St. Camilla and the Passion of Jesus

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

Realize that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished Lamb. (1 Peter 1:18-19)

These verses from the First Letter of St. Peter open the Liturgy of the Word for us today. Coincidentally and serendipitously, today Franciscans are also celebrating the memorial of a newly canonized Franciscan nun, St. Camilla Baptista da Varano, canonized by Pope Benedict XVI just two years ago. St. Camilla made her way to sainthood by her meditations on the passion of Jesus which makes the first verses of today's first reading so appropriate.

Camilla was an Italian princess who had been born out of wedlock. Her father's wife accepted her as her own child and raised her in the royal court where she received an education according to her station as Italian nobility. On a particular Good Friday when she was eight or ten years old, she heard a sermon preached in which the people were exhorted to shed a single tear for Christ's passion. Though she tried to do so, Camilla found it difficult to comply with the preacher's words and tried to dismiss them from her mind. However, that one sermon set her on a path of prayer, meditation, and contemplation of the passion which was to last her entire life. Though opposed by her father, she eventually joined the Poor Clares. She was instrumental in founding several monasteries of nuns, and wrote many works which were devoted to the consideration of the passion of Jesus. If anyone can be said to have embraced the sentiments of St. Peter's First Letter, St. Camilla would certainly be numbered among them.

The Easter Season is over; however, every Friday should remind us of the tremendous cost of our salvation.

P.S.: Please remember Mary Elizabeth Porter in your prayers. We learned yesterday of her passing on April 7 of this year. May she rest in peace.