Blessed Stephana de Quinzanis: life, visions and prayer
Blessed Stephana de Quinzanis was a 16th-century Italian Dominican tertiary. She had many visions of Dominican monks, which led her to become a nun. Stephana de Quinzanis was beatified on December 14, 1740, by Pope Benedict XIV. Her feast day is celebrated on January 2.
Biography of Blessed Stephana de Quinzanis
Stephana was born on February 5, 1457 in Orzinuovi, a small village near Brescia in Italy's Lombardy region, into a poor, pious family. At an early age, she began working to earn money for her family. Her father became a Dominican tertiary while she was still a child. It was with him that she visited the Dominican convent he had entered. There she met Blessed Matthew Carreri, who taught her catechism. He had received the stigmata of Christ.
From the age of seven, she began to have visions of Dominican saints. These visions overwhelmed her. Stephana took a vow of poverty, chastity and obedience. It was on Assumption Day that she offered this complete self-sacrifice to God. The Lord wanted to show her how much he loved her. He appeared to her, accompanied by his most holy Mother, St. Dominic, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Catherine of Siena.
Matthieu Carreri died when she was just fourteen. After his death, he appeared to her and, as an inheritance from the Blessed, she also received the Savior's stigmata. In addition to this, every week on Fridays, she felt in body and soul the sufferings of Christ during his Passion. The imprint of the crown of thorns appears on her head. She underwent a veritable agony, perspiring profusely with blood mixed with water.
At the age of fifteen, in fulfillment of her most cherished vow, she became a Dominican tertiary in Soncino, Lombardy. She then founded a community of nuns under the patronage of St. Paul, becoming its first abbess. By 1519, some 30 young girls from the Italian nobility were under her direction. Stephana became close friends with Osanna of Mantua and the future Saint Angela Merici.
She had a particular devotion to Saint Thomas Aquinas, to whom she prayed a lot to fight temptations. One day, to escape Satan, the young girl bravely plunged into a heap of thorns and rolled around in it until the pain had calmed the efforts of temptation.Stephana was very much involved with the sick and needy. She was gentle, generous and loving.
Blessed Stephana de Quinzanis surrendered her soul to the Lord on January 2, 1530, at the age of seventy-three, pronouncing the words of Christ: "Lord, into your hands I commend my soul ". Some time earlier, she had predicted the day of her death.
Her tomb soon became a place of pilgrimage, where many miracles took place.
Praying with Blessed Stephana de Quinzanis
"God, who, by setting the Blessed Virgin Stephana ablaze with the love of the Crucified, made her a marvelous participant in his Passion, grant us, we pray, through her intercession and example, to merit making ourselves conformed to the image of your Son. "
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