Saint Mary Magdalene De’ Pazzi – 25 May –Story & Iconography
Saint Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi. A Florentine and a Carmelite nun. A mystic and a virgin. The Passion Flower of the Eucharist.
Caterina Lucrezia de’ Pazzi / Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi (1566–1607), an Italian Carmelite nun and a mystic, was a Florentine from one of the richest and most prominent noble families of Renaissance Florence. When she was a child of nine years old, she read a book on how to meditate on the Passion of Christ. This book became her everyday read in adolescence and later in the monastery. Also, as a child she began practicing mortification through self-flagellation, wearing a jagged metal eyelash, and wearing a homemade crown of thorns.
At the age of 10 years old Caterina took a vow of virginity. Her first ecstasy* she experienced when she was 12. From then on, she continued to demonstrate a wide variety of mystical experiences.
*Mystical ecstasy is the elevation of the spirit to God in such a way that the person is aware of this union with God while both internal and external senses are detached from the sensible world.
In 1580, at the age of 14, Caterina Lucrezia de’ Pazzi was sent by her father to study at a convent of nuns of the Order of Malta, but she was soon recalled to marry a young nobleman. She told her father about her vow, and he eventually relented and allowed her to enter the monastic life. She chose the Carmelite monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence because the rules there allowed her to receive communion daily. In 1583 she became a novice at that monastery and took the religious name of Sister Mary Magdalene.
It was believed that de’ Pazzi could read the thoughts of others and predict future events. During her lifetime she allegedly appeared to several persons in distant places and cured a number of sick people.
Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi died at the age of 41 of natural causes after an illness lasting nearly three years.
Iconography of the saint – A young woman wearing an attire of a Carmelite nun, holding lilies (virginity), or wearing a crown of thorns or a crown of lilies. Often she is depicted in ecstasy or having visions, or interacting with Christ (her relationship with Chrisg was blunt and playful).
