Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/71

B. MARY ANTONIA BAGNESI 50 ber children. Thenceforth she spent her time and money in pions and charitable works, and her bonse became the resort of the poor. At this time Catherinb (3) came to Pisa, and by her advice Mary joined the Third Order of St, Dominic. She went to reside at the convent of the Holy Cross, where each nnn lived at her own expense. Mary had six companions whom she main- tained there. She left that house with Clara (8) and became a nnn in the convent Clara's father bnilt in hononr of St. Dominic. She succeeded Clara as snperior, and attained to great holiness ; she worked several miracles, and died at a great age. Pins IX. approved her worship, and granted an ofiBce in her hononr to the diocese of Pisa and to the Dominican Order. A.B.M.^ Dec. 22. Gn^rin. Cimlta CattoUca, Stadler. B. Mary (5.5) de Ajofin, July 17, + 1489, a nun in the Jeronimite con- vent of St. Paul at Toledo, where her body is kept in great veneration. For many years this convent was called San Pablo de las Beatas de Maria Oarciaa, It was built sixty or seventy years before the days of Mary de Ajofin, by the saintly Mary Gkrcias, on her own estate. Her nuns assumed a dress and rule like those of the monks of St. Jerome, but not until they had been living several years as a religious community did they take r^nlar vows ; hence the name Beatas" which in Spain still implies women de- voted to a religious life, whether singly or in community, without being actuidly nuns. Helyot. AA,88.y Prater. B. Mary (56) Barthdlomea Bag- nesi. May 28, April 6, Oct. 18, 15 14- 1577, 3rd O.S.D. Her father was Carlo de Rinieri Bagnesi; her mother, Alessandra Bartolommea Orlandini; both of noble families in Florence. They entrusted her to a nurse at Impruneta, Bix miles from Florence, who was not only very poor, but had concealed from the Bagnesi the more important fact that she had no milk to give the baby. The child would have been starved to death but for the charity of some poor neighbours who gave the nurse some eggs with which to feed the infant. As soon as she was old enough to have her hands out of swaddling bands, she used to pick up little crumbs from the ground to feed herself, so that she learnt abstinence and poverty from the very beginning. She used to be taken to see her sister, a nnn at Faventino, who was very fond of her and taught her to sing; she would say, "Marietta, whom will you have for a husband ? " The child used to answer, "Jesus Christ." At her mother's death she had to undertake all the housekeeping and did it well, although but a child. When she was seventeen, her father asked her if she would become a nun or remain in the world. She was startled by the sudden question and could not answer; her blood seemed to freeze, and she never recovered her health daring the forty- five remaining years of her life, and was therefore never able to become a nun. Some years after, when she was about thirty-three and very ill, her father wishing to give her the only satisfaction possible, proposed to her that as she was not in a state to leave her bed and go to a convent, she should take the Dominican habit of St. Catherine (3) of Siena. Mary was de- lighted, and became a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic. Her health immediately improved, and she went on foot to several churches. But she again relapsed into ill health. After some years of great suffering and greater sanctity, during which many experienced the good effect of her prayers and advice, she died, and so great was the popular opinion of ber holiness that an immense crowd assembled to pay their respects to the dead saint. Her body was placed on a table, dressed in the habit of the Order and crowned with a wreath of flowers made of silk and gold, round her head were four candles blessed by the Pope and preserved by her for this purpose. She was buried by her own request in the Carmelite church of Sta. Maria degli Angeli. B.M. Breviary, O.S,D. AA,SS. Agostiuo Campi, Vi/a. Cappoccio, Vita. B. Mary (57) Antonia Bagnesi, Apr. G or Oct. 18, 0.S.F. Date unknown. A nun of St. Clara at Florence, she attended those stricken with the plague.