Blessed Diana, Cecilia and Amata

 These ladies were around during Dominic's time on earth.  They helped spread the Order of Preachers. 

June 8: Memorial of Bl. Diana, Cecilia, and Amata, Virgins

On this day are jointly commemorated three of our Holy Father Saint Dominic's eldest spiritual daughters, who appear to have been singularly dear to him. Blessed Diana was a member of the noble family of d'Andalò, and it was she who persuaded her father and grandfather to make over to the Friars Preachers their rights over the Church of Saint Nicholas at Bologna, and to give them land for the site of a Convent. Despising the pomps and vanities of the world, she placed herself under the spiritual direction of Blessed Reginald, who, on his departure for Paris, confided her to the care of the holy Patriarch, Saint Dominic, and in his presence and that of Blessed Reginald, Blessed Guala, the Community of Saint Nicholas, and many noble ladies of Bologna, Diana bound herself by the vows of religion, though permitted for a time to remain in her father's house. There she led a life of penance and devotion, earnestly longing for the day when a Convent for religious women of the Order should be founded in her native city.

Saint Dominic entrusted the execution of this design to four of the principal Fathers at Bologna, charging them to begin it without waiting for the completion of their own Priory. Many difficulties, however, arose, and Blessed Diana had to encounter the most determined opposition on the part of her family. She fled for refuge to a neighboring Monastery, whence she was dragged with such violence as to fracture one of her ribs. After remaining a prisoner in her father's house for nearly a year, during which Saint Dominic consoled her by his letters, she again escaped to the same Convent, where this time she was suffered to remain until the new Convent of Saint Agnes was ready for her reception. This was not until after the death of Saint Dominic.

During the Octave of the Ascension, A.D. 1223, Blessed Jordan, who had succeeded our Holy Father in the government of the Order, installed Blessed Diana and some other noble maidens of Bologna in their new home; and a few weeks later, on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, he gave them the habit and afterwards admitted them to profession. To train them in religious life and in the ceremonies of the Order, he summoned four of the nuns from Saint Sixtus in Rome, and amongst them the Blessed Cecilia and Amata, the former of whom belonged to the noble family of the Cesarini, and had joined the Community in the Trastevere, which our Holy Father was commissioned to reform. When they were transferred to the Convent of Saint Sixtus, Cecilia, then only seventeen, was the first to throw herself at the feet of the Saint to beg for the habit of the Order. She now, at the age of twenty-three, became the first Prioress of the new Monastery at Bologna.

Of her companion, Blessed Amata, no particulars have been preserved. Some authors have believed her to be identical with the possessed woman who disturbed Saint Dominic's sermon at Saint Sixtus a few days after the profession of the nuns, and who was by him delivered from her tormentor and admitted into the Community, the Saint himself bestowing on her the sweet name of Amata, or " the Beloved." But, as it has been proved that this Sister went on pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella at a date when the four Sisters from Saint Sixtus were already settled at Bologna, the theory in question is untenable.

Blessed Jordan watched with paternal tenderness over the young Community at Saint Agnes', whose fervor in penitential exercises he found himself obliged to moderate. He often consoled them by his letters, and commended himself and the success of his preaching to their prayers.

Blessed Diana lived in the Order for thirteen years in great humility and love of poverty, and in such fervor of spirit as frequently by her burning words to move the Sisters to tears of devotion. She happily departed to her Spouse on the 10th of June, A.D. 1236.

Blessed Cecilia lived to extreme old age. To her we are indebted for a most graphic and beautiful account of our Holy Father's life at Saint Sixtus and Santa Sabina. She died in the odor of sanctity A.D. 1290, and was buried in the same tomb with Blessed Diana and Amata. Their remains have been twice discovered and honorably translated. Pope Leo XIII has approved of the veneration paid to these holy Virgins, and given permission for their Mass and Office to be celebrated in the Archdiocese of Bologna and throughout the Dominican Order.

Prayer: O God, you endowed the blessed Diana, your virgin, with wonderful steadfastness of soul and gave her the blessed Cecilia and Amata as companions on the way of evangelical perfection, mercifully grant that we, too, through their example, may be strengthened in all trials and, by their help, be shielded against all foes. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

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Text from: "Short Lives of the Dominican Saints" by a Sister of the Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena (Stone, Staffordshire), 1901.

Image: This painting from the Dominican Nuns' convent in Rome shows St. Dominic and Bl. Jordan with Bl. Diana, Bl. Cecilia, and Bl. Amata. Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.