Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/87

73 B. ANNA 7a de Tonnes, Teresa lay the last hour of her life with her head on Annans shoulder, and died in her arms. Having served her apprenticeship under this great reformer and founder, Anna went to France, about 1004, and founded houses of the same Order of Barefooted Carmelites at Tours and Pontoise. In 1611 she was sent for by Albert and Isabel, to found a monastery at Antwerp. There she remained until her death in 1G26, four years after the canonization of her mistress, aged seventy-six. The Life of St Jane de CAanto/, written by her niece Mother Chaugy, says, " Mother Anne of St. Bartholomew, who is now held to be a saint, had a vision respecting the Congregation of the Visitation, more than four years before its foundation. Madame de Chantal one day told her that she often wished to enter the Order of Eeformed Carmelites. Anna said, her daughter. You will have so many daughters of your own that you will be the companion of our blessed Mother. God has work for you to do through the Bishop of Geneva.' " Anna was regarded as a saint by the people of Antwerp. When her body was laid in the church, before burial, they came and touched it with more than twenty thousand rosaries and images. Next day the people from all the country round came to honour the saint and derive some benefit from touching her sacred remains. She is not canonized. She is called " Venerable " by Butler and Dalton, also by the Bol- landists, who relate that her heavenly intercessions twice saved the city of Antwerp from imminent danger in sieges. Cahier, quoting Terwecorin, Precis Hisioriques, says that, after her death, the mnnicipal body of Antwerp went every year in procession, carrying candles, to her convent, to acknowledge solemnly that they owed their deliverance to her prayers. She is mentioned several times in St Teresa's account of her Founda-- iions. In 1 73.5 Clement XII. permitted proceedings for her canonization to be put in hand. Guerin, Petits BoUandistes. Anna (29) Toussaint de Volvire, Feb. 22, of a noble family of Bretagne, 1053-1694, called Sainte Anne, also the Saint of N^ant. Neant was her parish (dep. Morbihan). She built the hospital of Ploermel. Pettts BoUandistes, xv. B. Anna (30) Maria Taigi, June 9. 1769-1837. 3rd Order of Trinitarians. Bepresented looking up to a sun. Anna Maria Antonietta Gesulda was born at Siena. Her father was Luigi Pietro Gesulda, a chemist. In 1775 he was ruined by his own fault. The family, being reduced to extreme poverty, re- moved on foot to Home. Gesulda and his wife became servants. Their little girl worked in a silk factory. She married Domenico Taigi, a servant in the noble family of Chigi. Anna Maria was fond of dress and amusement, especially theatrical entertainments* These frivolous tastes facilitated the wicked designs of an old libertine who, with great patience and cleverness, pursued her with unholy attentions,, until a day came when her passion for finery delivered her into his hands. From that day her existence was em- bittered by shame and regret. The whole of her after-life was an incessant penance for this sin. Her husband's presence was a continual reproach to her, and she bore all his exactions and caprices with great humility. She had four sons and three daughters, whom she brought up very carefully and piously. She dutifully cared for and waited on her father and mother as long as they lived. She was naturally inclined to gluttony, and mortified this temptation with great ardour and self-denial, especially by going for days together without drinking. In 1798 the Taigi were reduced almost to destitution, in consequence of the attempt of the French to establish a republic in Bome, which took away the means of subsistence from the poorer classes. The Chigi were unable to pay the wages of so many servants, and they were thrown upon the charity of those who had anything left to give. From the time of her conversion and the beginning of her penitent life, Anna always saw before her what she described as a sun. It was of the size that the real sun in the heavens appears to our ordinary sight, of extreme brightness^
 * No. St. Teresa will not have you as