St imelda feast day
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Blessed Imelda was born in Bologna, Italy about 1322, of the family of the Lambertini’s - a family name distinguished for both the nobility and piety of its members. For many ages, the Lambertini name held a certain distinction and notoriety. In fact, one of this illustrious line became the great Pope, Benedict XIV.
It was into this lineage that Imelda was born. In baptism, she was called Magdalen. From her earliest years, she eagerly listened to the holy stories and religious instruction that her parents gave her. Both her parents were very pious. Her father was a rich, brave, and powerful nobleman, who filled several important posts and was remarkable for his charity to the poor, especially to the religious orders dependent upon alms. His wife, Castora, was worthy of him. She had a particular devotion to pray for the souls in Purgatory, and for their relief she made many charitable donations to monasteries and churches.
It was amidst these sentiments, that Magdalen grew. Giving herself to a life of devotion, she made a little oratory for herself, where she loved to recite the
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Blessed Imelda Lambertini
Blessed Imelda Lambertini
(1322-1333)
Feast day - May 12
Patron of a fervent First Holy Communion
Blessed Imelda offers a charming study in child sanctity. It was on the occasion of her fifth birthday that Imelda asked her pious parents if she also could receive communion. She already possessed a love of Christ, but she was far too young. With an understanding of what communion really means, she wondered aloud:
“Tell me, can anyone receive Jesus into his heart and not die?”
At the early age of nine she entered the Dominican convent near Bologna. The one great desire of her life in those days was to receive within her breast her sacramental God. Custom had established the age of twelve as the proper time for little ones to receive First Holy Communion, and the convent chaplain would not listen to a suggested deviation from this rule. Frequently did the child beseech her confessor for permission to approach the divine banquet table, only to be repulsed.
On May the 12th, 1333, the vigil of the Ascension, the community partook of the Euc
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Imelda Lambertini
Patroness of First Communicants
Imelda Lambertini (1322 – 12 May 1333) was an Italian Catholic mystic and devotee of the Dominican Order. She is the patroness of First Communicants and many dioceses make use of her feast as a day to schedule First Communions and Confirmations.
Biography
Imelda Lambertini was born in 1322 in Bologna, the only child of Count Egano Lambertini[1] and Castora Galuzzi. Her parents were devout Catholics and were known for their charity and generosity to the underprivileged of Bologna. On her fifth birthday, she requested to receive the Eucharist; however the custom at the time was that children did not receive their First Communion until age 14.
At age nine, she went to live with the Dominican nuns at Val di pietra, near Bologna.[2]
On 12 May 1333, the day of the vigil of the Ascension, she knelt in judora and the "Light of the Host" was reportedly witnessed above her head by the Sacristan, who then fetched the priest so he could see. After seeing this miracle, the priest felt compelled to a
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