P. Gorazd Cetkovský, O.Carm.
On May 25, 1607 – 400 years ago – the Carmelite saint St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi died in the monastery in Florence. Let us now introduce her with at least one of her sayings and a summary of her biographical data.
“What beauty I must recognize in my soul! O beauty of the soul! Who would not fall in love with you? O noble,1 inexplicable beauty!
The knowledge of her nobility gives the soul a peaceful and lasting unity and tranquility in the heart and a pleasant kindness towards others.
Blessed and happy is the soul to whom you, O my God, reveal this, for as soon as she understands her nobility, she also contemplates how insignificant she is in herself.”2
Saint Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi is renowned for a life rich in mystical experiences. The environment surrounding her made great efforts to record these events, particularly her visions and the words spoken during them. Already as an eighteen-year-old novice, her confessor instructed her to write her own autobiography, while her novice mistress and another sister were tasked with recording notes about Sister Magdalena’s experiences. However, the notes were actually taken by her fellow novice and friend from before she entered the convent, Sister Maria Pacifica del Tovaglia; this sister forwarded the records to the two others. Additionally, during ecstasies, two or three other sisters took turns recording Sister Mary Magdalene’s words. Thus, several volumes of handwritten notes emerged, later supplemented by a biography of the saint written by Sister Maria Pacifica for the beatification process, and by the advice collected from the novices that Mary Magdalene had given as their novice mistress. She herself wrote nothing except for a few letters to relatives. Two biographies were written by her confessors: her regular confessor Vincenzo Puccini published his immediately in 1609 (two years after her death; the edition quickly sold out, and a second, supplemented edition was issued in 1611), and her extraordinary confessor, Jesuit Virgilio Cepari, published another biography in the year of her canonization in 1669. Both were repeatedly published and translated into other languages.
A new wave of interest in the legacy of this saint arose in connection with the 400th anniversary of her birth in 1966. The German Carmelite P. Adalbert Deckert wrote in 1975 that, despite everything, she is little known even within our order. This is not only due to the lack of literature about her outside the Italian context but also to the type of saint she embodies. (We, the northern nations, are reserved and rationalistic, hence mystical explosiveness may seem little sympathetic to us and as a result, we do not strive to get to know such a saint better.)
Biographical Overview
Mary Magdalene was born on April 2, 1566, in Florence. She had three brothers and was the second child among the siblings. She came from a prominent noble family in Florence. She was baptized with the name Catherine: this was her maternal grandmother's name, and it was also the name of a distant relative who died in 1490 as a Franciscan in the reputation of holiness. In her religious life, this Franciscan also prayed in atonement for a great sin that occurred within the family: in 1478, two members of the Pazzi family stabbed two members of the Medici family with daggers during a wedding mass in the Florentine Cathedral of S. Maria del Fiore; it was a blood feud.
At the age of eight, her parents entrusted their daughter Catherine to the care of the Sisters of the Order of Malta at the San Giovannino dei Cavalieri convent. There, her aunt – a nun, her mother’s sister – took care of her. Two years later, on the Feast of the Annunciation 1576, Catherine participated in her first Holy Communion. Three weeks later, on Holy Thursday, this ten-year-old girl made a vow of virginity (for life). At the age of ten, she had the first mystical experience of which we know.
After two years of staying with the sisters, Catherine returned home. At the age of fourteen, her parents placed her in the convent once more, as her father became the governor of Cortona and temporarily moved there. The sisters' confessor allowed the girl to receive the Eucharist on all feast days. This was an extraordinary privilege at that time. After a year, Catherine returned to her parents again.
During her time with the sisters, she realized that she too wanted to be a nun. However, she was not drawn to those sisters, as she saw that the Rule was not strictly observed there, and communal life was lacking. Later, during the beatification process, these sisters stated: “We were not worthy of her, and she left us.” She considered entering the Poor Clares or the Dominicans, whose monasteries in Florence had a good reputation for their strict enclosure and poverty. But on the advice of the rector of the Jesuit college, she decided upon the Carmelite monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli because it placed great emphasis on communal life.
Her parents did not agree with her intention and tried to present her with marriage offers. To this, she replied that she would rather be deprived of life than choose any other groom than Jesus.
She first came to the Carmelite monastery on August 14, 1582, for 14 days, to experience the life there and see whether she felt called to it. She decided to enter permanently. A significant influence on her decision was the fact that the Carmelites were allowed to receive the Eucharist every day.
Catherine Pazzi entered the monastery on November 27, 1582 (on the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent). For the sake of chronological connection: during the time she was at home with her parents after the two-week trial in the convent, St. Teresa of Avila died in Spain. The chapter of the monastery unanimously voted that Catherine de’ Pazzi could begin her postulancy. Her mother found it very difficult to accept her daughter's departure and sent a renowned painter to the convent to paint her daughter (still in secular clothes). It is reported that it is evident in the painting that Catherine did not agree with this. On January 30, 1583, the postulant received the religious habit and with it the name Mary Magdalene. She began the canonical novitiate.
After a year, the sisters extended her novitiate by three months, only so she would not make her vows alone but together with another sister. Mary Magdalene then predicted that she would indeed make her vows alone. This came true: at the beginning of March 1584, she was struck by a mysterious illness. One morning she developed a high fever, coughed up blood, and had severe chest and side pains. It appeared to be a sudden case of pneumonia. Medical help seemed futile. Her father, with the consent of the prioress and the domestic doctor of the sisters, called four renowned physicians to see her. Nevertheless, the illness looked so dire that the sisters, in fear of her premature death, decided not to postpone the end of her novitiate any longer. Thus, Mary Magdalene made her vows on May 27, 1584 in front of the altar of Our Lady in the choir – on the bed to which she had been carried.
The day of her vows began a period of frequent ecstasies for Mary Magdalene. Every day, after receiving Holy Communion, she would enter into a trance. This usually lasted two to three hours. But sometimes she would experience such a spiritual ecstasy even during the day. In most of these, she experienced a participation in Christ's sufferings. This period of ecstasies lasted forty days (until July 6, 1584). Therefore, one part of the records bears the title "Quaranta giorni".
Meanwhile, her illness persisted. Her confessor advised her to turn to Venerable Maria Bagnesi with a request for intercessory prayer. (The bodily remains of this blessed, tested by suffering Dominican tertiary were indeed kept in the chapter hall of the Carmelite sisters.) Since the sisters feared the sudden death of Sister Magdalene, the entire community gathered around her and prayed. On the morning of June 16, 1584, Mary Magdalene suddenly observed that she was healed. She attributed this to the intercession of that blessed one. In her visions, she saw her several times in heavenly glory and as the protector of their convent.
Another period of ecstasies lasted from Christmas 1584 to June 4, 1585. About 90 of them are recorded in a volume of notes called "I Colloqui".
The ecstasy she had on May 21, 1585, manifested significantly in the outer appearance of Sister Mary Magdalene’s life in the convent: she received from God the instruction to live solely on bread and water, and on feast days to eat only fasting food. And she was to be content with five hours of sleep a day and only on a straw mattress (without a bed). Later, she similarly received in an ecstasy the command to walk barefoot. The reason for this ascetic denial was the thought of reconciliation. On April 22, 1590, she similarly received the instruction to observe an additional fasting period from Easter until the Feast of Pentecost. Probably, this ascetic rigor was in a sense also a protest against the hedonism that was widely spread at that time.
A series of very remarkable ecstasies represented the Pentecost octave in 1585 (beginning with the Pentecost vigil on June 8, 1585). Although this lasted only eight days, Sister Mary Magdalene’s mystical raptures lasted virtually the whole day and night. She only came to herself for about two hours a day, during which she prayed the breviary and took the barest nutrition and drink. Given that it was the Pentecost octave, it is understandable that she particularly received visions around the third hour (the ninth hour of the day, cf. Acts 2:15), during which she saw and received the Holy Spirit in various images and forms, such as fire, a stream of water, a dove, tongues of fire, a cloud, wind, etc. Since then, it has been customary in their convent during Pentecost week to summon the sisters to communal prayer of the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus by ringing a bell.
On Trinity Sunday at the end of the Pentecost octave (June 16, 1585), a new life period began for Mary Magdalene: five years of harsh trials. It was almost as if she were turned over to hell and demons: exposed to their glances, their deceits, threats, and tortures. She was tempted not only toward intemperance and impurity but also not to believe, to despair, and to have thoughts of suicide. Within her, feelings of spiritual dryness, abandonment by God, and feelings of rejection alternated. Many of her sisters could not understand such temptations of Mary Magdalene and, filled with doubt, did not trust the authenticity of these mystical experiences. Thus, her heavily tested soul had – as she once told the prioress – “only in her heart a little light of goodwill not to offend God.” Her prayer was a single shriek of pain: “O my God, where is the light of your grace? It seems to have vanished for me. Your goodness and love have completely withdrawn from me. I am abandoned like a body without limbs that cannot help itself. I am like a withered tree… I am nothing but an abyss of malice. I am guilty of all the evil and all the sins committed against God, so at times I cannot understand how Jesus and people can tolerate me on Earth.”
In the summer of 1586, she dictated letters to prominent individuals, urging them to reform the Church. Before doing so, she hesitated; she feared she was being deceived. Instead of dictating letters, she would have preferred to sacrifice her life for the spread of the Gospel. She eagerly observed the reports about the work of missionaries in Japan. Her letters were addressed to Sixtus V, the cardinals of the Curia, and three letters to the Florentine Archbishop Alessandro Medici. He later visited her in the convent and said of her: “This daughter truly spoke in the person of the Holy Spirit.” Like Philip Neri, she also prophetically predicted to him that he would be elected pope.
The aforementioned five-year trial culminated in November 1588. According to the story depicted in the book of the prophet Daniel (chapter 14), this trial was called "Lago dei leoni" (the lion’s den). It ended on June 10, 1590. At that time, Mary Magdalene was granted extraordinary gifts of grace. The records of this period of great trial are summarized in two volumes entitled "Probatione".
According to the old custom, after taking her vows, Mary Magdalene remained subordinated to the novice mistress. Only in October 1586 (after a year and a half) did she definitively leave the novitiate and move to the juniorate, which also lasted three years. At the same time, she became the superior of the postulants with another sister. When Sister Evangelista del Giocondo was elected novice mistress again, Mary Magdalene was appointed (on October 2, 1589) assistant for the novices.
Meanwhile, she was deeply affected by several deaths of her relatives and close friends: in 1587 her brother Alamanus died (in one ecstasy she then saw him suffering in purgatory); in 1590, Mary Magdalene’s mother – she also saw her “happy and content” in purgatory and after fourteen days she saw her in paradise. In 1591 her first confessor in the convent died, and finally, in 1597 her father.
In the community, she was assigned some other duties. In 1592 she was entrusted with the service of sacristan, in 1595 she was elected superior of the juniorate, and in 1598 she was elected novice mistress (among the novices were also her two nieces from the Pazzi family). Finally, in 1604 she was appointed subprioress of the convent (but she could not perform this role due to illness) and superior of the junior sisters.
In October 1604, however, she fell ill again and remained ill until her death. She had tuberculosis of the lungs. She was provided for on May 13, 1607, while still of sound mind. She clearly responded to the priest, who prayed the Psalms for the dying with her and the entire summoned community, Creeds, the Preface about the Most Holy Trinity, and the so-called Athanasian creed (symbolum Quicumque), which was her favorite prayer. She particularly urged the sisters on three points: religious discipline, simplicity, and love.
However, the mortal struggle itself began only twelve days later. On the morning of Friday, May 25, 1607, she received the sacrament of the altar one last time. The confessor could not say Mass for the dying until around noon. When they told him that Sister Mary Magdalene was near death, he sent her a message asking her to wait in holy obedience for death until he finished the Mass. When they told her this, she awoke from her unconsciousness and said her last words: “Benedictus Deus”.3 She could still spend on this earth the hour of the Lord Jesus’ death on the cross. Shortly after three o’clock, she surrendered her soul into the hands of the heavenly Father. She was 41 years old.
According to the old custom, her dead body was displayed in the church. People came in droves since she was generally regarded as a saint. Everyone wanted to take away at least a flower that had touched Magdalene's body. According to legend, the deceased turned her face away from a young man who lived a sinful life, prompting him to repentance.
Her body was buried in a wooden coffin under the main altar. A year later, the sisters were allowed to bury her body inside the enclosure. Upon opening the grave, they found that the body was incorrupt, only the face and feet had turned brown. (The body remains in this state to this day.) They placed it in a new coffin and laid it in a new spot.
As reports of the answered prayers and miracles through her intercession increased, the beatification process began in 1611. She was beatified on May 8, 1626, and canonized on April 28, 1669.
As a supplement, it is worth mentioning the further fate of the convent of S. Maria degli Angeli: In 1628, Pope Urban VIII transferred the sisters' convent (instead inviting the Cistercians) to a place called "Borgo Pinti". There, St. Teresa of Lisieux visited the relics of St. Mary Magdalene during her pilgrimage to Rome, specifically on her way back, i.e., on November 25 or 26, 1887 (see AS 136). In 1888, the sisters moved from there to "Piazza Savonarola," and in 1929 they relocated to a site on the outskirts of Florence, near the hill of Careggi. The convent is still there today. The community continues to observe the Carmelite rule according to its own constitutions.
