Juliana's father had built the noble church of the Annunziata in Florence at his own expense. It was claimed that the first words she ever spoke were the names of Jesus and Mary, though the source calls this an exaggeration of the fact that she learned those names early. She was so devout as a child that her uncle, Blessed Alexis, told her mother she had brought an angel into the world.

At fifteen she gave up her inheritance, refused to marry, and took religious vows before St Philip Benizi, and she founded the Mantellates. Her mother joined them and became her daughter's disciple in religious life. Philip thought so highly of Juliana that at his death he entrusted the management of his Servite Order to her.

She spent her days in prayer and often fell into ecstasies. She ate only four times a week, and on Saturdays only bread and water. This severe diet ruined her digestion, and she suffered from her stomach for the rest of her life. In her long last illness she could not keep food down and so could not receive Communion. Grieved, she asked the priest to lay the Host on her breast. According to her biographer, who wrote more than two hundred years later, the Host vanished and its imprint was found on her flesh after her death. The story spread through Florence and she was venerated as a saint.

Her father had erected, at his sole cost, in the town ol Florence, the noble church of the Annunziata. It is pretended that the first words Juliana uttered, even before she learned to call her father and mother, were the sacred names of Jesus and Mary, but this is no doubt an exaggeration of the fact that she learned these names at an early age. She showed such precocious signs of piety that her uncle, the Blessed Alexis, told her mother that she had brought into the world an angel rather than a little woman.

Born in 1270; died 12 June, 1341. Juliana belonged to the noble Florentine family of Falconieri. Her uncle, St. Alexis Falconieri, was one of the seven founders of the Servite Order (q.v.). Through his influence she also consecrated herself from her earliest youth to the religious life and the practices of Christian perfection. After her father's death she received about A.D. 1385 from St. Philip Benitius, then General of the Servites, the habit of the Third Order, of which she became the foundress. Until her mother's death she remained in her parents' house, where she followed the rule given her by St. Philip Benitius, practicing perfect chastity, strict mortification, severe penance, zealous prayer, and works of Christian charity. After her mother's death she and several companions moved into a house of their own in 1305, which thus became the first convent of the Sisters of the Third Order of Servites, Juliana remaining the superior until the end of her life. Their dress consisted of a black gown, secured by a leathern girdle, and a white veil. As the gown had short sleeves to facilitate work, people called the sisters of the new order "Mantellate". They devoted themselves especially to the care of the sick and other works of mercy, and the superioress, through her heroic deeds of charity, set a noble example to all. For thirty-five years Juliana directed the community of Servite Tertiaries. An extraordinary occurrence, mentioned in the oratio of her feast day, took place at her death. Being unable to receive Holy Communion because of constant vomiting, she requested the priest to spread a corporal upon her breast and lay the Host on it. Shortly afterwards the Host disappeared and Juliana expired, and the image of a cross, such as had been on the Host, was found on her breast. Immediately after her death she was honoured as a saint. The Order of Servite Tertiaries was sanctioned by Martin V in 1420. Benedict XIII granted the Servites permission to celebrate the Feast of St. Juliana. Clement XII canonized her in 1737, and extended the celebration of her feast on 19 June to the entire Church. St. Juliana is usually represented in the habit of her order with a Host upon her breast.

Acta SS., III, June, 917-25; BERNARDUS, Vita della beata Giuliana Faconieri (Florence, 1681); LORENZINI, Vita di S. Giuliana Falconieri (Rome, 1738); Legenda di S. Giuliana Falconieri, con note di Agost. Morini (Florence, 1864); BATTINI, Compendio della vita di S. Giuliana Falconieri (Bologna, 1866); SOULIER, Life of St. Juliana Falconieri (London, 1898); LÉPICIER, Ste. Julienne Falconieri fondatrice des Mantelées (Brussels, 1907).