Villana de' Botti

Last updated

Villana de' Botti

Chiostro di san domenico, cosimo ulivelli, beata villana de' botti.jpg
Born1332
Florence, Republic of Florence
Died29 January 1361 (aged 28)
Florence, Republic of Florence
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Beatified 27 March 1824, Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope Leo XII
Feast
Attributes Dominican habit
Patronage
  • Married couples
  • Dominican tertiaries

Villana de' Botti, TOSD (1332 - 29 January 1361) was an Italian Catholic professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. [1] She turned to the Dominicans after a sudden conversion from a dissolute life and was noted for her simplistic life born out of her conversion. She was a pious and devoted child but after she was married she had fallen into secular values. [2]

Contents

De' Botti had fierce detractors due to her stating she had religious ecstasies at Mass, and these opponents eventually acknowledged her as a true living saint. She was beatified on 27 March 1824. [3]

Life

Villana de' Botti was born in Florence in 1332 to the merchant Andrea de' Botti.

De' Botti was a pious and devoted child who ran from home in 1345 in order to join a religious order at their convent. But the order she approached refused her and she was forced to return home to face the ire of her father. Her father decided to counter possible future attempts to join a convent when he decided to arrange his daughter's marriage to Rosso di Piero Benintendi in July 1351. [2] [3] But the rejection from the order she went to and her marriage changed the once-pious de' Botti who adopted a life of laziness and extravagance. [1] But as she dressed in a gown of pearls and precious stones and prepared for an entertainment event she saw her reflection in the mirrors around her take the shape of demons as a reflection of her sin-laden soul. So she tore those clothes off in favor of something simple and wept as she fled to Santa Maria Novella and begged the priests of the Order of Preachers for their help while also making her confession. [2]

The converted soul became a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic and began to concentrate on her married life while spending her time reading Sacred Scripture (she was fond of the Epistles of Paul) [2] and reading hagiographical accounts of saints. Her austerities as a sign of penance and her begging door to door concerned her husband and parents who had to stop her from continuing them. [1] She also was given to religious ecstasies at the celebration of Mass but became the object of slander and ridicule - her detractors however realized in due course that she was a living saint.

De' Botti died in 1361 wearing the habit of the Dominicans and on her deathbed she asked that the Passion be read out to her; she died when the words "He bowed His head and gave up the Ghost" were read out. [2] Her remains were taken to Santa Maria Novella but the priests were unable to inter her for a month due to the constant crowd of mourners. [1] [3] Her bereaved husband often said that when he felt discouraged or depressed he would go to the room that his late wife died in for solace.

Beatification

Tomb. Smn, navata dx, bernardo rossellino, monum. della beata villana de' botti, 1451, 01.JPG
Tomb.

Shortly after de' Botti's death, she became the object of a strong local devotion, which prompted the author of her first biography, a descendant, to prematurely call her a beata. [4] The confirmation of de' Botti's local 'cultus' on 27 March 1824 allowed for Pope Leo XII to grant his approval for her beatification.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret of Castello</span> Italian Roman Catholic nun (1287–1320)

Margaret of Città di Castello was an Italian Roman Catholic and professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Margaret had disabilities and became known for her deep faith and holiness. Her parents abandoned her in a local church due to her disabilities and the town's poor took her in and assumed care for her. Nuns later offered her a home at their convent but soon came to detest her presence and cast her out, prompting the town's poor to once again take her in and care for her. But she met with Dominican friars and was accepted as a secular member in their third order; she started a school for children to teach them in the faith and often took care of children while their parents were out at work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Brocadelli</span> Dominican tertiary and stigmatic

Lucy Brocadelli, also known as Lucy of Narni or Lucy of Narnia, was a Dominican tertiary who was famed as a mystic and a stigmatic. She has been venerated by the Roman Catholic Church since 1710. She is known for being the counselor of the Duke of Ferrara, for founding convents in two different and distant city-states and for her remains being solemnly returned to her home city of Narni on 26 May 1935, 391 years after her death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine of Racconigi</span>

Catherine of Racconigi was an Italian member of the Third Order of St. Dominic, who is recognized for being a mystic and a stigmatic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephana de Quinzanis</span>

Stephana de Quinzanis, TOSD was an Italian sister of the Third Order of St. Dominic, stigmatic and mystic. She was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in 1740.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osanna of Mantua</span>

Osanna of Mantua was an Italian Dominican tertiary who gained notice as a stigmatic and mystic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zdislava Berka</span> Czech saint

Zdislava Berka, TOSD was a Czech philanthropist who is now a saint of the Catholic Church. She was a "wife, mother, and one of the earliest lay Dominicans".

"Botti" is an Italian surname can refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Pia Mastena</span> Italian religious sister and Blessed

Blessed Maria Pia Mastena - born Teresa Maria - was an Italian religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church. She was the founder of the Religious Sisters of the Holy Face. Mastena fostered a deep devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and tried to promote that devotion to others in her religious career as a nun. Mastena first desired the contemplative life but was denied this after she entered the convent since it was not a cloister. Instead she dedicated herself to teaching in several Italian cities after having left another convent and another religious order when she deemed contemplative life was not the life she felt God wanted for her. Her labors were dedicated instead to consolidating a new religious congregation which began to grow after World War II until Mastena's sudden death in 1951. Mastena was beatified on 13 November 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Maria Adorni Botti</span> Italian religious sister and Blessed

Anna Maria Adorni Botti, born Anna Maria Adorni, was an Italian religious sister of the Handmaids of the Immaculata, a congregation she established in 1857. Botti's vocation was to the religious life and as a child believed she was destined for the missions and later as a Franciscan religious sister. After being widowed she did pastoral work in Parma where she established and ran the congregation of the Handmaids of the Immaculata until her death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maddalena Panattieri</span>

Maddalena Panattieri, OP was an Italian Sister of Penance of Saint Dominic. Panattieri was a stigmatic and received visions during her life with one in particular being the French invasion of the Italian peninsula. She served as a catechist to children and was noted for her simple existence.

Mattia Ciccarelli, in religious Cristina, was an Italian nun from the Order of Saint Augustine noted for her ecstasies and the reception of the stigmata. The religious was also known for her generous donations to the poor of the Abruzzo region despite being in the monastery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernardo Scammacca</span>

Bernardo Scammacca, OP was an Italian Catholic priest and member of the Order of Preachers. After leading a dissolute early life, his conversion after a sustaining a wound from a duel led him down the path toward religious life. He became a noted prophet and spent hours in the confessional.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benvenuta Bojani</span>

Benvenuta Bojani was an Italian Roman Catholic professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Bojani dedicated her life to strict austerities as an act of repentance and devotion to God and was known to have visions of angels and demons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Bagnesi</span>

Maria Bagnesi, TOSD was an Italian Catholic professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Bagnesi remained confined to her bed for most of her life after falling ill upon receiving news that her father arranged a marriage for her - she escaped this fate but remained in her room where people flocked to seek her counsel. Due to her devotion to Bartholomew the Apostle, she assumed the name of "Bartolomea" and added it to her name as a sort of middle name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simone Ballachi</span>

Simone Ballachi was an Italian Roman Catholic professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Ballachi served as a former soldier in Rimini before renouncing that path in favor of the religious life where he became a gardener noted for his strict adherence to the rule of Saint Dominic.

Francisco Martín Fernández de Posadas was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Preachers. He became a noted preacher and popular confessor while being hailed as a second Vincent Ferrer and in the beginning was subjected to violent dislike and ridicule from fellow Dominicans before he was allowed to enter the order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emilia Bicchieri</span> Italian Roman Catholic professed religious

Emilia Bicchieri, OP was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious from the Order of Preachers. Bicchieri – born to a patrician – is best known for the construction of a Dominican convent in her hometown of Vercelli where she served as prioress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanna da Orvieto</span> Historical Italian religious woman

Giovanna da Orvieto was an Italian Roman Catholic professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. She was known for her wise intellect and for her intense devotion to serving the will of God while being noted for being prone to ecstasies and other visions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanna Scopelli</span>

Giovanna Scopelli was an Italian Roman Catholic from Reggio Emilia who was a religious from the Carmelites and established her own convent as its first prioress. Scopelli was forbidden to enter the third order branch of that order during her adolescence and waited until her parents died to embrace the religious life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isnardo da Chiampo</span> Italian Roman Catholic priest

Isnardo da Chiampo was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and professed member in the Order of Preachers. He studied in Bologna and in Milan before preaching in northern Italian cities such as Brescia and Bergamo following his ordination. He settled in Pavia in 1231 where he founded a convent and would remain there preaching against heretics until his death over a decade later.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Blessed Villana de'Botti". Saints SQPN. 24 February 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Bl. Villana de'Botti". Catholic Online. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "Blessed Villana delle Botti". Santi e Beati. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  4. Botti, Paolo (1674). Vita et Attioni Maravigliose della Beata Villana Botti. Descrita da D. Paolo Botti Cremonese Chier Reg. Teat. Padua : per il Pasquati.