april 28. blessed osanna of cattaro, who spotted babies in fields
experiment: |
Born to Greek Orthodox parents, Osanna was a shepherdess in her youth, and she spent her solitary hours in prayer. One day while watching her flocks, she saw a child sleeping in the grass. Drawn to its beauty, she went to pick up the baby, but it vanished, leaving her with a feeling of great loneliness. "At this stage she was still a child, but a child who desired God." Despite her mother's assertion that God didn't appear to poor people, and that the Christ child was a figment of her imagination, Osanna continued to spot babies in the field.
When she was fourteen years old, Osanna's visions were followed by a desire to travel to the a coastal Ventian town (i.e., modern-day Montenegro). She became a servant to a wealthy family there and converted to Roman Catholicism. One index categorizes Osanna as a "sagittarian person." "ENCLOSED IN A TIGHT PLACE FOR HALF A CENTURY" In her late teens, God called Osanna to live the eremetic life of an anchoress, aka "a life enclosed in a cell for Him." Though she was considered quite young for this calling, her spiritual guide had her walled up in a cell near a church. The cell had dual windows: one through which she could overhear the mass, the other faced the outside world. Through the second window, pilgrims could ask her for prayers or offer her food. An earthquake destroyed this first hermitage, and she moved to another cell. Osanna received many more visions in seclusion. These included the infant Christ, the Virgin, and several saints. She was especially drawn to contemplating Christ's suffering during His Passion, to seeking relief for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and to taking communion three times a week. CHRIST'S BRIDE After 44 years in prayer and penance, Osanna experienced the mystical union with Christ. BEWARE OF THE DEVIL IN DRAG Once the devil appeared to Osanna in the form of the Blessed Virgin and told her to modify her penances. When afflicted by "demonic manifestations," Osanna made the sign of the cross and invoked Jesus' name. BEWARE PIRATES A Turkish pirate attack was overcome through Osanna's prayers; the city was under siege and the the besiegers gave up and left. |
