Today is the feast of St. Seraphina. If you're wondering, "Where have I heard that name?" it's because you are thinking about "The Diary of a Country Priest." Remember the little girl in his catechism class, the one who did so well and seemed to have a vocation? She was just taken with his eyes! The other kids used to tease him for having a schoolgirl girlfriend. Sigh.
Our Seraphina today is nothing like that. If I had to find just two words to go with Seraphina, or "Fina" as she is called by the Tuscan peasants who revere her, I would have to say "patience" and "faith." She was a very pretty little girl who suffered her infantile paralysis with utter patience and no complaining. In the end she was reduced to living out her last days (she died young, at 15) on a simple wooden board, unable to move. She had faith in God and recourse to a beautiful carved crucifix, which she gazed at for hours on end. I love her, too, for having a deep devotion to the saints, something I wish (naturally) would catch fire today. She prayed and meditated a lot on St. Gregory the Great, her favorite saint, who also had troubles and with whom she could empathize. Well, as some favored souls sometimes do, she was graced with a visit from this saint. He comforted her and told her the good God was coming to take her home . . . on Gregory's own feast day! St. Gregory's day was celebrated on March 12th in those days (1253 A.D.). And so it happened. When her body was removed for burial, there were found tiny white violets growing in the board. And to this day, the people call the little flowers that grow on the hillsides near her hometown "St. Fina's flowers."
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