Note: To observe the Jubilee Year of Mercy (which runs through November 20), for several weeks I am featuring women who exemplify one of the corporal or spiritual works of mercy. Today: Bear wrongs patiently.
The Basics: Born December 13, 1476, in Italy; died November 15, 1544, in Italy; beatified March 1, 1710, by Clement XI; feast day, November 16. Woman religious and mystic.
The Story: She was a spiritual rock star of her time. Lucy, who had had visions starting when she was five years old, joined a monastery when she was nineteen. In the next ten years, cities vied to have her lead monasteries. People asked her to go into ecstasies for them. Inspections by none other than the pope’s physician, validated that she was experiencing the stigmata. And then, shortly after her twenty-eighth birthday, everything changed. The reason is lost in history; the result was that Lucy was banned from private conversation with anyone other than an unsympathetic spiritual director for about forty years. The year she died, she was instructed to record her mystical experiences in what became Seven Revelations, which was not discovered until 1999. On her deathbed, Lucy asked her sisters for forgiveness of whatever she had done wrong. Lucy’s funeral was delayed for days because so many people, who had believed she had died many years earlier, wanted to attend.
Lucy’s Wisdom: “Up to heaven! Up to heaven!” (Lucy’s final words.)
What We Can Learn from Lucy: Lucy’s life is a great example of keeping one’s eyes on the Lord and His love even when we are persecuted here on earth. Is there an ongoing wrong you face each day that despite your best efforts to work out persists? Maybe it’s time to accept this situation… and look past it to the Father.
To Learn More: Lady Georgianna Fullerton has a lovely biography of Lucy and other women available at GoogleBooks.
To Learn More About Other Women Saints and Blesseds: Come back next week, or consider buying my books, Blessed Are You: Finding Inspiration from Our Sisters in Faith or Sisterhood of Saints: Daily Guidance and Inspiration.
