Three Dominican Nun Saints

Would you like to become a Dominican Nun Saint?  The biggest problem with Dominican nun Saints is that there aren't enough of them!  Blessed Diana, Cecilia, and Amata, whom we celebrate today, lead the way for young women to give themselves totally for God and souls in the Order of Preachers.

Blessed Diana d'Andalo: United to the Holy Preaching

First, Blessed Diana d'Andalo.  She is a model for those young women who meet the Dominican friars at their parish or campus ministry, or through something like the Thomistic Institute or Aquinas 101, and catch fire with the charism of the Order.  When they see these men enthusiastically giving all to preach the Truth for the salvation of souls, how could they not wish to give themselves wholly for this great work?  (Something similar could be said for the young women who meet the Dominican teaching Sisters and fall in love with that light of St. Dominic, yet find their own vocation not in the active apostolate but at its contemplative heart.)

Blessed Diana caught this Dominican contagion by meeting Bl. Reginald and then St. Dominic himself, when as a young noblewoman she heard their preaching in her native town of Bologna.  Anyone who has experienced this knows how she would have felt, in her joy and the strength of her desire to give herself to God at the heart of the holy preaching, as she knelt before St. Dominic and professed her vows to him, even before there was a community or cloister to receive her.

Blessed Diana is also a model for those who face obstacles and disapproval from their families.  First, there was the delay in procuring a proper monastery and arranging for Dominican nuns from Proille or San Sisto to come train her and the budding community.  When she finally ran away to a Benedictine house, so she could at least live a monastic life while awaiting the fulfillment of her Dominican vow, her furious family came and carried her away by force, to the extent of breaking some of her ribs.

Yet eventually these difficulties resolved: her family was reconciled to the idea, and let her go unopposed; Blessed Jordan of Saxony, who succeeded St. Dominic as Master of the Order, procured suitable buildings and experienced nuns (including Blessed Cecilia and Amata), and the new community flourished.  Divine Providence even fulfilled the keynote of Blessed Diana's friar-inspired Dominican vocation in the friendship she shared with Blessed Jordan, which has become an icon of the mutual support between the friars and nuns in the Order.  His letters to her have been preserved, and testify to their warm friendship centered on Christ and the holy preaching, as he exhorts her to holiness and pleads for her prayers.

Are you one of these young women drawn by the consecrated witness of the friars or the active Sisters to the love of Truth and zeal for souls?

Blessed Cecilia Cesarine: Keeping These Things in her Heart

Second, Blessed Cecilia.  She is a model for all those young women who are seeking God, and discover the fulfillment of their vocation in the Dominican monastic life.  St. Dominic discovered his vocation as founder of the Order of Preachers by following the Providential circumstances of his life; Blessed Cecilia’s vocation took a similar path.

Blessed Cecilia’s Dominican story began when she was already a young nun in a cloister in Rome; whether she entered out of devotion or was placed there by her family, we do not know.  Her community was one of the lax convents that was worrying the Pope at the time, because of the social dissipation of the nuns and the lack of spiritual discipline.  When the Holy Father asked St. Dominic to reform the cloisters of Rome, 17-year-old Sister Cecilia was one of the first group to follow him, and was present for many of the marvelous events of those early days.  Later, her fidelity to her Dominican vocation caused her to be chosen along with three other nuns to help form the new Dominican monastery in Bologna with Blessed Diana and her companions.In the enthusiasm of her youth, Blessed Cecilia received the Dominican habit and made profession three times in the hands of St. Dominic.  She embraced the challenge of living a reform, turning from a more worldly life to a life of prayer and devotion, free for God alone.  As a true contemplative, she cherished these things in her heart, sharing her memories of the miracles of those first days even into her old age.  We still have her remembrances in the treasured history of the Order.

Are you one of those young women drawn to seek God in the contemplative life, and finding the Providential answer to your desire in the life of a Dominican nun, “free for God alone”?

Blessed Amata: Amata means Beloved

Finally, Blessed Amata.  Modern historians claim she didn’t exist—but the nuns in Bologna have her relics, as she was one of the nuns sent with Blessed Cecilia from San Sisto to help found the monastery in Bologna.  It is true, we don’t know much about her, but for our purposes here, her name tells us enough.

Blessed Amata is a model for all of us who are chosen by the special love of Christ to be His beloved spouses as Dominican nuns.  Beloved.  Our Lord chooses us with the special love of His predilection.  He chooses us to leave the empty preoccupations and illusions of the world, to cling to Him, to sit at His feet and listen to His words.He does not love us or choose us for this vocation because of our own wonderfulness or merits.  “What do you have that you have not received?” as St. Paul says.  Like those first Dominican nuns in Prouille, who had been converted from heresy by the preaching of St. Dominic, or like Blessed Amata herself, it is not we who first chose God, but He who first chose us.  It is His love for us that makes us so lovable in His eyes.

Our life as Dominican nuns is a response to that love of Christ who chooses us to be His beloved.  By her very name, Blessed Amata speaks to us of this mutual love.

Are you one of those young women whose heart has heard the invitation of Christ to belong exclusively to Him as His beloved?

What Next?

Do you want to become a Dominican nun saint?  The first step is to respond to Christ's call, and begin by getting in touch with Dominican nuns!  You learn more about vocations to our community and contact our Vocation Directress here.

Or perhaps you already have found your vocation in life.  Perhaps you are not eligible to be a Dominican nun saint, because you are a businessman, a father of a family, or a wife and mother, or have some other career or calling.  What then?

In that case, ask Our Lord through the intercession of Blessed Diana, Cecilia, and Amata to raise up more Dominican nuns to offer themselves to God for the salvation of souls.  Ask these three Blesseds to intercede for you also, that you may overcome any obstacles in your life to serving God and becoming a saint according to your vocation, that you may follow Our Lord wherever He calls, and that you may experience deeply His love for you.

Let us pray.O God, who didst endow Thy blessed Virgin Diana with admirable fortitude of spirit and didst give her Blessed Cecilia and Amata as companions in walking in the way of Evangelical perfection, grant that we may be strengthened in difficulties by their example and protected by their help in adversities.  Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.