Saint Veronica Giuliani
|
St. Veronica Giuliani
|
Saint Veronica
Giuliani is taken from Bob and Penny
Lord's book, Visionaries, Mystics and
Stigmatists
Veronica receives the Stigmata
One day, while praying in her cell,
Sister Veronica had a vision of Jesus.
He was carrying His Cross on His
Shoulder. He asked her, “What do you
wish?” She replied, “That Cross and I
wish it for You, for Your Love.” He took
the Cross from His Shoulder and placed
it on her shoulder. It was too heavy!
She fell under the weight of it, and her
Lord lifted her.
Still another time, Our Lord appeared to
Veronica, covered with open sores, a
Crown of Thorns on His Head. Blood
spilled from His precious Body, as He
said, “See what sinners have done to
Me.” Veronica wrote in her Diary:
“Seeing the great agony that my Lord was
in, I begged Him to give Me His Crown.
He placed it on my head; I suffered so
much, I thought I was dying.”
Another time, Jesus came and showed
Veronica a Chalice full of liquid. She
wrote that it seemed as if the liquid
was on fire. The Lord told her, “If you
want to be Mine, you must taste this
liquid for My Love.” She later wrote
that when He placed just a few drops of
the liquid on her tongue, she was filled
with such indescribable bitterness and
sadness, she thought she would die. Her
tongue became dry and from that day on,
she could not taste anything.
On Christmas Day, the Infant Jesus
appeared to Veronica. He sent an arrow
deep into her heart. When she awakened,
she found her heart bleeding. The
burning flame roaring inside her heart
was so painful, she could not rest day
or night. He told her He wanted her
heart to bear the marks of His Wound; He
said, her heart had to feel the lance
and her feet and hands, the nails He
felt on the Cross.
Our Lord chose to make Veronica as much
Himself as is possible, and what better
way than to share His Passion with her.
He had asked her many times what she
wished, and she had replied, His Cross.
Well on April 5, 1697, Veronica had a
vision of Jesus Crucified, accompanied
by His Mother Our Lady of Sorrows as she
appeared at the foot of the Cross on
Golgotha. Veronica’s heart, as with her
Savior before her, was pierced. She
experienced the crowning of thorns, the
scourging, the crucifixion, her own
death and that of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Mother Abbess Mary Catherine told us
that the other nuns could see the
impressions of the crown of thorns on
her head through her veil, the blood at
times dripping from her eyes because of
the deep wounds inflicted by the long
sharp thorns. Sealed with this stigmata,
Veronica's body became an indelible sign
of the Lord’s total communion with her,
one of everlasting unity and love. She
wrote:
“In an instant, I saw five shining rays
shooting out from His Wounds, coming
towards me. I watched as they turned
into little flames. Four of them (the
flames) contained the nails, and the
fifth one contained the lance, golden
and all aflame, and it pierced my heart.
The nails pierced my hands and feet.”
Veronica took the crucifix off the wall
in her cell and embraced it saying:
“My Lord, pains with pains, thorns with
thorns, sores with sores, here I am all
Yours, crucified with You, crowned with
thorns with You, wounded with You.”
Veronica takes up the Cross
Veronica received the stigmata. Now it
was time for her to take up the Cross!
She could not help Jesus carry His
Cross, that dark and infamous day He
walked to Calvary. He had told her, she
would be the bride of the Crucified
Savior. Now to be completely one with
Him as His bride, in imitation of her
Spouse, she would carry her cross each
evening. At those times she would wear a
robe, lined with sharp long thorns which
pierced her body, especially doing
damage to the shoulder upon which she
carried the cross.13
Laden down by the weight of the cross,
she staggered as she tried to maintain
her balance. She would walk through the
monastery’s orchard or within the
monastery itself until she was to the
point of collapse. When she completed
her Way of the Cross, she would then
climb up many steps to a painting, in
the convent, of St. Francis receiving
the stigmata, where she would flagellate
herself. At other times, she would
levitate up into the tree in the
cloister gardens, the other nuns saying
she looked like a little bird in flight.
At times Veronica would take a very
heavy log and carry it across her
shoulders as a cross beam to reenact
more authentically Our Lord carrying the
cross to Calvary. There are crosses
there till today, which the nuns carry
on Good Friday.
Our dear Lord asked Veronica to fast for
three years. Upon receiving permission
from her Superior, she fasted for the
next three years on bread and water
alone.
