The Childhood of St. Veronica Giuliani

Saint Veronica Giuliani was born in Mercatello sul Metauro on December 27, 1660 and she was baptized the next day and given the name Ursula by her parents.
Ursula knew that Jesus was present in the Blessed Sacrament from the age of two, and even as a young child she had a deep love for the poor.

One day a beggar came to her door asking for shoes. The child Ursula had a pair of shoes that she really loved. She took off her shoes and gave them to the beggar. She wanted very badly from a very young age to experience the cross to save souls. She was the seventh and last child born into a middle-class family. Her parents were Francesco and Benedetta Mancini Giuliani.

The Sacred Side Wound

Ursula learned the faith from her mother who was deeply religious. Just before the age of 40, and while her children were still in her care, Ursula’s mother passed away. Before her death, her mother took a crucifix and assigned a wound to each of her five daughters. She gave Ursula the wound in His Sacred Side. On her deathbed, Ursula’s mother entrusted entrusted the cross to young Ursula.

St. Veronica Giuliani Makes Her First Holy Communion

When Ursula was about 9 years old the family moved to Piacenza as her father took a position for the Duke of Parma for a period of three years. On February 2, when she was 10 years old, Ursula had her first holy Communion. She described her first experience with receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist as a ‘fire blazing in her heart’ and after this moment she had a burning desire to become a nun that never left her.

She wanted to experience the cross so much that she begged Jesus to wound her with His love. Her father had already allowed his other four daughters to enter the monastery, however, and he was opposed to allowing his youngest daughter, Ursula, as well.

Marriage Suitors

Her father wanted her to marry and to stay with him. She was a very beautiful and charismatic young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, and she had many suitors interested in having her for marriage. Her family would take her to lavish parties with handsome suitors to get her to change her mind, but she refused. She wanted to live an extreme life as close to Jesus as possible. Her father finally gave in to her because she was so determined to be a nun.

Becoming a Nun

At the age of seventeen, Ursula became a Poor Clare of the Capuchins and took the name of Veronica. For the first couple of years as a novice she suffered from dryness. She longed to hear Him, but she did not. She prayed and prayed and prayed. She even went to confession up to four times a day. She was desperate to grow in holiness so that she could be united with Jesus. St. Veronica had a deep desire to live for Christ and become like the saints her mother had taught her about as a child. She wanted to truly imitate Christ. She was asked to fast and pray for souls, and she did this diligently for 5 years.

St. Veronica Giuliani Writes a Diary

She kept a diary that she wrote in every night after she completed all of her work in the convent. She did this with devotion for sixty-seven years. Her diary described very dramatic and intense experiences with Jesus. Much of her writing was done late at night. She didn’t want to keep a diary, but she began her writings under obedience to her confessor, Fr. Gerolamo Bastianelli.

St. Veronica Giuliani tells us in her diary that Jesus took her in a vision to Hell. She said there were damned souls there who had so many demons upon them that they could not be counted. She described Hell as a horrible place and it gave her a deep longing to her increase her penances.

She also had visions of souls about to fall into sin and so she performed many penances in order to offer them graces to convert their hearts. Jesus would let her know about specific sinners He wanted her to pray for. She would get up immediately and kneel before the crucifix to pray for these souls. She understood that praying for sinners was very pleasing to the Lord.

St. Veronica Giuliani Receives the Stigmata

One day, St. Veronica had a vision of Jesus bearing His Cross, and she began to feel acute pain over her heart. Then in 1693, in another vision, she was offered the chalice of Christ’s suffering. She accepted it, and after that her body carried the wounds of Christ. She had the imprint of the crown of thorns on her head, and then on Good Friday, April 5, 1697, she received the five holy wounds on her body.
One day, St. Veronica had a vision of Jesus bearing His Cross, and she began to feel acute pain over her heart. Then in 1693, in another vision, she was offered the chalice of Christ’s suffering. She accepted it, and after that her body carried the wounds of Christ. She had the imprint of the crown of thorns on her head, and then on Good Friday, April 5, 1697, she received the five holy wounds on her body.
St. Veronica Giuliani’s wounds are called a stigmata. A stigmata is a mark on the saint’s body that is like one of the wounds that Jesus suffered during his crucifixion. It is a sign of their holiness and their willingness to suffer for souls the way that Jesus did.

Abbess of Her Convent

St. Veronica discovered that every soul can discover the presence of God in the midst of their daily duties as well as during quite time in prayer. She followed this rule in her later years and taught this to her sisters when she was elected abbess of the convent, a role she held for 14 years until her death.

In the summer of 1727 St. Veronica Giuliani fell ill and for thirty-three days she suffered. On July 9, 1727, she died a happy death. Veronica was beatified on 17 June 1804 and canonized on 26 May 1839.

Prayer for St. Veronica Giuliani’s Intercession

O God, who declare that You abide in hearts that are pure, grant that through the intercession of the Virgin blessed Veronica we may be so fashioned by Your grace, that we become a dwelling pleasing to You. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

St. Veronica Giuliani, pray for us!
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!