LUCIA da NARNI, blessed. — Religious of the Third Order of the Dominicans, b. on 13 December 1476 at Narni, d. at Ferrara on 15 November 1544. At the age of twelve L. made a vow of virginity, but subsequently consented to marry a count named Pietro, because he had agreed to respect her virginity. Calumniated by malicious persons, she was imprisoned by her husband until, once freed, she obtained his permission to live as she wished. She then entered the Third Order of St. Dominic at Narni on 30 April 1494. In 1495 she was transferred to Rome, to the convent of S. Caterina da Siena, and in 1496 went to the monastery of S. Tommaso at Viterbo, where on 24 February of that same year she received the sacred stigmata.
When Duke Ercole d’Este requested that the Blessed be brought to his city, the Pope consented. At Ferrara L. undertook the Christian and civil education of noble girls, and obtained from Duke Ercole the foundation of a monastery, which he dedicated to S. Caterina da Siena (1501); although reluctant, she was appointed its prioress. From 1503 L. prayed God to make the stigmata invisible to her, while leaving her the pain, and her prayer was heard; the wounds in her hands and feet closed, while only that in her side remained open, and she was able to conceal II. Her rivals took advantage of this event to reinforce the accusations that she had previously feigned them, and they did so much that they succeeded in persuading the others; the Blessed was removed from office and confined to a secluded cell, where, amid many humiliations, in concealment and solitude, she spent the last 38 years of her life. At her death, the wound in her side revealed the baselessness of the machinations directed against her during her lifetime. Her body is preserved in the monastery church; her cult was ratified by Clement XI in 1710. Feast day: 16 November.
Epic hendecasyllables are widespread in the popular tradition of the various regions of Italy, from Lombardy to Apulia. Several prayers are also known—verse charms intended to obtain healing from ophthalmia or to preserve healthy eyesight, and in which a fantastic encounter between S. L. and Jesus Christ is mentioned. A sacred drama entitled Devotissima historia di s. L. was published in Florence in 1558.