St. Bona of Pisa


Today's saint of the day is St. Bona of Pisa (1156 - 1207). She was a mystic and visionary. Bona experienced visions from early childhood, in one of which she was blessed by Saint James the Greater. By the age 10 of ten she dedicated herself as an Augustinian tertiary. She regularly fasted from an early age, taking only bread and water three days a week.

At the age of 14, she made the first of her many journeys, travelling to see her father who was fighting in the Crusades near Jerusalem. On her way home, she was captured and imprisoned by Islamic pirates in the Mediterranean, but was rescued by her countrymen. She made pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela and to Spain nine times, leading groups of pilgrims each time. On her final pilgrimage, she became very ill, but was able to return to Pisa and died in her little room near the church of San Martino at the age of 51.

She is the patron saint of travellers, couriers, guides, pilgrims, flight attendants, and the city of Pisa.
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