Blessed Osanna of Cattaro

Osanna of Cattaro (Serbian: Озана Которска, romanized: Ozana Kotorska; 25 November 1493 – 27 April 1565) was a Catholic visionary and anchoress from Cattaro. She was a convert from Orthodoxy of Serbian descent from Montenegro. She became a Dominican tertiary and was first venerated in Kotor. She was later beatified in 1934. Osanna was born in the village of Relezi in Zeta to an Eastern Orthodox priestly family named Kosić and was baptized "Jovana" in that tradition. Her father was priest Pero Kosić and her uncle was Marko Kosić, a monk who later became Eastern Orthodox Bishop of Zeta. Her grandfather Aleksa Kosić and her great grandfather Đuro Kosić were also Orthodox priests. She was a shepherdess in her youth, and developed the habit of spending her solitary hours in prayer. A story says that one day while watching the flocks, she saw a child lying asleep on the grass. Attracted by its beauty, she went to pick up the baby, but it disappeared, leaving Osanna with a feeling of great loneliness. Osanna continued to witness these apparitions. When she was 14 years old, her visions began to be followed by an odd desire to travel to the coastal Venetian town of Cattaro in Albania Veneta (Bay of Kotor, modern-day Montenegro), where she felt she could pray better. Her mother did not understand, and grudgingly arranged a position for Osanna as a servant to the wealthy Catholic Buća family, who allowed the girl as much time as she wished for church visits. In Cattaro, Osanna abandoned Eastern Orthodoxy and converted to Roman Catholicism, and took the name Katarina (Catherine Cosie). Osanna learned to read and write during her free time. She read religious books in both Latin and Italian, especially the Bible. In her late teens, Osanna felt a call to live the life of an anchoress. Though she was considered very young for such a calling, her spiritual director had her walled up in a cell built near Saint Bartholomew's church in Cattaro.