(d.c.580) These sisters were born to Italian nobility and were raised by a guardian when their mother died young. They refused arranged marriages, fled home, and became Benedictine nuns in Como, Italy, where they founded the Santa Margarita convent. They were known for their piety and miraculous intercession. One story recounts how Liberata healed a woman who had been crucified by her husband and left to die.
Liberata did literally what we try to do metaphorically—help others carry their cross. “Brothers, even if a person is caught in some transgression, you who are spiritual should correct that one in a gentle spirit, looking to yourself, so that you also may not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1-2). How have you helped others in this way through recovery?
“O God, who gladden us each year with the feast of Saints Liberata and Faustina, your Virgins, grant, we pray, that we may imitate their purity of life and rejoice in their heavenly reward” (Collect prayer from the Common of Virgins).
Reflection by Brad Farmer