GIACINTA MARESCOTTI, saint. - A Roman virgin, daughter of Marcantonio Marescotti and Ottavia Orsini, born at Vignanello in 1586. She professed the Franciscan Third Order in the monastery of S. Bernardino at Viterbo, showing in her early years rather little fervour and religious regularity.
Having reformed, she undertook a life of great austerity and mortification, which brought her to a high degree of perfection. She also distinguished herself by charity, beneficence, and peacemaking activity; she was favoured with heavenly charisms. She left a small autograph diary (Archive of SS. Dodici Apostoli, Rome) containing some brief thoughts that suggest her spirituality, nourished by Eucharistic piety and an ardent thirst for mortification. She died at Viterbo on 30 Jan. 1640, at the age of fifty-four, and was canonized by Pius VII in 1807. Her body is venerated in the aforementioned church of S. Bernardino, destroyed by aerial bombardments. Feast day: 30 Jan.