Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/72

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60 B. MARY OF THE RESURRECTION Bhe is perhaps the same as Mary (56), who is claimed by the Dominioans as a member of their Order. Stadler. B. Mary (58) of the Resurrection, Oct. 12. 16th century. Nnn of the Order of our Lady of Mercy (or Ran- som), in the convent of the Assumption at Seville. Helyot. St.Mary(59)Magdalene de' Pazzi, May 25, 27, 1566-1607. Represented in the dress of a Carmelite nun, wearing a crown of thorns and holding a flaming heart. She was the daughter of Camillo de* Pazzi, and his wife Maria del Monte. The name given her in her baptism was Catherine. She showed extraordinary piety from a very tender age. She used to assemble as many of the poor children as she could and teach them. She passed the prison daily on her way to school, and gave her luncheon to the prisoners. Her parents, to encourage her charity, often gave their alms through her. Soon she began to distress herself about the sins of others as well as about their poverty, and to pray earnestly for the conversion of sinners and heretics. She became a nun in the Carmelite convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli at Borgo San Fridiano, in Florence ; and took the name of Mary Magdalene. After the year of her novitiate she had a long ill- ness. The nuns thinking her at the point of death, made her take the veil and then put her back into her bed, which was a sack of straw. She was favoured with visions for forty days, and after that she recovered. During some of her ecstasies she received from the Saviour rules for a holy life. In the church of the monastery where she was living was the stone sarcophagus in which lay the body of Mary (o^), Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi had a great devo- tion to her, and often visited her tomb and made earnest prayers to that holy soul. In her ecstasies she repeatedly saw her in Paradise, sometimes on a jewelled throne. Mary Magdalene was very clever in embroidery and in paint- ing. The Carmelites of Parma preserve with great veneration and affection a picture by her, called t7 Torcolare ; it represents the Saviour under torture. Her sister nuns saw her painting and working or illuminating, with her eyes fixed on the cross. They could not un- derstand; they darkened the window, they threw a veil over her face, but still she went on with her work and did it as well as if her whole attention had been absorbed by it. Although she had a delicate skin and felt the cold ex- tremely, she went barefooted to the well and about the garden ; her feists were excessive, and some of her charitable acts and miracles imply a complete con- quest of all selfish inclinations, as when she cured Mary Orlandini of leprosy by licking it with her tongue. She was declared Blessed in 1626 and canonized 1660. There was a picture of St. Mary Mag- dalene de' Pazzi by Dandini, from which an engraving was made in the eighteenth century by Pietro de Pazzi. JB.Jf. Puccini, Vita. Ticozzi, Dizi- onario del Pittori, etc. Leggendario. Modem SatnU, by the Fathers of the Oratory in London. B. Mary (60) Victoria Fomari Strata, Sept. 12, 1562-1617, was foun- der, in 1 604, and first superior of the nuns of the Celestial Annunciation under the rule of St. Augustine ; they were called Tarchtne (blue nuns). She is represented standing praying before a large crucifix. She married, at seventeen, Angelo Strata, who appreciated her extreme goodness and piety. He said she was an excellent wife, good for nothing but praying and housekeeping, to which two matters she gave her whole attention, avoiding com- pany and amusements. She had four sons and two' daughters. After nine years of married life, her husband died, and she grieved so much for him that her sorrow was almost sinfuL One of the characteristics of her Order was such complete seclusion that the nuns were only allowed to speak to their nearest relations through the parlour grating, and that only once a year. They were to imitate especially the humility of the Blessed Virgin, and were to wear her colours. Their dress was a white gown and handkerchief with sky-blue band, a cloak, and shoes. Mary (60) was Prioress for the first seven years of the existence of the Order, and then became a simple