VARANO, Battista da, Blessed. - Mystic of the Footsteps of St Clare, in the world Camilla, born in Camerino on 9 April 1458 to Giulio Cesare, lord of that city, died there on 31 May 1524 or 1527.
Having heard the blessed Marco da Montegallo preach (1468), she became devoted to meditation on the Passion of Jesus and strove to live it in a spirit of penance. Overcoming her parents’ opposition, on 14 November 1481 she entered the Poor Clares of Urbino; in 1484 she founded a monastery in her native city and later another at Fermo. Then, in Camerino, she was elected abbess. She steadfastly endured infirmities, temptations, threats and other trials under the guidance of the blessed Pietro da Molliano and Marco da Montegallo. She always forgave and prayed for the impious murderers of her father and two brothers, who were slaughtered in a revolt instigated by Cesare Borgia (1502). She rests in the church of the Poor Clares in Camerino. Her cult was approved by Gregory XVI on 7 April 1843.
She received a thorough humanistic education and left, among other writings: *Autobiografia spirituale* (1491); *Trattato dei dolori mentali di Gesù Cristo Nostro Signore nella sua Passione* (Naples 1493, Milan 1515, attributed in 1593 to Fr Scupoli [v.]); *Relazione sulla morte del b. Pietro da Molliano* (1760); *Istruzioni al suo discepolo p. Antonio Spagna*; *Esortazione che ebbe dal Signore quando era ancora nel secolo dopo la ferma risoluzione di abbracciare la vita religiosa*; *La vita spirituale* (republished with an introduction by M. Sticco, Milan 1944); poems; letters.