MARIA FRANCESCA delle CINQUE PIAGHE, Saint. — Franciscan tertiary, born Anna Maria Rosa Nicoletta Gallo, in Naples on 25 March 1715, died there on 6 October 1791. At the age of sixteen she suffered greatly at the hands of her father, who wished to force her into marriage. In 1731 she enrolled in the Third Order of St Francis, taking the name Sister M. F. delle C. P., on account of the great devotion she had cultivated since childhood to the Passion of the Redeemer, to which she later also participated in a sensible manner through mystical gift, receiving the stigmata.
She suffered much at the hands of her relatives and even from her own spiritual directors, alternating between interior aridity and ecstasies. She distinguished herself by her charity toward the poor and the sick, had a great devotion to the Eucharist, and was endowed with the gift of prophecy. At her death she was buried in the church of S. Lucia al Monte in Naples. Beatified by Gregory XVI in 1843, she was canonized by Pius IX in 1867. Feast day: 5 October.