Blessed Pica Bernardone | Saint of the Day | AmericanCatholic.org

“What a tightrope Pica walked! Her son and her husband were hopelessly at odds. She watched her boy [St. Francis of Assisi] ride off to war with a pain familiar to too many mothers. And when he returned with his dreams of glory shattered, she surely worried about him. When he rejected his father’s wealth—indeed, his father himself—part of her surely rejoiced, for it was she who had tried to teach him that there are more important things in the world than earthly glory. Still, the rift between father and son must have continued to grieve her. She is surely a friend to any parent who suffers the same perplexing difficulty.”