MYSTICS IN OUR LIFETIME

I am always interested in learning more about modern day mystics- we all know of Sts. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, but what about these modern saints and  yet to be named saints, who I think keep the world going.  Remember Abraham asking God not to  destroy the  world if there were ten just men?

 EDVIGE CARBON was recently named Venerable by the Holy Father. Born in Sardinia in 1880,   she became well-known among the faithful and religious alike for her ecstasies and angelic visions. She kept an extensive spiritual journal in which she recorded appearances from Jesus well as many saints.

Her mother recalled Edvige's birth and told her that on that occasion she had seen a luminous host in the monstrance and said because of this : "If I die, you must receive Holy Communion every day and you should be very good, because Jesus, a few moments after you were born, showed me a host, as I have told you".

Another odd phenomenon that took place after her birth was a supernatural branding of the Cross on her breast formed from her own flesh.

With her Family

Her mother taught her embroidery as a child and she later worked with her father in the embroidery business. She also spent time in the convent of the Sisters of Saint Vincent in Alghero where the nuns led a course in embroidery. Her mother's frail health saw her tend to the education and care of her younger siblings as well as other domestic duties.

Edvige wanted to become a nun in 1895 but her mother disapproved of it and she took this disapproval as a sign of the will of God.  From 1896 her visions of Jesus and Mary became ever more frequent. She became a professed member of the Third Order of Saint Francis in 1906 and belonged to an association known as the Friends of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus. She began recording her thoughts in a spiritual journal. Her mother died in 1910 and her responsibilities tripled.

Her spiritual gifts included  the reading of hearts as well as the discernment of spirits. She received the stigmata – for she wanted to suffer for the glory of God.

She had visions of St. Gemma Galgani,  whom she admired, having  attended her canonization in 1940. She also had visits from St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, despite the fact that the priest was in fact alive. Padre Pio knew of  her and referred to her as a "saint".

In 1934  she settled in Rome in 1938 where she taught catechism and ministered to the poor and sick.  She  died of angina pectoris in 1952.

Edvige Carboni was an extraordinary mystic. She spent her life between the natural and the supernatural; between the human and the divine.  Jesus, Mary and the saints appeared to her almost daily. 

In our own lifetime there are many very holy people -  a wonderful sign of hope in the Church and the world- some we will never know!