CARAFA, Maria. – Sister of Gian Pietro, later Pope Paul IV, born perhaps in Naples in 1468, the eldest daughter of Antonio C., baron of Sant’Angelo della Scala, and of Vittoria Camponeschi, countess of Montorio; died on 4 January 1552. At the age of 22 she fled to the monastery of San Sebastiano, from which she emerged on 25 June 1530 to found the monastery of La Sapienza according to the strictest Dominican rule.
Under the guidance of St Cajetan, the Blessed Giovanni Marinoni, and the Theatines, La Sapienza became the first women’s monastery in Naples to adopt the reform initiated by the Clerks Regular. Even during the lifetime of the foundress, four of her nieces and many young women of the Neapolitan nobility entered, among them Cassandra, marchioness, celebrated by Sannazzaro. Among the Theatines she enjoys the title of Venerable.
The celebrated monastery of La Sapienza, whose splendid church was designed by the Theatine architect Father Francesco Grimaldi, is now extinct.