CAPPUCCINE. – Nuns of strict enclosure belonging to the Second Order of the Franciscans, or of S. Chiara. The noblewoman, the ven. Maria Lorenza Longo (d. 1542), founded in Naples a monastery of religious women, known as “that of the Thirty-Three,” which in 1538, under the impetus of the reform of the Friars Minor Capuchin, adopted the first rule of s. Chiara with constitutions imbued with the Capuchin spirit.
The C. are distinguished by strict poverty, penance, and humility; they offer themselves in prayer and sacrifice. In 1576 the monastery of Rome was founded; they spread rapidly in Italy and abroad: Barcelona (1599), Paris (1606), Marseille (1625), Lisbon (1665), Lima in Peru (1708). Among them flourished s. Veronica Giuliani at Città di Castello, the bl. M. Maddalena Martinengo at Brescia, the ven. Florida Cevoli at Città di Castello, Diomira M. del Verbo Incarnato at Fanano, Angela M. Astorch at Murcia, and Angela M. Margherita Prat at Barcelona. According to a 1934 statistic, the C. have 34 monasteries in Italy, 31 in Spain, 15 in Mexico,
3 in France, 2 in Holland, 1 in Germany (Trier), 1 in Czechoslovakia (Litoměřice), 1 in Poland (Przasnysz), 1 in Chile (Santiago), 1 in Argentina (Buenos Aires), and 1 in Guatemala. In 1927 the new unified text of their constitutions was approved. Some monasteries are dependent on the minister general of the Capuchins; most are dependent on the diocesan bishop.