Today, July 9, is the memorial of Blessed Jane Scopelli.
Carmelite religious.
Born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, in 1439 to parents Simone and Caterina Scopelli, As a child, she recognized she had a vocation, but her parents discouraged her from pursuing it.
Jane made the most of her time in the house. She began her religious life at home living as a Carmelite mantellata (member of a Carmelite lay confraternity, wearing the white cloak or mantella). Hers was an austere life. She waited it our until her parents’ death in 1480.
She promptly formed a community, the Carmelite convent of Santa Maria del Popolo, with other like-minded women of her time.
A few years later, in 1485, she acquired the house and the church belonging to the Humiliate in Reggio Emilia which she converted into a monastery. The nuns became known locally as “The White Nuns”. The new community was affiliated to the Reformed Congregation of Mantua. Jane was the first prioress of the community, which grew to number 20 nuns.
Jane refused all kinds of gifts. She tried to convince her fellow religious to do the same. She decided that she would only accept these gifts if these were given as alms with no conditions attached. In 1487 a priest was assigned to them as their confessor.
Many supernatural events were attributed to her and she was gifted with a great devotion to Our Lady, while living an intensely penitential life. Jane had a very deep devotion to the Child Jesus.
She died of natural causes in 1491. When her body was exhumed a year later, it was found to be incorrupt. She was beatified by Pope Clement XIV in 1771.