Verdiana and her life comes from two hagiographies, one from the fourteenth century and the other from the fifteenth. The first was redacted around 1340 and attributed to Biagio, a monk and perhaps abbot of the Vallombrosan convent of Santa Trinità in Florence during the first half of the fourteenth century. Very little else is known about him other than the fact that around 1340 he collected and assembled from preexisting materials a compendium of the lives of saints venerated in Florence and Tuscany, now contained in the
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze ...
. Verdiana’s second hagiographer, Lorenzo Giacomini, was a native of Castelfiorentino born circa 1369. He entered into the Dominican order in Florence in 1383, and after acting as a lettore for many years in various convents, including those of the Roman and Lombard provinces, he was made bishop of Acaia in 1413 by
Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII ( la, Ioannes PP. XXII; 1244 – 4 December 1334), born Jacques Duèze (or d'Euse), was head of the Catholic Church from 7 August 1316 to his death in December 1334.
He was the second and longest-reigning Avignon Pope, elected by ...
. It is thought to be shortly after this time, around 1420, that he wrote a new vita in deference to his native city and to his particular devotion to Verdiana. His account borrowed faithfully from Biagio, though Giacomini sought to enrich it with miracles and information on the cult and translations of Verdiana known from contemporary traditions and his own experience. It is this version, erroneously attributed to Bishop Attone of Pistoia, that appears in the
Acta Sanctorum
''Acta Sanctorum'' (''Acts of the Saints'') is an encyclopedic text in 68 folio volumes of documents examining the lives of Christian saints, in essence a critical hagiography, which is organised according to each saint's feast day. The project w ...
. Because of the two vitae, it is possible for scholars to compare Verdiana’s hagiographically “typical” life in Biagio’s earlier vita and the greater emphasis on Verdiana’s connection to the community of Castelfiorentino in Lorenzo Giacomini’s.
See also
*
Viridiana (name) Viridiana (Spanish language, Spanish, Portuguese language, Portuguese, Latin), Viridianne (French language, French, English language, English), Verdiana (Italian language, Italian) is a female given name of Latin origin as well as the name of an Ita ...
Notes
References
*Biagio. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. Plut. 20.6, 41v-44r. “Vita sanctae viridianae” (c. 1340)
*Giacomini, Lorenzo. ''Acta Sanctorum''. Feb. I, pp. 257–61. “Verdiana.” (c. 1420)
*Benvenuti, Anna. “Capi d’aglio e serpenti: Aspetti civici del culto di santa Verdiana di Castelfiorentino,” ''La Toscane et les Toscans autour de la Renaissance: cadres de vie, société, croyances: mélanges offerts à Charles-M. de La Roncière''. Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l'
Université de Provence
The University of Provence Aix-Marseille I (french: Université de Provence) was a public research university mostly located in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. It was one of the three Universities of Aix-Marseille and was part of the Academy of ...
, 1999. pp. 313–349.
*Benvenuti, Anna. “Mendicant Friars and Female Pinzochere in Tuscany: From Social Marginality to Models of Sanctity.” Women and Religion in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. Ed. Daniel Bornstein and Roberto Rusconi. Trans. Margery J. Schneider. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...
, 1996. pp. 84–103.
*Del Re, Niccolò. “Verdiana.” ''Bibliotheca sanctorum''. 12 vols., Rome: 1961-9., XIII, col. 1023-1027.
*Improta, Maria Cristina. ''La Chiesa di Santa Verdiana a Castelfiorentino''. Castelfiorentino: Comune di Castelfiorentino, 1986.
*Wieben, Corinne. "Foster-Mother of Vipers: Episcopal Conflict and the Cult of Verdiana da Castelfiorentino." Languages of Power in Italy (1300–1600). Ed. Daniel Bornstein, Laura Gaffuri, and Brian J. Maxson. Turnhout, Belgium:
Brepols
Brepols is a Belgian publishing house. Once, it was one of the largest printing companies in the world and one of the main employers in Turnhout (Belgium). Besides its printing business, Brepols is also active as a publisher. Formerly well known ...
, 2017. pp. 143–160.
External links
Saints Index: VerdianaSanta Verdiana
{{Authority control
1182 births
1242 deaths
People from Castelfiorentino
Italian saints
13th-century Christian saints
13th-century Italian women