Blessed Bienvenue Boiani (1255-1292)

According to the santiebeati biography, Corrado Bojani (or Boiani), a noble lord of Cividale del Friuli, was eagerly awaiting the birth of his seventh child after six daughters, and ardently hoped for a boy. The servants hardly dared announce the arrival of a seventh little girl, fearing to disappoint him too deeply. When he learned of it, he simply exclaimed: "Sia anch'essa la benvenuta" ("May she too be welcome"). From this exclamation, according to tradition, the little girl took the name Benvenuta, a name already borne by several ancestresses of the Bojani family. Sons were born afterwards, and the family line continued as Corrado had wished.^[6]

The Italian Wikipedia sums up the same episode: "ultima delle sette figlie di Corrado e Albertina di Buttinico". The mother is thus named Albertina di Buttinico; neither source gives her birth date nor her family of origin.^[7]

A single sentence of the necrology of the Dominican convent of Cividale describes her: beside the name of Benvenuta appears a brief but eloquent funeral eulogy: "Visse devotamente nello spirito" ("She lived devoutly in the spirit"). This is the only ancient document invoked by either notice.^[8]

From her earliest childhood, the girl, drawn to prayer and solitude, began the ascetic life that would lead her to the heights of holiness. She consecrated herself in particular to the Blessed Virgin Mary and showed her deep love by tirelessly repeating the Ave Maria, which then consisted of the angelic salutation alone: before the age of seven, she was in the habit of repeating a thousand times a day the words of the Angel Gabriel, accompanying them with genuflections and deep inclinations. This devotion continued, and the custom remained in those parts for centuries, especially when people wished to obtain a particular grace from the Virgin.^[9]

To devote herself to her practices of piety undisturbed, Benvenuta had built herself at the far end of the house garden a little hermitage, where, hidden by the tall grass, she could freely lift to the Virgin a gaze full of love, in the neighbouring sanctuary of the Madonna del Monte. At twelve years old, she consecrated herself to God by making the vow of chastity.^[10]

Santiebeati states that it was "perhaps" on this occasion that she entered the Dominican Third Order, and immediately adds: "benché non ci sia uno scritto che documenti la data della sua entrée" ("though no writing documents the date of her entry"). This article therefore fixes no date of entry into religious life: all we know is that she received the habit of the Third Order and imitated, in vigils and fasts, the religious of the Order. The Italian Wikipedia presents her as "Vergine del Terz'Ordine della penitenza di San Domenico", with no further chronological detail.^[11][12]

She then spent long periods at the monastery of La Cella, of the Second Order of Saint Dominic, without ever entering the community. Her life remained essentially contemplative, even within her family: those around her, knowing the supernatural communications with which she was favoured, counted themselves happy to relieve her of the daily necessities of material life.^[13]

Setting out on the path of extraordinary penance, the young girl sought to practise fasts, abstinences and nocturnal flagellations without drawing too much attention from her family. She did not even disclose to her confessor the extraordinary mortifications she imposed on herself, until the day she found herself in grave danger because of a cord that had entered her side, producing unbearable wounds. Unwilling to resort to human means that would have exposed her penance, she turned in faith to God to deliver her, and suddenly saw the intact cord lying on the ground at her feet.^[14]

After this episode, the holy patriarch Dominic appeared to her, ordering her to reveal her whole life to her confessor. Benvenuta obeyed, not without great effort, and the confessor forbade her the use of such instruments of penance. The account states that Dominic himself pointed out to her the Dominican to whom she was to turn, and who directed her all her life.^[15]

Her health was now undermined: for five years, she remained almost totally motionless, incapable of any movement, martyred by asthma and by a severe trembling of the hands. She was furthermore tormented by the assaults of the demons, who harassed her with continual temptations to make her fall into despair, disturbed her prayer with blasphemies and obscene songs, and struck her on the body: she always came out victorious by invoking the Blessed Virgin Mary with extreme confidence.^[16]

In this period of total physical dependence, her greatest grief was not being able to attend Holy Mass or the singing of the Salve Regina after Compline, in the church of San Domenico. Her sister Maria, helped by some generous neighbours, offered to carry her on their shoulders to church, at least every Sunday. Benvenuta, aware of such hardship, came after some time to think it selfish to accept such a service, and prayed to Our Lady to heal her, making a vow, in case of healing, to go on foot to the tomb of Saint Dominic at Bologna.^[17]

She received her healing in the church itself, in the presence of all the people, on the day of the Annunciation, the feast she held in special predilection. She set out at once for Bologna to fulfil her vow, accompanied by her sister Maria: she passed through Venice and Padua, where she was able to meet Fr Corrado, often absent from Cividale on duties of the Order, who obtained from his spiritual daughter the revelation of all the heavenly graces with which she had been favoured. The Italian Wikipedia sums up: "Guarita, si recò in pellegrinaggio sulla tomba di san Domenico a Bologna."^[18][19]

Back with her family, she resumed her accustomed life of contemplation, visions and penances. The life of Benvenuta was essentially contemplative, even while living with her own. Her ecstasies almost always had a character of gladness: she lived, so to speak, immersed in the joyful mysteries. The author of the first manuscript on her life recounts that only once, during Holy Week, did Benvenuta live through the sufferings and anguish of her Saviour, but that at the coming of Easter she knew a multiplied outpouring of heavenly bliss.^[20]

Once, at Christmas, she obtained from the Blessed Virgin Mary to hold in her arms, for a prolonged time, the Divine Child. On another occasion, in the church near her house, she was granted to meet a little child who revealed himself to be the little Jesus. From the Virgin Mary she also received the promise that she would come out victorious from the terrible battle the demons would unleash against her as her death approached.^[21]

The account conforms to this promise: having fallen gravely ill and reached her last moments, the cunning enemy deeply troubled her by insinuating the terrible persuasion that all her penances and prayers had been inspired by intimate pride, and that she was therefore abandoned by God and condemned to hell. Those present understood, from the change in her face, that something terribly anguishing was tearing her soul: from her lips came without interruption a single invocation: "Maria, Maria!". That name put the enemy to flight, and she expired in heavenly peace, on 30 October 1292.^[22]

Santiebeati adds that she died "a trentotto anni", at thirty-eight, in her native town of Cividale. The calculation made with the year 1255 gives 37 years; with 1254, 38. The mention of 38 years leans toward 1254 without the sources deciding explicitly: this article draws no conclusion from it.^[23][24]

She was buried in the church of San Domenico in Cividale, where the sepulchre of her family stood. From the beginning, numerous healings were obtained through her intercession. In the early days, a dazzling light, of unexplained origin, sometimes marked the place of her tomb by night, or else stood above the whole church.^[25]

In 1447, when the Dominicans obtained permission to open her tomb, her body was not found, despite repeated searches. This fact did not prevent her cult from remaining alive. The church of San Domenico itself was demolished in 1807 (Italian Wikipedia). Pope Clement XIII, by decree of 6 February 1765, declared her blessed and confirmed her cult with that title. Her eulogy is read in the Roman Martyrology on 30 October.^{[26][27][28][29]}

Three points deserve to be stated openly, rather than smoothed over:

1. The birth year diverges. 4 May 1255 is the date of the Italian Wikipedia and of the santiebeati header; 4 May 1254 is that of the santiebeati biography. The mention of "38 years" at the time of death rather goes with 1254. No source invoked here decides, and this article does not choose.^[30][31]
2. The spelling of the family name diverges. Boiani (Italian Wikipedia, santiebeati header); Bojani (santiebeati biography, domenicani.net source). Boiani is retained for the title of this article.^[32][33]
3. The date of entry into the Third Order is not documented. Santiebeati writes "forse" and adds that no writing dates the entry. Only the death is attested in the necrology of the Cividale convent. No date of entry is therefore given here.^[34]

The detailed narrative source is unique: the santiebeati biography, explicitly attributed to www.domenicani.net. The Italian Wikipedia is a summary of it, referring to the Bibliotheca Sanctorum by Sadoc M. Bertucci. The episodes of the cord, of the healing on the Annunciation, of the journey through Venice and Padua, of the vision of the Christ Child and of the final invocation "Maria, Maria!" are read only in that biography; they are reported here as such, without being corroborated by a second independent account.^[35][36][37]

The sources of this notice are modern: the Italian Wikipedia ("Benvenuta Boiani") and notice 90412 of santiebeati.it, whose biography is attributed to www.domenicani.net (page "Aggiunto/modificato il 28 ottobre 2022"). The scholarly reference cited by the Italian Wikipedia is the Bibliotheca Sanctorum, vol. III (1963), col. 230-231 (Sadoc M. Bertucci). The decree of Clement XIII of 6 February 1765 is attested by both notices and by the Index ac status causarum (1999), p. 414; the eulogy of 30 October by the Martirologio romano (2004), p. 841. The only ancient document invoked is the necrology of the Dominican convent of Cividale, with the sentence "Visse devotamente nello spirito"; no ancient life is cited. The photographs are views of Cividale del Friuli: no image of the church of San Domenico, demolished in 1807, exists in Wikimedia Commons. No detail has been added to the file.^{[38][39][40][41][42]}

• Saint Dominic (1170-1221): founder of the Order of Preachers, who appeared to Bienvenue to bring her back to obedience.
• Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380): another virgin of the Dominican Third Order, a century later.
• The Annunciation of the Lord (25 March): feast of Bienvenue's healing, which she held in predilection.