 |
|
St
Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi
St Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi came of two noble families, her father being Camillo Geri de’ Pazzi and her mother a Buondelmonti. She was born in Florence, Italy, 2 April 1566, and was baptised in the famous baptistery, where she was given the name Caterina. Her mother taught her how to make mental prayer when Caterina was nine years old: her introduction at this age to this form of prayer which involves half an hour of meditation did not seem to be unusual; and yet today we often believe children incapable of all but the simplest rote prayers. Caterina’s childhood closely resembled that of some other women saints who have become great mystics, in an early love of prayer and penance, great charity to the poor, an apostolic spirit of teaching religious truths (she took great pleasure in carefully teaching catechism to the ignorant), and a charm and sweetness of nature that made her a general favourite. But above all other spiritual characteristics was Caterina’s intense attraction towards the Blessed Sacrament, her longing to receive It, and her delight in touching and being near those who were speaking of It, or who had just been to Communion. As a child she rejoiced to see others communicate, even when not allowed to do so herself. She made her own First Communion at the age of ten, and this day she called “the day of love”. Then when she was twelve she vowed her virginity to God. About this time she experienced her first ecstasy while looking at a sunset which left her trembling and speechless. At fourteen she was sent to school at the convent of Cavalaresse, where her love for her Sisters in the convent grew whenever she saw them receive Our Lord. Here, she lived in so mortified and fervent a manner as to make the sisters prophesy that she would become a great saint; and, on leaving it, she told her parents of her resolve to enter the religious state. They were truly spiritual people; and, after a little difficulty in persuading them to relinquish their only daughter, Caterina finally entered in December 1582 the Carmelite convent of Santa Maria degl’ Angeli, founded by four Florentine ladies in 1450 and renowned for its strict observance. With her foundation in prayer and in mystical experience, it is not surprising that she wanted to enter a contemplative monastery of the Carmelite Order. But she chose Carmel primarily because its religious received Holy Communion every day, a practise uncommon at that time. Caterina was clothed in 1583, when she took the name of Maria Maddalena and the motto, “Either to suffer or to die”. The same year, while still a novice, the saint had her second mystical experience when the other nuns saw her weeping before the crucifix as she said, “Love is not known! Love is not loved!” On 29 May, 1584, being then so ill that they feared she would not recover, she was professed on a stretcher before the altar. After her profession, she was subject to an extraordinary daily ecstasy for forty consecutive days, at the end of which time she appeared at the point of death. She recovered, however, miraculously. But the saint, in her genuine humility, saw her ecstasies as evidence of a great fault in her, not a reward for holiness. She told one fellow sister that God did not give this sister the same graces “because you don’t need them in order to serve Him.” In her great humility she thought that these gifts proved how unworthy she was. After this time, in spite of constant bad health, the saint was able to fill with energy the various offices to which she was appointed. She became, in turn, mistress of externs (postulants), teacher and mistress of the young professed, novice mistress (which post she held for six years), and finally, in 1604, superioress. As novice mistress, she was given the grace to read the thoughts of her novices, and God filled her with His wisdom to direct them aright. As a result, the saint did not hesitate to be blunt in guiding the souls entrusted to her when their spiritual life was at stake. When one of her novices asked permission to pretend to be impatient so the other novices would not respect her so much, St Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi’s answer shook the novice out of her false humility: “What you want to pretend to be, you already are in the eyes of the novices. They do not respect you nearly as much as you like to think.” For five years (1585-90) God allowed her to be tried by terrible inward desolation and temptations, and by external diabolic attacks. Before this trial, Jesus had told her, “I will take away not the grace but the feeling of grace. Though I will seem to leave you, I will be closer to you.” And so, at the age of nineteen, she started five years of dryness and desolation in which she was repelled by prayer and tempted by everything. She referred to her heart as a pitch-dark room with only a feeble light shining that only made the darkness deeper. All she could do to fight back was to hold on to prayer, penance, and helping her sisters even when it appeared to do no good. Thus it was by the courageous severity and deep humility of the means that she took for overcoming herself that these interior trials only served to make her virtues shine more brilliantly in the eyes of her community. Her trial ended in ecstasy on Pentecost, 1590. At this time she could have asked for any gifts, but she wanted two in particular: to look on her neighbour as good and holy without judgement, and to always have God’s presence before her. Her ecstatic life continued after this, but it in no wise interfered with the saint’s usefulness in her community. She was noted for her strong common-sense, as well as for the high standard and strictness of her government, and was most dearly loved to the end of her life by all for the spirit of intense charity that accompanied her somewhat severe code of discipline. As novice-mistress she was renowned for a miraculous gift of reading her subjects’ hearts – which gift, indeed, was not entirely confined to her community. Many miracles, both of this and of other kinds, she performed for the benefit either of her own convent or of outsiders. She often saw things far off, and one time she supernaturally beheld St Catherine de’ Ricci in her convent at Prato, reading a letter that she had sent her and writing the answer; but the two saints never met in a natural manner. To St Mary Magdalene’s numerous penances, and to the ardent love of suffering that made her genuinely wish to live long in order to suffer with Christ, we can here merely refer; but it must not be forgotten that she was one of the strongest upholders of the value of suffering for the love of God and the salvation of our fellow-creatures, that ever lived. The saint was so filled with the love of God that her Sisters in the monastery observed it in her love of themselves, and called her “Mother of Charity” and “the Charity of the Convent”. In 1604, headaches
and paralysation confined her to bed. Her nerves were so sensitive
that she could not be touched without agonising pain. Ever humble,
she took the fact that her prayers were not granted as a sure sign
that God’s Will was being done. For three years she suffered,
before dying on 25 May 1607 at the age of forty-one. Innumerable miracles
followed the saint’s death, and the process for her beatification
was begun in 1610 under Paul V, and finished under Urban VIII in 1626.
She was not, however, canonised until sixty-two years after her death,
when Clement IX raised her to the altars in 1669. Her feast is kept
on 27 May. Her body is incorrupt.
|
