Note 333 — Chapter VIII · BATTISTA VERNAZZA’S LIFE

Vallebona, op. cit. p. 83: “Santissima mia Diva, | questo mio cor ricevi: | che quando al sole apriva | le luci a giorni brevi, | infin d’allor fei voto, | con animo devoto, | non mai, madre adorata, | esser da Te sviata.” “My most holy Protectress” and “adored Mother” may apply to Catherine. But I have had to punctuate so as to make “che” = “perchè,” as in Jacopone throughout: so that we now have not a declaration of time, as to when she, the Protectress, accepted Tommasa’s heart (which might well have been at Baptism); but a prayer that this Mother may accept her heart, in view of the fact that she, Tommasa, had, from her first opening of her eyes to life (surely, on coming to some degree of reason), vowed never to be parted from this Mother. And thus the application to Catherine remains possible but becomes uncertain.