Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/307

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ST. VIRIDIANA 295 afterwards, abont 420, when Severns was old and grey, one Sunday when he had finished mass, he ordered the tomb of his wife and daughter to be opened, and then desiring them to make room for him between them, he lay down, made the sign of the cross, innd ordered the marble tomb to be closed over him. AA,SS, from a manuscript Life of St. Severusy belonging to the congregation of the oratory at Rome, and another Life by Liudolph, a priest. St, Vincentia (2) or Vicenza, March 15, May 16, V. M. 424. A girl whose martyrdom by the Vandals, in Spain, is recorded by Ruinart, is called Vincentia by the looiJ martyrologists, but her name is not given in the older histories of the persecution. She was beheaded.. Euinart, Hist, Pers, Vandalicse (Paris, 1737). St. Vinciana or Vbnoiana, March 19, Sept. 11, V. + 643. Represented in a group with SS. Adeltbude (2^, Land- BADA, Landoald, Amandus, Julian, and Adrian, at Winterhoven in the Nether- lands. Vinciana went with her brothers, SS. Landoald and Amandus and others, from Rome, about 633, to plant Chris- tianity in Belgium. She helped them much. She died at Winterhoven, and was translated three hundred and thirty- seven years after, with Landoald and the others, to the church of St. Bavo, at Ghent. Sanderus. St. Vinnosa, Pinnosa. St Viola (1), Sept. 8, M. A very old woman, taken prisoner by Sapor, king of Persia, with nine thousand Christians. The king and the chief of the Magi made her uudergo many tortures, and finally cut off her head. AA.SS. from the Coptic Menology. St. Viola (2), May 3, V. M. honoured at Verona. AA.SS, B. Violante (l), or Violentia db SousA, Feb. 28, Sept. 9 + c. 1400. She was of noble birth, and when very young became a nun at Odivellas near Lisbon. On account of her great merits, she was made abbess of the Benedictine convent of Castro or Burgo, which she governed for twenty-eight years, with great wisdom and holiness. B. Violante, abbess of Arouca, is perhaps the same. Bucelinus. Stadler. B. Violante (2), Feb. 9, May 18, 3rd. O.S.F. at Cordova, -f 1576. She founded a convent at Murcia, in honour of the holy handkerchie£ {See Vebo- NicA.) Stadler. B. Violentia, Violante. St. Vippia, May 28, M. at Rome. St. Virco. (See Anna (7).) B. Virgana, vulgarly St. Vebgb, ViiiROE, or Vieroue, a peasant, buried and worshipped at a place formerly called Hault Bois, now Ste. Vi^rge, in Poitou. St. Virgin does not mean the V. Mary. It is a corruption of Vigean, an Irish abbot of the 7th century. It may possibly sometimes be Ste. ViiiROE or VlBQANA of Poitou. St. Viridiana, Feb. 1, 13 ; Stadler gives her also Juno 19 (Verdiana, Vbr- dina), 4- 1242. Joint patron with St. Reparata, of Florence. Represented with serpents. She was a recluse of the Order of Vallombrosa. Her first years were spent in poverty at Castel Fiorentino in Tuscany. Almost from her infancy she showed a love of piety and mortification. Such was the general respect for her character that a rich and noble relative placed her at the head of his household. While she was in his service a famine devastated the country. The same story is told of her as of St. ZiTA, namely, that there was a great chest of beans in the house and as the price of provisions rose enormously, the owner sold them for a large sum ; but when the buyer came to take them away, behold, the chest was empty, for Viri- diana had given all the beans to the starving poor. Great was the wrath of both parties to the bargain ; fierce accusa- tions and recriminations were exchanged. Viridiana spent the night in prayer and next morning she found the chest full. She called her employer and said, ** Leave off complaining. Jesus Christ has re- turned the beans which you grudged Him I " Her master made known the miracle ; and the humble servant, to her dismay, found herself an object of popu- lar veneration. She fled from her noto- riety and joined a party of ladies goiug on pilgrimage to St. James of Compo- stella. Her countrymen would only let her go, on condition that she should