Bl. Diana & Bl. Cecilia

Feast Day: June 8

Blessed Diana, a member of the powerful d’Andalo family, was born at Bologna at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Attracted to the Order by the preaching of Blessed Reginald, Diana overcame the strong objections of her family and in 1222 with the help of Blessed Jordan of Saxony founded the Monastery of Saint Agnes where she lived until her death in 1236. The letters which Blessed Jordan wrote to her are a splendid testament to the spirituality of the Dominican family and to the association of brothers and sisters within the Dominican family.

Blessed Cecilia was born at Rome around 1200 of the noble Caesarini family. In 1220 Pope Honorius III asked Saint Dominic to reform several Roman monasteries, among them Santa Maria in Tempulo of which Blessed Cecilia was a member. According to tradition she was the first to express enthusiasm for the project and the first to receive the habit from the hands of Saint Dominic at the new Monastery of Saint Sixtus. In late 1223 or early 1224 she and three other nuns were sent to the Monastery of Saint Agnes in Bologna to help with the new foundation. To her we are indebted for our only description of the physical appearance of Saint Dominic. She died around 1290.