July 10 After honoring Franciscan Martyrs on July 9th, it continues on July 10th. But we also have a Poor Clare who bore the stigmata! Since these three days of July are filled with saints, the Franciscans try to honor them on separate days, although the Roman Martyrology lists St. Veronica on the date of her death July 9th.
d.1860
The
Martyrs of Damascus were eleven Catholic saints martyred while praying inside a
Franciscan-run parish in Damascus. They consist of the Massabki Brothers:
Abdel Moati Massabki, Francis Massabki, and Raphael Massabki who were Maronite
Catholics. Manuel Ruiz Lopez and
Companions are Franciscans: seven from Spain including Carmelo Bolta
Bañuls, Nicanor Ascanio Soria, Nicolás María Alberca Torres, Pedro Nolasco
Soler Méndez, Francisco Pinazo Peñalver,
and Juan Jacob Fernández, with Engelbert Kolland from Austria.
Their
martyrdom took place in the night between the ninth and tenth of July 1860, and
they were beatified in 1926. All eleven were canonized on October 20,
2024.
St. Veronica Giuliani, 2nd Order
1660-1727
July 10
Veronica’s
desire to be like Christ crucified was answered with the stigmata.
Veronica was born in Mercatelli. It
is said that when her mother Bernedetta was dying, she called her five
daughters to her bedside and entrusted each of them to one of the five wounds
of Jesus. Veronica was entrusted to the wound below [or through] Christ’s [most
sacred] heart.
At the age of 17, Veronica joined
the Poor Clares directed by the Capuchins. Her father had wanted her to marry,
but she convinced him to allow her to become a nun. In her first years in the
monastery, she worked in the kitchen, infirmary, sacristy, and served as
portress. At the age of 34, she was made novice mistress, a position she held
for 22 years. When she was 37, Veronica received the stigmata. Life was not the
same after that.
Rome wanted to test Veronica’s
authenticity and so conducted an investigation. She lost the office of novice
mistress temporarily and was not allowed to attend Mass except on Sundays or
holydays. Through all of this Veronica did not become bitter, and the
investigation eventually restored her as novice mistress.
Though she protested against it, at
the age of 56 she was elected abbess, a task she held for 11 years until her
death. Veronica was very devoted to the Eucharist and to the Sacred Heart. She
offered her sufferings for the missions. Veronica was canonized in 1839.
QUOTE:
Thomas of Celano says of Francis: “All the pleasures of the world were a cross
to him, because he carried the cross of Christ rooted in his heart. And
therefore the stigmata shone forth exteriorly in his flesh, because interiorly
that deeply set root was sprouting forth in his mind.” (2 Celano, #211)
COMMENT: Why
did God grant the stigmata to Francis and to Veronica? God alone knows the
deepest reasons, but as Celano points out, the external sign of the cross is a
confirmation of the fact of the saints’ commitment to the cross in their lives.
The stigmata which appeared in Veronica’s flesh had taken root in her heart
many years before. It was a fitting conclusion for her love of God and her
charity towards her sisters.
