![[portrait of Blessed Villana]](saintv92.jpg "13kb jpg detail from a portrait of Blessed Villana by Fra Angelico; please do not write to ask about the image")
28 February 29 January (Dominicans)
The rejection at the convent and the marriage seemed to change Villana. She suddenly became lazy and wordly, concerned only with pleasure. One day as she was getting dressed for type of entertainment her reflection in all her mirrors suddenly changed to a demon. Villana understood this to be a reflection of her sin-laden soul She tore off her clothes, put on something poor and simple, and ran to Dominican Fathers of Santa Maria Novella for help.
She became a Dominican tertiary, concentrated on her vocation of married life, and spent her free time praying and reading Scripture and the lives of the saints. Her desire to atone for her earlier life sometimes overwhelmed her, and her husband and family had to stop her begging door to door and doing other penances. She was given to religious ecstasies at Mass, but became the object of much ridicult and slander. Her health suffered, but she received visions of Our Lady and the saints, and had the gift of prophecy. Even her fiercest opponents eventually came to see her as a living saint.
Biographisch-Bibliographischen Kirchenlexikons deutsch Catholic Online Kirken i Norge norwegian Santi, Beati e Testimoni italiano The Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Brunson