CHIARA MARIA DELLA PASSIONE, venerable. - Discalced Carmelite mystic, Princess Giovanna Vittoria Colonna-Barberini, born on 11 April 1610
at Orsogna (Chieti) to don Filippo Colonna, Duke of Paliano; died in Rome on 22 August 1675.
Educated by the Augustinian nuns of Naples, after a period of laxity in which she abandoned herself to vanities and amusements, she returned to God and was favoured with heavenly visions. She entered the Carmelites of the extremely poor monastery of S. Egidio in Rome on 4 October 1628. She led a life of utmost austerity; purified by God through interior sufferings and temptations, and enriched with extraordinary gifts, she attained mystical espousal; in 1645 she founded in Rome the monastery of Discalced Carmelites of «Regina Coeli», where she died a holy death. Shortly after her death the process for her beatification was introduced, and her virtues were recognized by the Church as heroic on 22 August 1762.