Blessed Columba of Rieti (20 May): Butler's Lives of the Saints

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:02][Music] [Music] [Music] the lives of the Saints by father Albin Butler May 20th blessed Columba of riadi in The Chronicles of peruja there are numerous Illusions to blessed Columba she was a tertiary of the order of St Dominic the sanctity and spiritual gifts of the Blessed were so extraordinary that the city considered her as its protector and the authorities came to ask for her intercession in moments of danger and perplexity Columba was not born in peruja but in riti where her parents made a modest living in weaving and dress making the child was so beautiful that her parents baptized her with the name of Angela but at the moment of baptism a dove landed on the head of the Blessed girl who was called Columba from then on as the years went by her beauty and virtues grew Sisters of St Dominic taught her to read and instilled in her Devotion to the patron saint and St Katherine of Sienna who appeared to her several times during her life to encourage and direct her columus secretly consecrated herself to God at the age of 10 and so when her parents wanted to marry her off to a very rich young man she cut her hair and declared that she belonged totally to Jesus Christ from then on she gave herself to penance not allowing herself to be seen as far far as possible by the eyes of men in Imitation of the example of St Katherine of Sienna after an ecstasy that lasted 5 days during which she was as if dead Columba could describe the places in Palestine that she had visited in spirit at the age of 19 once she had taken the habit of a tertiary of St Dominic that she had so longed for Columba came out of her Retreat and undertook what we could call her public life a citizen of riti condemned to death for murder was pardoned thanks to the intercession of of the Blessed Columbo went to visit him in prison helped him make a good confession and predicted that he would not be executed this was indeed the case for the pardon arrived moments before the sentence was to be carried out the fame of the Blessed only increased because of the Miracles she worked and the rigorous fast she practiced in vbo and Nar she cured some possessed people the inhabitants of the latter City tried to hold Columba by force but she managed to escape however she was not to remain long in RTI God revealed to her that she was destined for another place and Columba left furtively at dawn and without the religious habit she began to wander aimlessly on pilgrimage when she arrived in folino the authorities arrested her believing her to be a fugitive and communicated the news to Columbus's parents accompanied by her father her brother and an elderly matron the Blessed was finally able to continue her mysterious Journey which took her to Perugia then the most tumultuous City in Italy the Blessed stayed with other tertiaries in a humble dwelling and the people immediately began to seek her out for her Fame had undoubtedly preceded her everyone welcomed her with open arms not only the poor but also the rich and even the Bagon family who were then in power but some Pious people among whom were Franciscan and Dominican Friars looked as scance at this young woman who was said to be able to live without food other than a few wild strawberries and to have frequent ecstasy es father Sebastian agnelli who later became the Confessor and biographer of the Blessed was not the least suspicious of her in the early days in the book he wrote he humbly confesses the skepticism with which he received the news that Columba had resurrected a child wait 10 years he said to the young cheser boria who proposed that the bells be rung to celebrate the event 10 years from now if her conduct is equal to her Miracles we will know if we have a saint Among Us but the inhabitants of peruja were less skeptical and proposed to the blessed to build her a Convent on January 1st 1490 Columba and some of her companions took religious vows in the third order of St Dominic a few years later during a plague epidemic the Blessed was already so famous that the authorities went to her for advice and organized at her request a series of penitential processions many sick people were healed just by touching Columba either in the convent hospital where she assisted them personally with her nuns or outside the convent Columba had offered herself to God as a victim thus when the epidemic subsided the Blessed contracted a particularly virent form of the disease she herself attributed her cure to St Katherine of Sienna in whose honor the authorities decreed that A procession should be held annually this was done for a hundred years in the fierce discords that divided Perugia Columba worked as an angel of Peace on one occasion she warned the authorities that the enemy was preparing to fall on the city and thus that surprise attack could be avoided when Pope Alexander V 6 went to peruja he specifically requested an interview with Columba so impressed was he that he later sent his Treasurer to consult the Blessed woman about certain secret plans Columbus's answer was very harsh although it was never known what it consisted of but lucre boria the daughter of Alexander V 6 did not share her father's enthusiasm and became an enemy of the Blessed when the latter refused to receive her it was probably lucre boria who unleashed the persecution against Columba accusing her of practicing magic and Publishing in Rome a decree depriving her of a Confessor Columba did not utter a word of complaint and waited patiently for the attacks to lose their force of their own accord towards the end of her life illness made her suffer greatly but she continued to take as much interest in the city as before on her deathbed she exhorted the authorities who had come to visit her to preserve Christian charity and to do justice to the poor she died at the age of 34 in the early morning of the Feast of the Ascension of 1501 the magistrates organized her funeral at the city's expense and the whole town attended