Today, June 19, is the memorial of Saint Juliana Falconieri.
Juliana, born in 1270, was the only child of the wealthy Florentine noble family named Falconieri. She was the niece of St. Alexis Falconieri, one of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order.
All her life, she suffered painful chronic gastric problems. For Juliana, this was to be her cross, and she was glad to carry it.
Juliana refused an arranged marriage at age 14, insisting that the only marriage she would get herself into was union with Christ.
She became a Servite tertiary in 1285, taking the habit from her spiritual director, St. Philip Benizi, one of the founders of the Servites. She helped form, and served as first superior of the Servite Order of Mary (Servite Nuns, the Mantellate Servites), which was formally established in 1304, and their first convent founded in 1305.
Accounts state that Juliana was never given to vanity– she never gazed into a mirror and nor did she ever admire a man’s face. She would physically tremble at the mention of sin, and would faint upon hearing scandalous gossip.
She led a life of deep prayer that she would fall into ecstasy for hours. She took care of the sick and was known to use her own lips to suck out the infection of the open sores of her patients.
When she was about to die in 1341, she could not receive Communion because she kept vomiting. She asked a priest to place the corporal on her breast and place the Holy Host on top of it. The Holy Host miraculously disappeared and Juliana died. When the community was preparing her mortal remains, they saw the image of the cross–the same one on the Holy Host–imprinted on her breast.
Juliana was beatified by Pope Innocent XI in 1678. She was canonized by Pope Clement XII in 1737.