Venerated in Roman Catholic Church Beatified 11 September 1754 | Feast 23 July | |
Attributes Dominican habit
Flowers Patronage Embroiderers
Seamstresses
Italian working women Died 23 July 1306, Orvieto, Italy | ||
Blessed Giovanna da Orvieto (1264 - 23 July 1306) was an Italian Roman Catholic professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. She was known for her wise intellect and for her intense devotion to serving the will of God while being noted for being prone to ecstasies and other visions.
Contents
Her beatification process culminated on 11 September 1754 after Pope Benedict XIV approved her beatification.
Life
Giovanna da Orvieto was born in the Umbria province in 1264 and was orphaned prior to 1269. Other relatives took care of her following the deaths of her parents.
From the age of ten in 1274 she decided to devote herself to Jesus Christ and follow the Dominican path and aged fourteen she joined that order and received the habit around that time. She worked as both a seamstress and embroiderer and during her adolescence refused prospects of marriage to instead focus on her call to the religious life. She became a professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic in Orvieto. In the last decade of her life she received a range of ecstatic visions.
Giovanna died in 1306. Her remains were later moved on 18 November 1307 and then transferred on two more occasions in 1610 and on 4 May 1743 for the final time.
Beatification
The request for a prompt beatification was made to Pope Benedict XIII in 1728 but it was not until 11 September 1754 that Pope Benedict XIV issued a decree that confirmed the late religious' local "cultus" - otherwise known as popular veneration - and thus approved of her beatification.
The late religious is held as the patron of both seamstresses and embroiders while Pope Pius XI later made her the patron of all Italian working women in 1926.