Life
Baptista Varani was born and died at Camerino, in the March of Ancona. Her father, Julius Caesar Varano or de Varanis, Duke of Camerino, belonged to an illustrious family; her mother, Joanna Malatesta, was a daughter of Sigismund, the Lord of Rimini. At baptism she received the name of Camilla. Of the first ten and the last twenty-three years of her life little or nothing is known; our knowledge of the intervening years is derived almost entirely from her own writings. This revelation of herself was brought about through the influence of her confessor, Peter of Mogliano, Minister provincial of the Friars Minor in the Marches (1490). It seems to have been the eloquence of friar Peter that brought about the "conversion" of Camilla, who, for a time at least, appears to have been captivated by the glamor of the world. Her father did all in his power to force his daughter into marriage, even to the extent of imprisoning her. But Camilla resisted his plans so firmly that after two years and a half he restored her to liberty, for fear, as he said, of drawing upon himself divine vengeance, and gave his consent to her becoming a nun.
On 14 November 1481, Camilla entered the monastery of the Poor Clares at Urbino. Not long afterwards her father founded a new monastery of that Order at Camerino, and presented it to his daughter. Baptista introduced the Primitive Observance of the Rule there, and thenceforth her vigorous and impressive personality found scope not only in the administration of this monastery, of which she became the first abbess, but also in the production of various literary works.
Baptista died on the feast of Corpus Christi, and was buried in the choir of her monastery.
Devotion to Blessed Baptista was approved by Pope Gregory XVI in 1843, and her feast was kept in the Franciscan Order on 2 June.
Pope Benedict XVI canonised her on 17 October 2010.
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