GERARDESCA, Blessed. - Mystic, b. in Pisa ca. 1210 to Gherardo della G. Having received her first education in a monastery of cloistered nuns, she returned to her own home and allowed herself to be induced to marry. After some years of holy wedlock, the two spouses, still without offspring, decided to separate, the one entering the Camaldolese monastery of S. Savino, the other living as an oblate in a cell near the same monastery. Here G. spent all 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 are unknown; it occurred ca. 1261 (1269?). She was buried in the church of S. Savino. Her life, written in all likelihood by her confessor, is known from an ancient codex, somewhat mutilated, formerly kept by the nuns of S. Silvestro.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: F. Ranieri, Vita della b. G., Venice 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, ibid. 1884, 138-169; I. B. Mitterelli and D. A. Costadoni, Annales Camaldolenses, V. Venice 1760, pp. 97-98, 100-102; the Acta SS. speak of her in vol. VII on 29 May, after the life of St. Bona because to the b. G. was revealed the celestial glorification of St. Bona.

Felice da Mareto

@incollection{ec6_gerardesca_beata, author = {Felice da Mareto}, title = {Gerardesca, beata}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {84}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/gerardesca-beata} }

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Gerardesca, Blessed

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