FIESCHI, TOMMASINA. – Mystic, born in Genoa around 1448, died at the Acquasola in 1534. A member of the noble F. family, she was probably a distant blood relative of St. Caterina F. Adorno. Educated in the arts and letters, and highly skilled in embroidery, she probably studied painting under Giovanni Mazzone of Alessandria (cf. F. Alizeri: Di suor Tommassa, pittrice e ricamatrice, in Atti della Soc. lig. di storia patria, 8 [1872, 11], p. 410).
Married and later widowed, she took part in the movement of the Divine Love in Genoa, assisting St. Caterina in caring for the sick at Pammatone. Of Caterinian spirituality, F. made especially her own the idea that spiritual purity is the sole generative principle of love. For her, love is the center of mystical life. She subsequently became a nun; it is uncertain whether at the monastery of S. Silvestro (Dominican) or that of S. Maria delle Grazie (Lateran). Sent to reform the monastery of SS. Giacomo and Filippo at the Acquasola, she died there.
F. is an accomplished mystical writer. A manuscript, probably autograph, of her works has preserved, along with various minor treatises, a Trattato sulla carità in 34 chapters, and the Trattato dei sette gradi dell'amor di Dio.
BIBLI: F. Federici, Della famiglia F., Genova s. s., p. 23; R. Sopraei, Vita della venerabile suor T. F., monaca domenicana, ivi 1667; U. Bonzi da Genova, Di suor T. F., scrittrice e ricamatrice, in Raccoglitore ligure, 31 Dec. 1933, pp. 9–10; id., Le Traité des sept degrés de l'amour de Dieu de T. F., in Revue d'ascétique et de mystique, 16 (1933), pp. 39–80. The soul, in order to rise to perfect divine love, must ascend seven degrees of love, which are: incomparable, undefiled, undisturbed, invincible, infatuated, inseparable, insatiable love.
Unile Bonzi da Genova