Saint of the Day: Blessed Antonia of Florence

Poor Clare Abbess (1400-1472)

Her life

+ Antonia was born in Florence. She married and had one child.

+ Although she remarried, her second husband also died and Antonia chose to become a Poor Clare nun.

+ A spiritual student of the Franciscan missionary Saint John of Capistrano, she later served as abbess of the Poor Clare monastery in Aquila, Italy.

+ Antonia later founded a reformed Poor Clare monastery, calling for a more strict adherence to the traditions of the order.

+ Antonia suffered from an extended illness for the last fifteen years of her life and died on February 29, 1472. Devotion to Blessed Antonia was confirmed by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1847.

For prayer and reflection

“O blessed poverty, who bestows eternal riches on those who love and embrace her.”—Saint Clare of Assisi

Prayer

O God, who called your handmaid blessed Antonia to seek you before all else, grant that, serving you, through her example and intercession, with a pure and humble heart, we may come at last to your eternal glory. 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.

(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Men and Women—For a Nun)