Elena Valentinis (1396 - 23 April 1458) was an

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professed religious from the tertiaries of the

Order of Saint Augustine The Order of Saint Augustine (), abbreviated OSA, is a mendicant order, mendicant catholic religious order, religious order of the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1244 by bringing together several eremitical groups in the Tuscany region who ...

. Valentinis was born to nobles and married a knight during her adolescence while mothering six children before she was widowed in 1441. She soon became a professed religious and dedicated herself to austerities and a life of complete penance. Her beatification was ratified on 27 September 1848 after

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approved her local 'cultus' - or popular veneration.

Life

Elena Valentinis was born in

Udine Udine ( ; ; ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Carnic Alps. It is the capital of the Province of Udine, Regional decentralization entity ...

in 1396 to the nobleman Count Valentinis - a lord of Maniago. She had at least one sister: Perfetta. In her adolescence in 1411 she married the Florentine knight Antonio del Cavalcanti and the pair had six children - three males and three females. He died in 1441 and as a result she cut off her hair and placed it with her jewels in his coffin and said: "These I wore for love of you; take them to the grave with you". Valentinis later attended a sermon that Fra Angelo da San Severino gave at the Augustinian church of Santa Lucia and decided then and there to join the order. She became a professed third order member of the

(the first for the third order in Udine) sometime in 1441 where she soon became known for her several austerities and her life of dedication to her fellow man and woman. One of her austerities was to take a vow of silence though she spoke on

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night alone. She continued to live at home though later moved in with her sister in 1446 who also was a third order Augustinian and resided there until her death. Valentinis was known for her ecstatic trances as well as the noted gift of healing others. She became known for her ardent devotion to the

Eucharist The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ...

and to the

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. Valentinis also placed 33 pebbles in her shoes as an act of penance. Valentinis became bedridden in 1455 after fracturing both her femurs in a fall and she preferred a pallet of stones and straw to an actual bed. Her declining health led to her death on the Saturday evening of 23 April 1458. On her deathbed Mass was celebrated and friars from a

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

not too far from her came to sing

psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

. Her remains were interred in Santa Lucia but later moved to the

Udine Cathedral Udine Cathedral (, ''Cattedrale di Santa Maria Maggiore'') is a Catholic cathedral located in Udine, north-eastern Italy. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Udine, Archbishop of Udine. History The cathedral's construction began ...

in 1845.

Beatification

Her local 'cultus' - otherwise known as popular veneration to her - received official ratification from

on 27 September 1848 which allowed for him to issue his approval for her beatification.

References

External links

Saints SQPN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valentinis, Elena 1396 births 1458 deaths 15th-century venerated Christians 15th-century Italian Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns Augustinian Order Beatifications by Pope Pius IX Elective mutes Italian beatified people People from Udine

Life

Beatification

See also

References

External links