May 31, June 2 (Franciscan observance) Blessed Camilla Battista Varano (Battista Varano, Camilla da Varano)
May 31, June 2 (Franciscan observance) Blessed Camilla Battista Varano (Battista Varano, Camilla da Varano)
1458 - 1524
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Her family were princes of Camerino, in Umbria. Her father, Julius Caesar Varano, or Verano, served with distinction, first in the wars of Venice, and afterwards under Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, and was at one time Viceroy of Naples for King Ferdinand. Her mother was Joanna Malatesta of Rimini. They had four sons and one daughter, called at first Camilla. She was born in troubled times. Two of her father’s brothers, with their sons, had been put to death for being implicated in a conspiracy.
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Her father, Julius Caesar Varani, Duke of Camerino and commander of the Papal army, took great interest in her education, and as she was endowed with brilliant qualities of mind and heart, she greatly profited by the instructions imparted to her, so that she afterwards proved herself well versed in literature and especially in the Latin language. But she was also attracted by the pleasures and vanities of the world, though her heart remained pure, and it was only after severe struggles that she was able to consecrate herself entirely to God.
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When she was about ten years of age, she one day heard Blessed Mark of Montegallo, O.F.M. preach a sermon on the Passion of our Lord. Deeply moved, she resolved to follow the counsel of the holy preacher to meditate frequently on the sufferings of our Savior. But the fruit of this pious practice was in part destroyed by her unrecollected and worldly life. Though she persevered in her devotion and also began to practice works of penance, such as fasts, watchings, and disciplines, her heart was not yet detached from the world and its frivolities. “With the exception of the time I gave to the meditation of the Passion,” she writes in an account of her spiritual life, “all the rest was spent in music, dancing, driving, dress, and other worldly amusements. I felt a great repugnance to piety, and my aversion to monks and nuns was such that I could not bear the sight of them.” Thus Camilla spent three years with a heart divided between God and his creatures, without the courage to break the bonds which held her a slave to the world and its vanities. But God took pity on her and enabled her to free herself from those ties which, though not sinful, were in the way of his designs regarding her soul.
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It was again the words of a saintly preacher that called Camilla to a more perfect life. In 1477, Father Francis of Urbino, of the Order of Friars Minor, a man full of the Spirit of God, in a Lenten sermon, preached at Camerino, spoke of the greatness of God and of his terrible judgments with such eloquence and fervor that his hearers were filled with a holy fear. Enlightened by grace, Camilla fully realized the danger into which her affection for the vanities of the world might lead her. She wept day and night over her ingratitude and many infidelities to the call of grace, and redoubled her fasts, watchings, and prayers. While humbly communing with God, she heard a voice calling on her to forsake the world and to embrace a religious life. “These heavenly inspiration,” she writes, “were more bitter than gall, because they were contrary to all my natural inclinations and my attachment to the world.” Indeed, it is not surprising that it seemed hard for the youthful princess, endowed with many natural gifts, to abandon the world which held out to her every promise of honor, wealth, and pleasure, and to shut herself up in a cloister, there to lead a poor, austere, and despised life. The sacrifice seemed too great for her, and long did she struggle against the call of God, clinging to any pretext that human nature could offer her. One day, the conflict in her soul was so violent that she was bathed in perspiration.
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But at length, Camilla, with the help of God, gained the victory over self, and her determination to serve the Lord according to his good will was so strong that, as she writes, she would have suffered martyrdom, if necessary, rather than change her resolution. “A few days later the floodgates of Divine Mercy were opened, and my soul was inundated with a deluge of graces.” The servant of God mentions three special graces with which God rewarded her courageous sacrifice: a hatred of the world and its pleasures and honors; a sincere humility; and an ardent desire for suffering. In her humility, she could not understand why her soul, which had been so long rebellious, and so full of miseries, was now the object of so many favors. Christ vouchsafed to answer her that he took delight in her on account of the innocence which she had preserved amid the dangers of the world. And he added, “When I take delight in thy innocence, it is in myself and not in thee that I take delight. This innocence is my work and my property. Hence, when I love thee, it is myself that I love.”
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Camilla now determined to carry out at once her resolve of consecrating herself to God, and asked her father’s consent to join the daughters of St. Clare in the convent at Urbino. But her father, looking only to the power and influence of his family, wished his daughter to marry a nobleman of her own rank, and violently opposed her pious resolve to become a religious. For two years he spared neither promises nor threats nor even petty persecution to shake her determination; but all in vain. Camilla, in the midst of this severe trial, unceasingly called on God and his Blessed Mother for help, and she was so manifestly consoled and strengthened by divine grace that her father, fearing to draw down on himself the anger of God by resisting his will, at length owned himself vanquish and allowed her to do as she wished.
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Camilla, thereupon, with the greatest spiritual joy, received the habit of the Poor Clares in the convent at Urbino, in 1481, and took the name of Baptista. She was now happier than if she had obtained a royal crown, so that she afterwards often said, “Oh, what wonderful consolations did I experience in the convent of Urbino!” By the constant meditation on the Passion of our Divine Savior, she made rapid progress in perfection and was raised to the heights of contemplation.
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In 1484, Baptista was sent with several Sisters to found a convent of Poor Clares in her native city. Appointed vicaress to the abbess, she strove to fulfill the duties of her office especially by an example of humility, poverty, obedience, and constant prayer. The sufferings of our Savior continued to be the subject of her daily meditation, and from it she drew that longing to become like her Heavenly Spouse by sharing in his sorrows and pains. Her longing was to be satisfied. She was afflicted with long and painful sicknesses, and these were aggravated by persecutions and severe spiritual trials. She bore all afflictions with wonderful patience, and never wearied of thanking God for sending her so many proofs of his love.
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In 1502, after a revolt of the people of Camerino, the Camerentines gave themselves up to Pope Alexander VI. His son, Caesar Borgia, cruelly slaughtered Baptista’s father, who had ruled virtuously for nearly half a century, and three of his sons. The Saint, though overwhelmed with grief, prayed for the murderers with the words of Saint Stephen: “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. The youngest survived, his father having sent him with the treasure to Venico at the beginning of the war. He was eventually reinstated is his possessions, and, after the death of Alexander, the two following Popes confirmed him in the principality or dukedom of Camerino.
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God rewarded her heroic patience with most extraordinary graces, inspirations, and revelations. She was a mystic, and received many marks of divine favour. She was carried in the spirit by two angels to the foot of the cross, and remained there two months. Christ placed three lilies on her breast. She had revelations of the mental sufferings of Christ, and wrote an account of them. As a whole the writings of Baptista are remarkable for originality of thought, striking spirituality, and vividly pictorial language. Both Saint Philip Neri and Saint Alphonsus have recorded their admiration for this gifted woman who wrote with equal facility in Latin and Italian, and who was accounted one of the most brilliant and accomplished scholars of her day.
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In 1505, Baptista, at that time governing her community as abbess, was commissioned by Pope Julius II to found a convent of Poor Clares at Fermo. She remained with the new community for one year, confirming its members in the exact observance of the Rule, and then returned to Camerino, where she continued her life of prayer and contemplation until her happy death, on May 31, 1527. Her body was buried in the choir of the convent, but it now rests in the church. Pope Gregory XVI, in 1843, approved the devotion paid to her from times immemorial.
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Eternal Father, I wish to honor Blessed Camilla Battista Varano, and I give Thee thanks for all the graces Thou hast bestowed upon him. I ask Thee to please increase grace in my soul through the merits of this saint, and I commit the end of my life to him by this special prayer, so that by virtue of Thy goodness and promise, Blessed Camilla Battista Varano might be my advocate and provide whatever is needed at that hour. Amen.