GERARDESCA, blessed. – Mystic, born in Pisa around 1210 to Gherardo della G. Having received her first education in a monastery of enclosed nuns, she returned to her own home, where she was persuaded to marry. After some years of holy married life, the two spouses, still without children, decided to separate, with the one entering the Camaldolese monastery of S. Savino and the other living as an oblate in a cell near the same monastery. Here G. spent the rest of her life, devoting herself to prayer, penance, and works of charity. She was favored with sublime visions and extraordinary revelations. The day and year of her death, which occurred around 1261 (1269?), are unknown. She was buried in the church of S. Savino. Her life, probably written by her confessor, is known from an ancient, somewhat mutilated codex formerly kept by the nuns of S. Silvestro.
Gerardesca, Blessed
BIBL.: F. Ranieri, Vita della b. G., Venezia 1736; G. Sainati, Vita della b. G., vedova pisana, oblata camaldolese, Pisa 1858; id., in Vite di cinque beate pisane, Monza 1876; id., in Vite dei santi, beati e servi di Dio noti nella diocesi pisana, there 1884, 138-169; I. B. Mitterelli e D. A. Costadoni, Annales Camaldolenses, V. Venezia 1760, pp. 97-98, 100-102; the Acta SS. discuss her in vol. VII on 29 May, after the life of s. Bona, because the heavenly glorification of s. Bona was revealed to the blessed G. Felice da Mareto
Cite this article
“GERARDESCA, BEATA.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI (1951), p. 74. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/gerardesca-beata.