MACONI, STEFANO. — Carthusian, born in Siena around 1350, died in the convent of S. Maria delle Grazie at Pavia on 7 September (9 August) 1424. In 1376 he joined the «comitiva» of s. Caterina da Siena, of whom he became one of the regular secretaries: he accompanied her on her journeys and served as her ambassador to Florence (1377). In obedience to the Saint’s wishes, he enclosed himself in the charterhouse of Pontigliano (1381), of which he was prior (1382–89). From then on he devoted himself to implementing the reform of the Order, in accordance with s. Caterina’s wishes. At the express request of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, he was prior general (1389–1410), and consequently had to move to Seitz (Austria). He was again prior at Pontigliano (1410), and then at S. Maria delle Grazie in Pavia. He is blessed within his Order.
In 1411 Caffarini (v.) his deposition for the canonization of s. Caterina (published at Brescia in 1496; Acta SS. Aprilis, III, Antwerp 1675, pp. 968–973, and in various other editions, the most recent among them being in Il processo Castellano, edited by M.-H. Laurent (Pontes vitae s. Catharinae Senensis, 9), Milan 1942, pp. 257–74). In April 1419 he translated into Latin the Dialogo della Divina Provvidenza, which the Saint had dictated to him in the vernacular shortly before her death; for a long time this translation was attributed to Raimondo da Capua (published at Brescia in 1496; Cologne 1553, 1596, 1601; Ingolstadt 1583; cf. I. Taurisano, Dialogo della Divina Provvidenza, Rome 1947, pp. xxiv–xxix). Modern criticism has also definitively attributed to M. the vernacular translation of the Leggenda minore di s. Caterina da Siena, written by Tommaso Caffarini and translated by him between 1417 and 1421 (ed. F. Grottanelli, Leggenda minore di s. Caterina e lettere dei suoi discepoli (Collezione di opere inedite o rare, 26), Bologna 1686). Various letters by M. have also been published (cf. F. Grottanelli, op. cit., V. index).