LUCIA of Narni, Blessed. - Dominican tertiary, born on 13 Dec. 1476 at Narni, died at Ferrara on 15 Nov. 1544. At the age of twelve, L. made a vow of virginity, but later consented to marry a count named Pietro on the condition that he would respect her virginity. Slandered by malicious persons, she was imprisoned by her husband until, upon her release, he granted her permission to live as she wished. She then entered the Third Order of St Dominic at Narni on 30 Apr. 1494. In 1495 she was transferred to Rome to the convent of St Catherine of Siena, and in 1496 she moved to the monastery of St Thomas in Viterbo, where on 24 Feb. 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. took charge of the Christian and civil education of noble girls and obtained from Duke Ercole the foundation of a monastery, which she dedicated to St Catherine of Siena (1501); despite her reluctance, she was made prioress. From 1503 L. prayed to God that her stigmata might become invisible, though the pain remained, and her prayer was granted; the wounds on her hands and feet closed, leaving only that on her side open, which she could conceal. Her rivals took advantage of this event to reinforce their accusations of previous simulation, and so succeeded in persuading others; the Blessed was deposed from her office and confined to a separate cell, where, amid many humiliations, in concealment and solitude, she spent the last 38 years of her life. At her death, the wound on her side revealed the falsity of the machinations against her during her lifetime. Her body is preserved in the church of the monastery; her cult was ratified by Clement XI in 1710. Feast on 16 Nov.
