Between the end of ' 400 and early ' 500 women have claimed an active role in society, rejecting the silence imposed on them for centuries. It is in this context that there are the figures of "sante vive", extreme religious asceticism with templates, at the same time, a decent political and social power.
Elena Duglioli, born in 1472 in Bologna, the age of fifteen he was married to Benedict Dall'Olio, a notary of confidence of the canons regular of the convent of San Giovanni in Monte in Bologna. In 1506 was made public the fact that, After eighteen years of marriage, Elena still retained her virginity. This was the factor that gave way to his worship and building his hagiographic legend, that will be the highlight among the 1506 and the 1520. It is no coincidence that the worship of the woman is placed in this period of history so dramatic, characterized by the collapse of the rule of the Bentivoglio and the return of Bologna to the Papal sovereignty: the woman revered became a form of alternative family worship bentevolesca, that during the "horrende de Italy wars”, He was run out of town.
After the death of Elena in the 1520, devotion to her figure does not appear to decrease, Indeed, the were even attributed miraculous new acts, of which the best known is that of the presence of breast milk in old age, that would continue to ooze even after the death of the blessed.
Despite an initial examination conducted on the corpse of Elena unsuccessfully, He was later declared a certain State of incorruzione of the corpse. However, Although the bolognese tradition Elena has always been venerated as a Saint, was never initiated any canonical trial, at least until 1828, When the woman will be awarded the title of Blessed on the basis of the documentary evidence of the cult AB immemorial.
Maria
