Mystic

Born Giovanna Borg in Birkirkara, daughter of Carmelo and Maria née Fenech, following the early deaths of her mother and stepmother, she was raised by the Piccole Suore of Ħamrun.

She entered the monastery of Saint Ursola in Valletta in 1912, and received the name Veronica del Volto Santo in April 1913. Her confessor, the renowned saintly priest Dun Alfred Gatt and various nuns of her monastery would later narrate the mystical way of her life, stating among others that she is said to have received various apparitions in her dreams.

Taking her solemn vows on 3 May, 1917, a severe illness cut short her life at the early age of 27 in 1918 as she had predicted following one of her dreams.

Although she died without a confessor in the middle of the night, at the Monastery of St Ursola, Valletta, Sister Giovanna Cefai dreamed that night that she saw a priest donned with a stole. He first said that Sr Veronica was in agony and on his second apparition, that she was dead. The nuns have it that the priest was Saint Camillo de Lellis to whom Sister Veronica was particularly devoted.

According to Rev Dionysius Mintoff, due to her illness she was not buried in the monastery as was customary among cloistered nuns, but at the Santa Maria Addolorata Cemetery.

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.