A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Abundantia (2)
St. Abundantia (2), V. Jan. 19 and July 15. † 804. Represented as a child, before the image of the Virgin Mary, receiving a golden apple from the Infant Jesus. Born at Spoleto, of parents who had long been childless. Her birth was announced by the spontaneous ringing of tho bells of the town. At her baptism lamps were lighted without human hands. One day, when about eight years of age, she was seized with a longing for a golden apple she saw in the hand of an image of the Infant Christ in His mother's arms. He gave it to her. She ran to fetch Him a bouquet in return, and although it was mid-winter, she found plenty of beautiful flowers, which she gathered and presented to the Holy Child. Majolo, or Nicholas, abbot of St. Mark's, at Spoleto, undertook her education. He took her to Palestine, where she remained some years. She spent five years as a recluse in the cave of St. Onuphrius, and then, as her father kept constantly asking to have her home again, she returned to Spoleto. At her father's death she gave all her inheritance to the poor. The same mysterious ringing of bells which hailed her birth was also heard at her death, in 804; and where her funeral passed, leaves and flowers burst forth in January, and angels wore heard to sing Veni sponsa Christi. She performed miracles of healing in life and after her death. Ferrarius, Catalogus, Jan. 19. Bucelinus, Men, Ben., July 15. Guérin, Dec. 25. Cahier, Caractéristiques, "Images." Pétin, Dic. Hag.