JULIANA FALCONIERI, Saint. - Foundress of the religious of the Third Order of the Servants of Mary (the Mantellate). According to the writings of Paolo degli Attavanti (second half of the 15th century) and above all the accounts collected in the 17th century, in order to obtain the insertion of the Saint into the Roman Martyrology, G. is said to have belonged to the noble Florentine family of the F., born when her parents, Chiarissimo and Ricordata, were advanced in age, around 1270, and to have been educated by her uncle St. Alessio F., one of the 7 founders of the Servants of Mary.

At the age of 14 she met (again according to tradition) the minister general of the Servants of Mary, St. Philip Benizi, who admired her singular virtues and shortly afterward clothed her in the religious habit of the Servants of Mary. She could not leave the world immediately because she was obliged to care for her aged mother. She nevertheless gathered companions who soon imitated her and lived like her in their own houses, in a common dwelling. They took the name of Mantellate from the long mantle.

(from F. Baix-C. Lambot, *La dévotion à l'Eucharistie et la VIIᵉ centenaire de la Fête-Dieu*, *Gembious 1856*, tov. f. 43)

GIULIANA FALCONIERI, saint - St. G. and St. Philip Benizi present to Mary Most Holy a group of confreres of the Annunziata. Detail of the Gonfalone dell'Annunziata painted at the behest of the confraternity of the same name in the year 1466, perhaps by Niccolò Alunno, Perugia, Pinacoteca.

G. joined them after the death of her mother, around 1302, and was immediately elected superior. After long sufferings, having miraculously received Holy Communion, she died on 19 June 1341. Her relics are venerated in Florence in the church of the Santissima Annunziata. She was canonized by Clement XII on 16 June 1737. Feast on 19 June.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: Acta SS. Iunii, IV, Paris 1867, pp. 766-74; A. Lépicier, Ste Julienne Falconieri, Brussels 1907 (It. trans. Pistoia 1922); A. M. Wimmer, Der hl. Philipp Benizi, Freiburg 1932; M. Courayville, S. G. dei F., la santa dell'Eucaristia, Florence 1938; Martyr. Romanum, p. 243.

Ulderico Vicentini

@incollection{ec6_giuliana_falconieri_santa, author = {Vicentini, Ulderico}, title = {Giuliana Falconieri, santa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {738--739}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/giuliana-falconieri-santa} }

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Juliana Falconieri, Saint

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