Jacqueline

Biography

She received the Poverello in her Roman palace on the Palatine Hill and made him almond custard that delighted the great saint. According to Saint Bonaventure, he gave her a lamb that followed her to the church, stayed by her side while she prayed, and accompanied her back to her home. If it took her a while to get up in the morning, he would come over to caress her with his head and bleat softly in her ear. On the eve of his death, Saint Francis dictated a letter to Jacqueline: "Dear friend, I let you know that the end of my life is near, as the blessed Christ has allowed me to know. Get on your way if you want to see me again. Bring with you a sheet of rough cloth to shroud my body and what is necessary for burial. Bring also, I beg you, that delicious thing that you fed me when I was sick in Rome..." At that moment of the dictation the voice was heard. noise of a horse. It was Jacqueline who arrived followed by her two children. God had inspired him in prayer to leave for Assisi in haste. He carried everything necessary to bury his friend: a veil to cover his face, the pillow where his head would rest in the coffin, the rough cloth sheet that would cover his body, and enough wax for the funeral. He also brought that custard that he loved, Francisco died without trying it, and it was Bernardo de Quintaville, his “firstborn in Christ” who, at his request, drank it. Jacqueline spent her last years in Umbria, to be close to those who had known Saint Francis. She was buried not far from him in the great basilica of Assisi.