Blessed Colomba of Rieti

Colomba was born in Rieti in 1467 and became a Dominican tertiary in 1486.  She had a special devotion to St Catherine of Siena, whom she sought to emulate.  She moved to Perugia in 1488 and joined the community of Dominican tertiaries in the nunnery dedicated to St Catherine of Siena that later became the Monastero della Beata Colomba.  

Colomba arrived in a city that was convulsed by the war between the Baglioni and the Oddi families, and she intervened on a number of occasions to promote peace.  She developed a reputation for prophecy and also for her charitable work, particularly during the outbreak of plague in 1494.  However, she was disgraced as an impostor shortly thereafter.  

Fortunately, she  had impressed Cesare Borgia when had been a student in the city and he defended her before his father, Pope Alexander VI.  The Pope traveled to Perugia to see her in 1495 and, despite the fact that she first went into a fit of religious ecstasy at his feet and then revived sufficiently to castigate him for his sinfulness, he reinstated her.  

Blessed Colomba was elected prioress of the nunnery in 1497 and died there in 1501.