Osanna of Cattaro

Osanna of Cattaro (Ozana Kotorska)
Blessed Osanna of Cattaro
Virgin, Mystic, and Anchoress
Born	25 November 1493 Relezi [1] or Kumano,[2] Principality of Zeta/Montenegro
Died	27 April 1565 Cattaro (Kotor), Albania Veneta (Republic of Venice)
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	1928 (cultus confirmed) 1934 (beatified) by Pope Pius XI
Feast	27 April
Patronage	Kotor, Montenegro

Blessed Osanna of Cattaro (known in Serbian as Ozana Kotorska, birth name Jovana^[3]) was a Catholic Dominican tertiary, visionary, anchoress, and convert from Orthodoxy ^[4] of Serbian descent^[5] from Montenegro.

Life

Jovana Kosić^[6] was born in a village in Zeta to a Serb Orthodox^[4] priestly family, and was baptized in that tradition. Her father was priest Pero Kosić, brother of Marko Kosić, who later became a monk with the name of "Makarije" and later became Orthodox Serbian Bishop of Zeta. The name of her grandfather was Aleksa Kosić, an Orthodox priest as well, just like her great grandfather Đuro Kosić. She was a shepherdess in her youth, and developed the habit of spending her solitary hours in prayer. A story says that one day while watching the flocks, she saw a child lying asleep on the grass. Attracted by its beauty, she went to pick up the baby, but it disappeared, leaving Jovana with a feeling of great loneliness.^[2]

Jovana continued to have these apparitions. When she was 14 years old, her visions began to be followed by an odd desire to travel to the coastal Venetian town of Cattaro in Albania Veneta (Bay of Kotor, modern-day Montenegro), where she felt she could pray better. Her mother did not understand, and grudgingly arranged a position for Jovana as a servant to a the wealthy renown Catholic Bucca family, who allowed the girl as much time as she wished for church visits. In Cattaro, Katarina abandoned Serbian Orthodoxy and converted to Roman Catholicism, and took the name Katarina (Catherine Cosie).^[2][4] Katarina learned to read and write during her free time. She read religious books in both Latin and Italian, especially the Holy Scriptures.^[1]

In her late teens, Katarina felt a call to live the life of an anchoress. Though she was considered very young for such a calling, her spiritual director had her walled up in a cell built near Saint Bartholomew's church in Cattaro. It had a window through which Katarina could hear Mass and another window to which people would occasionally come to ask for prayers or give food. Katarina made the customary promises of stability and the door was sealed.^[2]

After an earthquake destroyed her first hermitage, she moved to a cell at Saint Paul's church, and became a Dominican tertiary, taking the name Osanna in memory of Blessed Osanna of Mantua. She would follow the Dominican rule for the last 52 years of her life. A group of Dominican sisters took up residence near her, consulting her for guidance, and came to consider her their leader. Osanna soon had so many followers that a convent was founded for them.^[4]

In her tiny cell, it is said that Osanna received many visions. These included the Christ as a baby, the Virgin Mary, several saints. Once the Devil appeared to her in the form of the Blessed Virgin and told her to modify her penances. By obedience to her confessor, Osanna managed to penetrate this clever disguise and vanquish this enemy.^[2][4]

A convent of sisters founded at Cattaro regarded her as their foundress because of her prayers, although she never actually saw the place. When the city was attacked on 9 August 1539 by Khair ad-Din Barbarossa, and Cattaro was threatened, the citizens of Cattaro ran to her for help.^[1] They credited their deliverance to her prayers and counsel. And yet another time, her prayers were credited to saving them from the plague.^[2]

Veneration

The incorrupt body of Blessed Osanna was kept in the Church of St. Paul until 1807, when the French Army converted the church into a warehouse. Her body was then brought to the Church of St. Mary. The people of Kotor venerated her as a saint. In 1905, the process for her beatification began in Kotor and was successfully completed in Rome. In 1927, Pope Pius XI approved her cultus,^[1] and in 1934, she was formally beatified.^[4]

Over the course of her holy life, the people of Kotor came to call her "the trumpet of the Holy Spirit" and the "teacher of mysticism." People from all walks of life came to her for advice, and she interceded particularly for peace in the town and among feuding families. Therefore, she was also called "the Virgin Reconciler" and the "Angel of Peace."^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "The Blessed Hosanna of Kotor (Ozana)". Croatian Conference of Bishops. http://www.hbk.hr/katcrkva/eng/opce/sveci/ozana.html. Retrieved 2007-04-21. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Rabenstein, Katherine (April 1999). "Blessed Hosanna of Cattaro, OP Tert. V (AC)". Saints O' the Day for April 27. Archived from the original on 2007-02-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20070206175453/http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0427.htm#hosa. Retrieved 2007-04-20. 
3. ^ S. Razzi, La vita della beata Osanna da Cattaro, Florenz 1592; AS XX, 39-42. (first personal biographer of Osanna)
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Jones, Terry. "Hosanna of Cattaro". Patron Saints Index. http://catholic-forum.com/saints/sainth5o.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-20. 
5. ^ Blažena Ozana Kotorka, Don Niko Luković, Kotor, 1965. (most detailed biography of Ozana Kotorska)
   

   “

   Blažena Ozana Kotorska rođena je 1493 – selo Relezi – Lješanska nahija, čobanica, od srpskih roditelja

   ”

6. ^ S. Razzi, La vita della beata Osanna da Cattaro, Florenz 1592; AS XX, 39-42.

External links

• Patron Saints Index: Blessed Hosanna of Cattaro
• Beata Osanna di Cattaro (Italian)
• Den salige Hosanna av Kotor (Norwegian)

Persondata
Name	Osanna Of Cattaro
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	25 November 1493
Place of birth	Relezi or Kumano, Principality of Zeta/Montenegro
Date of death	27 April 1565
Place of death	Cattaro (Kotor), Albania Veneta (Republic of Venice)