CARAFA, MARIA MADDALENA. – Duchess of Andria, born at S. Arcangelo in 1566 to Prince Lodovico, Count of Stimigliano; died in Naples on 29 December 1615. At the age of 14 she married Fabrizio C., Duke of Andria, and had five children by him. On becoming a widow, she entered the monastery of the Sapienza in Naples (1608). She received notable mystical graces, among them the pains of the crown of thorns.
BIBL.: G. B. Castaldi, Vita di d. M. M. monaca della Sapienza a Napoli, Naples 1618; D. Bartoli, Della vita del p. Vincenzo Carafa, Rome 1651, pp. 4–12; S. Sgambati, Vita della serva di Dio suor M. M. C., duchessa d'Andria, Rome 1653, Bologna 1654. Felice da Mareto