In the annals of the Catholic Church, few contain a story like Caterina (called “Lucrezia”) de’ Pazzi. She was born into a wealthy Florentine family. At an incredibly early age, some writings suggest perhaps nine years of age, Caterina began to mortify her flesh (self-flagellation, belt of nails, and others) in keeping with meditations she learned from her parish chaplain.
At the age of ten, so it is reported, she took a vow of virginity, a vow she kept throughout her life. In 1580, Caterina joined the Sisters of the Order of Malta for further education, but in 1583 her father removed her from that Order to wed. Caterina’s passionate insistence to keep her vow of virginity convinced her father to give her permission to enter the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, an Order of the Camaldolese, in Florence. At the time she joined this Order as a Novice, she took the name Mary Magdalene.
It is interesting to note, the Monastery in which Mary served had an Oratorio designed by Fillipo Brunelleschi, he of the Duomo’s dome fame.
The Church documented her various ecstasies and mystical behaviors and power. The individuals controlling these religious orders constantly sought to disprove the average person’s divine powers. In the case of Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, the Church never established such proof. Male members of the Church created five large volumes of observations and comments about de’ Pazzi in the course of her life, yet she never once varied from her continued self-mortification, pain, and discomfort as her means of demonstrating her faith and her adherence to her vow of virginity.
The story of this courageous woman mirrors those of both religious and lay communities of that time. Women experienced persecution and subjugation to every manner of control, yet a few rose above those fierce constraints to demonstrate a depth of commitment and passion of religious belief, art, or family. There are few other nuns whose lives also demonstrate the kind of zeal that motivated de’ Pazzi, Plautilla Nelli foremost among them. The mosaic of the lives of women in the Renaissance continues to amaze me. Despite the rigors of pain, de’ Pazzi stands as a unique example of strength in the face of adversity, and of unwavering religious belief.
Mary died in 1607, at the age of 41. In her honor, a statue was placed in the church where her reportedly incorrupt corpse is buried, the Monastery of Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi in Careggi, a few kilometers north of central Florence. Pope Paul V began the process of canonization in 1601 and Pope Clement IX complete it in 1669.