Blessed Imelda Lambertini

Scarcely out of childhood, she built herself a small oratory, where she often came to unite herself with her God through prayer and to offer Him her virginal heart. Despising the luxury of the world and all the splendors of her father's house, she resolved to enter a monastery to embrace chastity, poverty, and voluntary obedience, and to give herself entirely to her Savior. After obtaining permission from her parents, she entered the convent of Saint Mary Magdalene, in Valdipietra, near Bologna, where she donned the habit of the Order of Sa int Dominic, while await Ordre de Saint-Dominique Religious order to which the saint belongs. ing the day when she could be admitted to solemnly pronounce the vows she had already irrevocably pronounced in her heart.

Despite her tender age, she courageously embraced all the exercises of religious life. It is impossible to describe her bodily mortifications, her ardor in curbing the disordered affections of her heart, her love of prayer and contemplation, and her generosity in fulfilling all her duties, even the most arduous. She was a constant example to her companions, even to those who were her superiors either by age or by religious profession. Nothing was more pleasing to her than to show her love for the Queen of Angels and the Holy Eucharist. Every day she attended Holy Mass; she me sainte Eucharistie Central sacrament in the life and miracle of Imelda. ditated with great attention on its adorable mysteries, and the tears and sighs that the intensity of her desires drew from her virginal soul, and which she tried in vain to stifle, testified to her ardent love for Jesus Christ and the desire she had to receive Him. Her young age not allowing her to participate with her companions in the sacred banquet, she suffered greatly from it, for she felt her heart ignite and melt under the ardor of the divine fire that consumed her interiorly. But God does not long resist the prayers of those who love Him with a deep love; for He declared through the mouth of the Wise Man: "Those who love me are loved by me; and those who seek me early in the morning will infallibly find me."

Knowing that the virtues in Imelda abundantly redeemed her youth, He equaled her to the other religious, and showed by a striking miracle that she was more worthy than her companions to receive Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

It was Ascension Day, May 12, 1333; Imelda was then Imelda Young Dominican virgin famous for her miraculous death during her first communion. twelve years old. While her companions, happy and recollected, went each in turn to take their place at the table of the angels, she alone remained kneeling before her little stall, weeping with longing as she thought of their happiness. Her eyes raised to heaven, her two little hands crossed on her chest, as if to moderate the violence of the beating of her heart, which seemed near to breaking, and pressing between her fingers the image of the crucified Jesus that never left her, she said with the Bride of the Song of Songs: "Come, O Beloved of my soul! Descend into this garden which is all yours, and gather its fruits. Either cease to lower your gaze toward me, or let my soul fly in your footsteps. Draw me after you: let me run to the scent of your perfumes. You are to me, O my Beloved, like a bouquet of myrrh: your blessed image will never cease to rest upon my breast; but why can I not give you shelter, I too, and celebrate you in my heart! Come, Lord Jesus, come, for I languish with love and am dying with the desire for your adorable presence!..." But Jesus did not come; and knowing that all is possible to an obstinate prayer, she did not cease to importune Him with her cries; her heart, too full, overflowed in loving complaints. As she continued to weep and pray, suddenly a miraculous Host detached itself from the tabernacle, passed through the choir hostie miraculeuse Central sacrament in the life and miracle of Imelda. screen, and, fluttering in the air, stopped above her. The nuns, moved by such a spectacle, at first dared not believe their eyes, but soon illusion was no longer possible: the miracle persisted; a sudden brightness spread through the church, accompanied by a sweet odor; and an invisible but powerful hand held the mystical bread suspended before the young child who, triumphant but timid, remained divided between the joy of feeling so close to Him whom she loved and the pain of not yet being able to unite with Him. One would have said an angel in adoration rather than a simple mortal. Her confessor, warned of this prodigy, hurried over, and seeing in this fact an unequivocal manifestation of the divine will, respectfully gathered the holy Host on a paten and gave the blessed child Communion.

At last her wishes were fulfilled! And as if she could not bear such joy in a mortal body, she collapsed upon herself, immersed in deep contemplation. With her hands still crossed on her chest and her eyes gently closed, Imelda appeared to be given over to a delightful sleep. For a long time her sisters admired her in silence, never tiring of looking at her or watching her. Eventually, however, they began to feel some concern; they called her, they pleaded with her; they commanded her to rise; she, who was always so prompt in obedience, this time remained motionless; she did not hear; they touched her, she did not feel... Imelda was no longer of this world.

In her depictions, she is seen kneeling before an altar: a host appears above the child as if waiting for someone to come and give it to this lover of the Eucharist.

## CULT AND RELICS.

The news of her blessed death spread far and wide, making her name famous and inspiring veneration for her tomb among the faithful. God Himself, in the course of time, granted many graces to the faithful through her intercession. In 1566, her relics were transported from the convent of Valdipietra to the Dominican church in Bologna, where th ey rest Bologne City of birth and return after the Blessed's conversion. today. Cardinal Lambertini, later Pope under the name Benedict XIV, restored and embellished the Dominican church of Bologna while he occupied the archiepiscopal see of that city; he had a chapel and an altar erected there in honor of our Blessed one, his relative; later, in 1591, the miracle of her death was engraved on the stone of her sepulcher. Pope Leo XII, after consulting the Sacred Congregation of Rites, approved her cult and authorized the Order of Preachers to recite her office a nd celebrate the Holy Mass Ordre des Frères Prêcheurs Religious order to which the saint belongs. in her honor. Her feast day was set for September 16.

Acta Sanctorum Acta Sanctorum Monumental hagiographic collection by the Bollandists. ; Dominican Year. — Cf. Life of Blessed Imelda Lambertini, virgin of the Order of Saint Dominic, by the Rev. Fr. M. Jean-Jo seph Lafaste, of th Jean-Joseph Lafaste Dominican religious and biographer of Imelda. e Order of Preachers.