ife, in Bollandus, t. 1, p. 890.

A.D. 1497.

ALL states furnish abundant means for attaining to sanctity and
Christian perfection, and it is only, owing to our sloth and tepidity
that we neglect to make use of them. This saint could boast of no
worldly advantages either by birth or fortune.[1] Her parents maintained
their family by hard labor in a village near Milan, and were both very
pious; her father never sold a horse, or any thing else he dealt in,
without being more careful to acquaint the purchaser with all that was
secretly faulty in it, than to recommend its good qualities. His narrow
circumstances prevented his giving his daughter any schooling, so that
she never learned to read; but his own, and his devout wife's example,
and fervent though simple instructions, filled her tender heart from the
cradle with lively sentiments of virtue. The pious {136} maid from her
infancy applied herself to continual prayer, was very attentive to the
instructions given in the catechism; and the uninterrupted consideration
of the holy mysteries, and the important truths of religion, engrossed
her whole soul to themselves. She was, notwithstanding, of all others,
the most diligent and indefatigable in labor; and so obedient to her
parents and masters, even in the smallest trifles, so humble and
submissive to her equals, that she seemed to have no will of her own.
Her food was coarse and very sparing, and her drink the same which the
poorer sort of people used in that country, water, except sometimes
whey, or a little milk. At her work she continually conversed in her
heart with God; insomuch that in company she seemed deaf to their
discourses, mirth, and music. When she was weeding, reaping, or at any
other labor in the fields, she strove to work at a distance from her
companions, to entertain herself the more freely with her heavenly
spouse. The rest admired her love of solitude, and on coming to her,
always found her countenance cheerful, yet often bathed in tears, which
they sometimes perceived to flow in great abundance; though they did not
know the source to be devotion: so carefully did Veronica conceal what
passed in her soul between her and God.

Through a divine call to a religious and conventual state of life, she
conceived a great desire to become a nun, in the poor, austere, and
edifying convent of St. Martha, of the order of St. Austin in Milan. To
qualify herself for this state, being busied the whole day at wor