Justina of Arezzo

Born at Arezzo about the middle of the thirteenth century, she entered religion at thirteen against her parents' will, among the Benedictines of San Marco. Four years later she moved to the monastery of All Saints, and the movement never stopped: always seeking more silence, she ended by leaving the cloister for a hermit's cell near the castle of Civitella, in the Val di Chiana, where a recluse named Lucia already lived. She tended her until her death and stayed on alone. Around thirty-five her sight weakened, then failed altogether: she spent the last twenty years of her life blind. That is what brought her back to the city — not to be treated, but to have herself walled up again, against the monastery of Sant'Antonio first; then, in 1316, she was chosen with four companions to open a new monastery in the city, called Le Murate, beside the church of Santa Maria del Ponte. Her reputation came from there: people came to ask her for the healing of their eyes — the very eyes she had lost herself. She died on 12 March 1319. A Life was written soon after; Leo XIII confirmed her cult in 1891.