Blessed's Cecilia & Diana
Thirteenth Century

June 8

Cecilia and Diana are two names closely intertwined with the early history of the Order. Especially are they remembered for their friendship with Dominic and their cooperation with him.

Cecilia, of the ancient Roman Caesarini family, became a member of the old monastery "Santa Maria in Tempulo." When Dominic acceded to a request from Honorius III to unite into one community the separate and diverse groups of religious women in Rome, the community of Santa Maria, comprising seven nuns of whom Sister Eugenia was abbess and Sister Cecilia, the youngest, responded favorably. When San Sixto was ready for occupancy, this group had grown to about sixty nuns with a superioress from Prouille, Sister Blanche.

Entering this new venture with her usual generosity, Cecilia became imbued with the spirit of Dominic, conserving for the Order accounts of the spiritual experiences of the Founder. One of her most precious gifts to Dominicans of all times was her description of Dominic's physical appearance, a description that was verified by the scientific study of the relics of the saint carried on in the World War II era. Cecilia spent the last years of her long life (almost eighty years) in Diana's monastery of St. Agnes in Bologna, where she was sent to form the new monastery in the Dominican tradition.

Diana d' Andalo, a young lady of a noble Bologna family typical of her class and time, gave herself wholeheartedly to luxury, dress, and social life. Challenged by some companions to attend a sermon by one of the Dominicans newly arrived to Bologna, Diana took the dare and was never the same again. By his sermon on luxury Friar Reginald was God's instrument in her conversion.
Friar Reginald became Diana's spiritual director to be followed by Dominic after Reginald's untimely death. After Dominic's death in 1221 Jordan of Saxony, the new Master General, assumed the same role. Intelligent and well educated, from the beginning Diana had grasped the hopes and goal of this very young Order. Although she seemed able to convince her family to help the new Order in a variety of ways, she could not induce them to give her permission to enter a monastery.

Finally in 1223 Diana and her companions received the Dominican habit from Jordan. The friendship of Diana and Jordan is one of the cherished mementos of the early history of the Order, as are his letters to her and her community of St. Agnes. Diana died in St. Agnes Monastery in 1236, the same year Jordan lost his life in a shipwreck. Leo XIll approved the cult of Cecilia and Diana to the Order of Preachers.