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Baptista was the daughter of Duke Julius Caesar of
Camerino, Italy. She was born in the capital city of that prince in 1459. In
her earliest years she took pleasure in the vanities of the world. Her heart,
it is true, remained unstained; but nevertheless she liked to appear in costly
garments and beamed with joy when she was adorned with glittering
jewels.
But one day she heard a sermon by a Franciscan on
the bitter sufferings of Christ. The touching portrayal so wrung the heart of
the young princess that she bewailed her previous vanity with many tears and
was henceforth a changed person. From then on not a day passed on which she
did not meditate on the sufferings of our Lord. Under the spiritual direction
of Blessed Peter of Mogliano, a Franciscan, she also practiced various bodily
mortifications, and arose every night to pray the rosary in honor of the
Mother of God.
Meanwhile her father was contemplating marriage for
her, but Baptista desired only to devote herself to God and the contemplation
of the divine mysteries in some quiet convent cell. The duke opposed this wish
of his beloved daughter for the space of 2 years. At last, however, he
consented that she take the veil in the convent of the Poor Clares at
Urbino.
Now Baptists was happier than if she had received a
royal crown, and later she often said: "Oh, what sweetness I experienced in
the holy convent at Urbino." Some years later, there was an urgent request
that the daughters of St. Clare establish themselves in Camerino. The duke
built a convent for them, and Baptista was sent there with several other
sisters.
But now the servant of God, already firmly
established in her vocation, was not to escape the test of suffering. She
endured long and painful maladies, to which were added violent interior
struggles and also persecution by misguided people. But she thanked God for
them all, feeling that she was thereby more intimately united with her
suffering Saviour. She prayed for those who persecuted her; and when her
father and brother were cruelly murdered, Baptista prayed to God for the
murderers: "O Lord, do not hold this sin against them!"
Because of her fidelity in suffering, her crucified
Lord constantly drew her more closely to Himself. Christ revealed to her what
suffering His own heart endured, and had her record much of it for the benefit
of others.
After she had served her Divine Spouse in the
convent for more than 40 years, Baptista died blessedly on the 31st of May,
1517. Thirty years after her death her body was exhumed, and the tongue which
had so often prayed for her enemies, was found incorrupt and fresh, as it is
still preserved that way in a special reliquary.
Baptista, who was venerated as a saint immediately
after her death, was declared Blessed by Pope Gregory XVI.
ON DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART
1. Consider how
our Divine Lord led Blessed Baptista from the contemplation of His bodily
sufferings into the consideration of the sufferings of Hid Sacred Heart. We
wished to direct her to honor His Sacred Heart long before He commended his
devotion for the universal Church through St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Baptists
did indeed worship the Sacred Heart perfectly. In contemplating the sufferings
of our Lord, her heart grew inflamed with love that was at the same time
contrite and willing to make sacrifices. That induced her to forsake the
vanity and glamor of the palace in order to belong to God alone. Seldom has
anyone fulfilled the appeal of our Lord, "Give me your heart" (Prov 23:26)
more perfectly. During this next month, which is especially consecrated to
Heart of Jesus, He directs this request also to you. For devotion to the
Sacred Heart consists above all, in offering one's own heart to the Heart of
Jesus, and in sacrificing whatever is apt to lead our heart away from Him. --
What sacrifices of the kind have you to offer Him during this month?
2.
Consider how, out of love for our suffering Savior, Blessed Baptists practiced
mortification and cheerfully offered up to God sickness and interior
affliction. Because she saw the Heart of Jesus grieving over the sins of men,
she found consolation in suffering with Him, and she prepared sweet
consolation for the Sacred Heart by offering her sufferings in atonement for
sin. Such an atonement is an essential part of true devotion to the Heart of
Jesus. Have we no need to render it for our own sins? Offenses committed
against God by those who are otherwise numbered among good Christians wound
the Heart of Jesus most painfully. He Himself complains: "With these I was
wounded in the house of those who loved Me (Zach 13:6). -- Have you, too,
given occasion for this complaint? How do you offer atonement?
3. Consider
how Baptists imitated the Divine Heart in His perfect love. Not only did she
sincerely forgive the gravest of offenses, but she even pleaded for
forgiveness for the murderers of her father, and Christ prayed to His Father
for His executioners. Such prayer and forgiveness in imitation of the Heart of
Jesus are the most pleasing honor we can render Him. They satisfy in great
measure for our own failings against the Sacred Heart. -- Frequently look at
the pierced Heart of Jesus on the cross and draw from it strength, as did
Blessed Baptista, to imitate His sentiments.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH
O God, who didst inflame
Blessed Baptists with the fire of love by the contemplation of the sufferings
of Thy only-begotten Son, grant through her intercession that we may always
devoutly honor these holy sufferings and deserve to receive the fruits
thereof. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
from:
The Franciscan Book
of Saints, ed. by
Marion Habig, ofm., © 1959 Franciscan Herald
Press
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