Bona, St.
BONA, ST.
Patroness of travel hostesses; b. Pisa, Italy, c. 1156;d. Pisa, May 29, 1207. Distinguished by her piety as a child, Bona was received as a young woman into the can ons regular of st. augustine and henceforth lived in a house near the Canons who served St. Martin's church in Pisa. As a result of a vision of Our Lord, she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There a hermit Ubald instructed her about the holy places she was to visit and eventually told her when to return to Pisa. On the way home she was wounded by Saracens and molested by robbers. Henceforth she lived as a recluse in Pisa, except for her nine pilgrimages to santiago de compostela and frequent visits to St. Peter's tomb in Rome. She is buried in St. Martin's, Pisa. In 1962 Pope John XXIII named her the patroness of Italian travel hostesses.
Feast: May 29.
Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum May 7:141–161, 858. Bibliotheca hagiograpica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis (Brussels 1898–1901) 1:206–207. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienhereux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes (Paris 1935–56) 5:569–572. f. bartorelli, Santa B. da Pisa (Bari 1960). b. matteucci, Bibliotheca sanctorum 3:234–235. Acta Apostolicae Sedis 54 (1962) 707–708.
[m. j. hamilton]