BISCOSSI, SIBILLINA, blessed. – Dominican mystic, born in Pavia around 1287, where she died on 19 March 1367. At the age of twelve she lost her sight and, taken in and instructed by Dominican Tertiaries, embraced the religious life. Having asked for but not obtained the miracle of healing, at the age of fifteen, in order to conform herself to the suffering Christ, she withdrew into a cell built near the church of the Friars Preachers, where she remained amid penances and visions for the rest of her life. Her cult was confirmed on 17 August 1854 by Pius IX; her feast is celebrated on 23 March. Her body is venerated in the cathedral of Pavia.
BIBL.: Acta SS., Martii, III, Paris 1865, p. 67 ff.; Anon. in Année Dominicane, 2 (1886), p. 475 ff.; I. Taurisano, Catal. hagiogr. Ord. Praed., 2nd ed., Rome 1918, p. 31, with bibliography. Angelo Walz