Today, March 1, is the memorial of Blessed Giovanna Maria Bonomo.
Giovanna, born in 1606 in Venice, came from a wealthy and noble family. Even in her early childhood, Giovanna was already achieving a high degree of holiness. God was always in her thoughts and actions.
When she was 10 months old, it is said that she could already talk. At age five, she could speak Latin without ever studying it and was able to understand the Eucharistic mystery and predict future events.
It was no surprise, then, that at age 12 she informed her father Giovanni (her mother Virginia died when she was six) of her desire to become a nun. At first he disagreed. When he saw that Giovanna was determined to enter the religious life, he gave in.
She was educated by the Poor Clares, but later entered a Benedictine monastery in 1622. During her profession, she was so immersed in God that she fell into ecstasy for the first time. There, she intensified her prayers and mortifications, fasting and whipping herself with a knotted rope.
God granted Giovanna many mystical gifts, including visions, bilocation, and the Stigmata. The Blessed Virgin and numerous saints appeared to give her consolation and inspiration. In one vision, Jesus put a ring around her finger in a mystical marriage.
These did not sit well with her ill-informed spiritual director and fellow nuns in the community. They branded her visions as anti-church teachings and ways to attract attention. She was forbidden from receiving communion because of these. Thus, an angel appeared and gave her holy communion.
Giovanna bore all these accusations with silence and humility. Eventually she became novice mistress and was elected abbess three times. She taught her nuns that holiness did not consist in great things, but in doing small things perfectly, with love.
When she died of natural causes in 1670, she left behind writings, including the “Meditations on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
She was beatified by Pope Pius VI in 1783.