(A.D. 1497.)
[Beatified by Pope Leo X. Her life and revelations were written by
Brother Isidore of Isolani, O.S.D., from the account given him by
those who had known her well; among others from the notes of
Benedetta, and the recital of Thaddaea, two sisters, who had been
intimately acquainted with Veronica. This account was printed in
1518, at Milan.]
Veronica was the daughter of a pious peasant at Binasco, a small village
between Milan and Pavia. Her father was noted for his integrity, and
when he sold a horse he always mentioned its defects to the purchaser.
Veronica was employed in the fields weeding, as the parents were too
poor to send her to the school. Veronica desired earnestly to become a
sister in the convent of S. Martha, at Milan, but her mother assured her
that it was impossible to join a religious community without a knowledge
of letters. Accordingly, every night Veronica laboured, by the light of
her little oil lamp, at her alphabet and spelling book; but she made
little progress. One night, as she lay with her hands spread out on the
table, and her head bowed, disheartened at the difficulty of her task,
the Blessed Virgin appeared to her in a robe of dazzling blue, like the
summer sky. "My child," said the gentle Mother, "trouble thyself not
with this scholarship, the only learning thou needst is comprised in
three letters, white, black, and red. This white letter is purity of
soul and body; this black letter is simplicity, contentedness with what
God sends you, and freedom from taking offence; this red letter is
meditation on the passion of my dear Son. Let these three branches of
learning be mastered, and all the other letters come of themselves."
Veronica, some years later, entered the convent of S. Martha, as a lay
sister, and her duties were to beg for the society, as her ignorance of
reading and Latin disqualified her from chanting the choir offices with
the full sisters.
She persevered in the study of those three letters shown her by the
Queen of Heaven, and in studying them she advanced far on the way of
perfection. She was honoured with wondrous revelations, but her modesty
was so great that she sought to conceal them. On the Octave of Corpus
Christi, 1487, during mass, she saw in the adorable Sacrament exposed in
the Tabernacle, the form of Jesus Christ as a little child surrounded by
adoring angels. In her simplicity she asked one of the other sisters if
she had seen the Holy Child, and when she answered in the negative,
Veronica flushed red, and said no more.
It was a great disappointment to her that she was unable to sing the
choir offices, and she made it a special object of prayer that her
understanding might be enlightened, so that she might join the others in
their psalmody. Then an angel descended to her cell, and he held in his
hand the psalter, and opening it before her, bade her read, and all her
difficulty passed away, and she chanted the psalms of David, with the
antiphons and responses, alternately with the Angel of God. One night,
when she had been very ill, and deprived of the privilege of communion,
she rose from her sick bed, drawn by an irresistible impulse to the
church. It was full of light; she cast herself at the altar steps,
before the adorable Sacrament, and Jesus in a cloud of glory
communicated her Himself.
She lay three years in a lingering illness, all which time she would
never be exempted from any of the duty of the house, or make use of the
least indulgence, though she was given leave; her answer always was, "I
must work whilst I can, whilst I have time."
Sister Thaddaea informed the writer of her life, that on Whitsun-Monday,
1496, she went to the cell of Veronica, who was ill, at the hour of
nones, and was astonished to see a bright light streaming from the
chinks in the door. Looking in through a hole, she saw Veronica, in
dazzling light, chanting nones. Veronica died in the year 1497.
[Illustration: Seal of Robert Wishart, Bp. of Glasgow, 1272-1316. See
life of S. Kentigern, p. 193.]