From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

December 16th - Blessed Mary Fontanella, Visionary
(Also known as Maria Fontanella of the Angels)

=E2=80=9CObedience wills what God wills"

=C2 There lived at Turin during the 17th century a count of Santena named
John Donato Fontanella. He was a religious and well-loved man and
married an equally good wife, Mary Tana, whose father was
cousin-German to t Aloysius Gonzaga.

=C2 =C2 They had 11 children, of whom the ninth, Marianna, was a girl =
of
particular intelligence and promise. When a child of six, emulating
St. Teresa, she concocted a scheme with her little brother to run away
and live =E2=80=9C in the desert=E2=80=9D but they spoiled it by oversleepi=
ng on the
morning intended for their departure. Two years later, when making
recovery from a serious illness, she experienced her first vision, and
from that time began to show a strongly ascetic disposition; in the
following year she made her first communion. A deep impression had
been made on her mind by contemplation of the blow in the face given
to our Lord by the servant of Caiaphas, and a strange incident is
related in that connection. One evening, when Marianna was kneeling at Benediction with one of her sisters, a strange man on her other side
turned suddenly and violently slapped her cheek. The man escaped in
the ensuing confusion and was never seen again. When she was something
over 12, Marianna, by a not very creditable ruse in concert with the
nuns to evade her mother, joined the Cistercians at Saluzzo to live
among their alumnae; but she was not happy there and, on the death of
her father, went home to keep house for her mother. She became ever
more drawn to the religious life and in 1676, after some difficulties
with her family, was admitted in her 16th year to the Carmel of Santa
Cristina. Here her first experience was one of great home-sickness;
following that, an intense distaste for her new life and dislike of
the novice-mistress. But she persevered and was in due course
professed.

=C2 =C2 After 7 years in the convent Sister Mary-of-the-Angels, as she=
was
now called, was visited by a long and severe =E2=80=9Cdark night=E2=80=9D, = during
which she was tormented by numerous diabolical assaults and
manifestations. She was guided through this by a very able director,
Father Laurence-Mary, O.C.D., and at the end of 3 years began to come
into more peaceful ways and to attain higher states of prayer. In 1690
she wrote to Father Laurence an account of a mystical experience which
marked the end of her violent struggles. That Sister Mary herself was
of a vehement disposition her own physical penances show. At one time
she was scourging herself to blood daily, compressing her tongue with
an iron ring, dropping molten wax on her skin, even suspending herself cross-wise by ropes from a beam in her cell. Of such practices we may
borrow from the words of Father George O'Neill, S.J., her Irish
biographer: =E2=80=9C No one is asked to imitate, no one is bound to admire them.=E2=80=9D When she was 30 she was appointed novice-mistress, and 3 yea=
rs
later prioress, offices which she took up with deep reluctance and
discharged with an equally marked ability. At the suggestion of Bl.
Sebastian Valfr=C3=A9 she undertook a new foundation with a small house and inadequate endowment at Moncaglieri; and having overcome opposition
from both ecclesiastical and civil authorities she was able to
establish the nucleus of a community there in 1703, and the convent is
still in being. Sister Mary herself wished to go there, but the people
of Turin would not suffer it; all, from the members of the ducal
family of Savoy downwards, were accustomed to go and ask the advice
and prayers of the prioress of Santa Cristina, especially during the
war with the French.

During the last 20 years of her life Bl. Mary continued to have
remarkable experiences and gifts, among them what appeared to be a
literal =E2=80=9Codour of sanctity=E2=80=9D. This scent emanated from her p= erson, and
was communicated to her clothes and even to things that she touched,
from which it was sometimes difficult to eradicate. From about 1702
this phenomenon was permanent, and among the witnesses to it was
Father Costanzo, afterwards archbishop of Sassari in Sardinia. He
characterized it as =E2=80=9Cneither natural nor artificial, nor like flowe=
rs
or aromatic drugs or any mixture of perfumes, but only to be called an =E2=80=98odour of sanctity'=E2=80=9D.

=C2 =C2 It is stated that certain secondary relics of the beata at
Moncaglieri still retain this fragrance. At the same time Bl. Mary,
like so many other mystics, was also notably proficient and careful in
the practical matters, keeping accounts, looking after workmen, and so
on, which fell to her lot as prioress. At the end of the priorate of
Mother Teresa-Felix in 1717 the nuns of Santa Cristina wished to elect
Bl. Mary for a fifth term of office. She thought that her physical
weakness would prevent her from giving a proper example of observance,
and appealed to her confessor and to the prior provincial, but they
both refused to interfere. Whereupon she set herself to pray that, if
it were God's will, she might shortly die; and within 3 weeks she w=
as
very ill.

=C2 =C2 Punctilious obedience to superiors had been so marked in her l=
ife
that the nuns now implored them to =E2=80=9Cgive her an obedience=E2=80=9D =
to recover.
They demurred, and Mary said, =E2=80=9C Obedience wills what God wills, and therefore I will what obedience wills. Were the impossible possible I
would do as you ask but I have so stormed the heart of Jesus to get my
desire that He has granted it. It cannot be changed now.=E2=80=9D

=C2 She blessed all her sisters, and Father Costanzo asked, without
saying who she was, for a last word for =E2=80=9Canother daughter=E2=80=9D,=
who was in
fact the young Princess di Carignano who had hurried to the convent
when she heard that Mother Mary was dying. =E2=80=9CMay our Lord bless her= =E2=80=9D,
she murmured, =E2=80=9Cand give her real detachment from the world--for everything here comes to an end.=E2=80=9D Bl. Mary-of-the-Angels died on December 16, 1717, and 7 years later her cause was introduced at the
instance of Victor Amadeus II of Savoy; but she was not officially
declared blessed until 1865.

A full account of this Carmelite mystic will be found in the book of
Father G. O'Neill, Bl. Mary of the Angels (1909). It is based upon =
a
life written in Italian by Father Elias-of St.-Teresa who had known
the beata personally and was able to utilize what survived of an
autobiography which she wrote by command of her superiors. A later
Italian account is by Father Benedetto (1934).

Saint Quote
Hold your eyes on God and leave the doing to him. That is all the
doing you have to worry about.
--Saint Jeanne de Chantal

Bible Quote:
O God, when thou didst go forth in the sight of thy people, when thou
didst pass through the desert: 9 The earth was moved, and the heavens
dropped at the presence of the God of Sina, at the presence of the God
of Israel.=C2 (Psalm 67:8-9)


<><><><>
A prayer to St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles:

Thou art the shepherd of the sheep, the Prince of the Apostles,
unto thee were given the keys of heaven.

V.=C2 Thou art Peter,
R.=C2 And upon this rock I will build my Church.

Let us pray:

Raise us up, we beseech Thee,
O Lord, by the apostolic assistance of blessed Peter,
Thine Apostle: so that the weaker we are,
the more mightily we may be helped by the power of his intercession:
and that being perpetually defended by the same holy Apostle,
we may neither yield to any iniquity,
nor be overcome by any adversity.
=C2 Through Christ our Lord.=C2 Amen.

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