ANTONIA di BRESCIA. - Dominican mystic, born at Brescia about 1407, died at Ferrara on 27 Oct. 1507. Of the Guaineri family, she grew in virtue from childhood. Having entered the Dominican monastery of S. Caterina Martire in Brescia, she lived in seclusion, loving humiliations. At the age of forty, however, she was placed at the head of a group of religious charged with restoring observance in the monastery of S. Caterina martire at Ferrara.
Her wise direction transformed the Ferrara house into a model of full regular life, which she extended to other monasteries. But A.'s severity aroused some discontent; the vicar general deposed her from the office of prioress, assigning her the last place in the community, after the lay sisters. A. was pleased by this; later she was restored to office. The recipient of exceptional divine favors (visions, voices), she died at the age of one hundred. The cult immediately paid to her has not hitherto been officially sanctioned by the Church. The Bollandists inserted her deeds under 27 Oct.
BIBL. Acta SS. Octobris, XII, Parigi 1867, pp. 407-409, with the biography by Serafino Razzi; Année Dominicaine, Octobre, Lione 1902, pp. 768-83; X. Faucher, s. v., in DIIG, III, col. 846.