GIOVANNA MARIA della Croce, Venerable. — Clarissan (born Bernardina Floriani), born at Rovereto on 8 Sept. 1603, died there on 26 March 1673. She founded in Rovereto the Convent of the Clarissans of St Charles (1650), of which she was abbess; that of St Anne, of the same Order, at Borgo Valsugana (1672), and persuaded the condottiere Mattia Galasso to found one of the Carmelites at Le Laste in Trento.
A self-taught woman of high intelligence, she studied mysticism, and at the age of thirty, on the vigil of Pentecost 1634, she had written the Evangelii spirituali sentimenti, composed of 29 discourses; important is her Exposition of the Song of Songs, followed by Exclamations and various other ascetical works, in which are scattered poems, not without grace and originality, whereby G. is to be considered chronologically the first poetess of Trentino.
In 1643 the Curia of Trento subjected G. to the Inquisition; but the judges, Fr Teberelli, an Augustinian, and Fr Alberti, a Jesuit, invited G. to continue writing.
She was endowed with notable charisms and played a significant part in the political history of the region during the terrible period of the Thirty Years’ War, and worked for peace.
Besides the above-mentioned works, there remain in manuscript an Autobiography in 3 volumes and a rich correspondence; some of her works were printed. The cause of beatification is under way.