Blessed Diana degli Andalò

Diana degli Andalò, OP (1201 – 10 June 1236), sometimes d'Andalo, was a Dominican nun who founded a convent in Italy dedicated to Saint Agnes. Diana d'Andalò was born into a powerful Roman family in Bologna, Italy in 1201. She is described as having been "rather spoiled". She was "of outstanding beauty", charming, eloquent, well-educated, high spirited, courageous, and had good judgment. Dominican scholar Gerald Vann writes that she was "full of the joy of living, full too of the joy of her own beauty and the power it gave her". In 1218, Diana heard the Dominican scholar and preacher Reginald of Orleans speak in Bologna. His sermons inspired her to give up her "worldliness" and devote herself to prayer. Following Reginald's advice, she remained at her family's home and continued to wear the clothes appropriate to her standing, although she wore an iron chain and hairshirt under them. In 1219, Saint Dominic came to Bologna; he received her vow of virginity and she proclaimed her intention to join the Dominican order as soon as a convent was established in Bologna. She persuaded her father to purchase the lands to build a convent, but he refused to allow her to enter it, probably because the family intended that she marry into another prominent family, and the bishop denied permission to build on the site chosen. In 1222, she ran away to an Augustinian convent in Ronzano. Her family forcibly retrieved her and brought her back home; one of her ribs was broken, an almost fatal injury from which she never fully recovered. Dominic died shortly afterwards, but after she recovered from her injuries, she again escaped to Ronzano in 1223; her family did not come after her a second time. Shortly after Dominic's death, his successor Jordan of Saxony met Diana when he came to Bologna. With his assistance, Diana reconciled with her family, her father agreed to allow her to enter religious life, and the bishop agreed to another site for the convent.