July 24: Bl. Jane of Orvieto, Virgin Having become an orphan at the age of five, instead of giving way to discouragement, Jane showed her friends a picture of the Angel Guardian in the church, saying: “There is one who will be father and mother to me.” In the school of the Divine Master she was taught the virtues of the religious life, detachment from earthly things, patience, obedience, humility, a tender charity for the poor and the sick; above all, an ardent love of God. So brightly did this heavenly flame burn within her, that, during her long devotions, which occupied great part of the day, she could bear only the lightest clothing, and the bare mention of the love of Jesus, of the maternal goodness of Mary, or of the suffering of a martyr sufficed to throw her into ecstasy. Every Good Friday but one, during the last nine years of her life, she was favored with an extraordinary rapture, lasting from mid-day until evening, during which her body lay stiff and motionless in the at...