Filipa de Chantemilan

Who they were

Filippa de Chantemilan was born about 1412 in the castle of Changy, in the diocese of Clermont; her father died shortly after her birth, and her mother, who governed Changy, died when Filippa was fifteen. Beautiful and much sought after, she refused every suitor. At twenty she went to her brother at Vienne, where good spiritual directors led her to a vow of virginity; she lived simply and austerely, went to church, nursed the sick, visited the poor, and sometimes helped for weeks at a time in the hospitals and prisons of Lyon.

She visited many shrines of France and made a Jubilee pilgrimage to Rome in 1450. In the autumn of 1451 plague struck Vienne, and Filippa was among its first victims, dying on 15 October 1451; she was buried in the cathedral of Saint-Maurice. Her tomb was violated by Calvinists and an altar was later raised there in 1629. From 1453 the cathedral chapter had a notary record testimonies of miracles attributed to her, though her veneration has not yet been confirmed.

The miracles

The source does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.

Why that counted as sanctity

Laywoman of Vienne known for her vow of virginity and care of the sick and poor, who died nursing plague victims in 1451; her veneration is unconfirmed.

The cause