VALMARANA, DEIANIRA (Dianira). - Foundress of the Congregation of the Dimesse or Modeste, girls or widows of the Venetian State, b. at Vicenza in 1549, d. there on 3 February 1603.
After the death of her husband and son, she donned the habit of the Franciscan Third Order in 1572 and withdrew to a religious life in one of her houses with four other ladies, under the direction of the Observant Friar Minor Antonio Pagani. Her example was followed by her widowed cousin Angela V., who withdrew to a house adjoining that of Deianira with other pious women. For the two houses Fr. Pagani wrote common rules, approved in 1584 by the bishop of Vicenza and by the apostolic visitor Card. Ag. Valerio, bishop of Verona. The Institute came to be called that of the Dimesse or Modeste. The members lived in community, taught catechism to women, and assisted the sick in hospitals. They could leave the Congregation in order to marry.