Deepertruth: Saint Veronica Giuliani

Saint Veronica Giuliani 7/10/2023

Veronica was very devoted to the Eucharist and to the Sacred Heart. She offered her sufferings for the missions, died in 1727, and was canonized in 1839. Her Liturgical Feast Day is July 9.

She was the youngest of seven sisters, three of whom embraced the monastic life. It is told that at the age of three years Giuliani supposedly began to show great compassion for the poor. She would set apart a portion of her food for them, and even part with her clothes when she met a poor child scantily clad. Her mother died when Ursula was seven years of age.

At the age of 16, she experienced a vision which correctedher imperfections of character: she saw her own heart as a "heart of steel". In her writings she confesses that she took a certain pleasure in the more stately circumstances which her family adopted when her father was appointed superintendent of finance 

When Giuliani came of age, her father believed she should marry, and so he desired her to take part in the social activities of the young people. But she pleaded so earnestly with her father that, after much resistance, he finally permitted her to choose her own state in life.

Veronica’s desire to be like Christ crucified was answered with the stigmata.

Giuliani had a lifelong devotion to Christ crucified that eventually became manifested in physical signs. The marks of the crown of thorns appeared on her forehead in 1694 and the five wounds on her body in 1697.