Bl. Osanna of Cattaro

Osanna was born Katarina Kosić in 1493 in Montenegro, to Orthodox Christian parents, and spent her childhood herding the family's sheep. As a young woman she went to work as a servant for a Catholic family in Kotor (Cattaro in Italian), on the Adriatic coast, and became a Catholic.

She joined the lay branch of the Dominicans and lived for fifty-one years as an anchoress, walled into a small cell beside a church, praying for her city. Kotor was threatened by Ottoman attacks during her lifetime, and the townspeople came to her for prayer and advice. She died in 1565. Her cult was confirmed in 1927, and her body is in the church of St Mary in Kotor.

Legend and tradition. Her biographers say that as a shepherd girl she saw Christ first as a child and then crucified.

Osanna of Cattaro was beatified in 1934 by Pius XI.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.