### SAINT MARY MAGDALEN DE’ PAZZI
Wooden sculptures often depict her almost always draped and holding the jar of ointments. Donatello, in the Baptistery of Florence, portrays her only with her hair. The frequency of such isolated images does not, however, prevent the further dissemination of particular scenes from the Gospel narrative, such as that of the repentant sinner at the Pharisee’s house (a scene which, in paintings by Veronese at the Louvre, in Turin, and in Genoa, is transformed into a sumptuous banquet), and that of the Assumption of the Saint, as seen in a 16th-century portal of the Certosa of Pavia, and in engravings by Dürer, L. Cranach, and others.
From the 16th century and throughout the Baroque period, the preferred representation of the Saint is that of her in the aspect of penitence in the desert and in the cave, as in the paintings by Titian and Timoteo Viti in Bologna (1508). At other times, she appears in ecstasy, receiving Communion. This is seen in paintings by Ribera in Naples at the Museum of San Felice, by Calvaert in the Gallery of Turin, by Cerco in the Gallery of Vienna, by Becerro in the Prado Museum, and others.
Worthy of note are also the cycles with scenes from the life of M. M. depicted in the stained-glass windows of Gothic cathedrals. In the stained-glass windows of the cathedrals of Bourges, Lyon, and Chartres, only Gospel scenes are depicted. Instead, the legends of the Saint are included in the ten panels of the stained-glass window of the chapel dedicated to her in Assisi. — See pl. XIII.
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### MARY MAGDALEN OF THE HOLY TRINITY
Mystic, born Maddalena Martin in Aix (Provence) on 3 June 1612, died in Avignon on 20 February 1678. From childhood, she devoted herself to prayer and delighted in mortifications and suffering, finding joy in enduring pain for the love of God. With Fr. Antonio Yvan, her confessor and spiritual guide, she founded the Order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy (1633), overcoming immense difficulties both from the population of Aix and from Archbishop Luigi Bretel. The Order, approved by Urban VIII on 3 June 1642, was of strict enclosure and followed the Rule of St. Augustine.
Despite frail health, difficult times, and persecution from many enemies, with heroic humility and self-denial, Sister M. M. succeeded in opening six houses of her Order, which is now extinct. She left behind handwritten spiritual maxims, first published and commented upon by A. Piny, her first biographer (Annecy 1679, Lyon 1680).
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### SAINT MARY MAGDALEN DE’ PAZZI
Born Caterina in Florence on 2 April 1566, died there on 25 May 1604. At the age of sixteen, she entered the Carmelite convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence, where on 27 May 1584, on Trinity Sunday, she took her solemn vows and assumed the name M. M.
From that day, ecstasies began, at first frequent, then more spaced out; to these were added terrible trials: physical infirmities, temptations, spiritual dryness, which the Saint, in her insatiable love for the Cross, gladly endured. Indeed, her cry was: *“Suffer, do not die.”* At the command of her confessors, she dictated accounts of her ecstasies, which she would later review, approve, or correct. By divine command, she also dictated, in ecstasy, letters and exhortations to Sixtus V, cardinals, and bishops, though her superiors never allowed them to reach their destinations, deeming it too bold for a humble nun to address such figures. From 1598 to 1604, she served as mistress of novices and vice prioress.
In the history of spirituality, her *Ecstasies* and *Letters* occupy a prominent place. Alongside profound theological doctrine, they reveal an intensely sensitive soul. There is in her a social mission, a reforming vocation that makes her, despite her cloistered life, a woman of action, concerned with the renewal of the Church. The comparison often drawn between her and St. Catherine of Siena reveals the temperament of this Florentine mystic who, though leading a simple and ordinary life in the cloister, inspired religious with her exhortations and writings toward a more Christian life. Her mystical theory of love, *completely abandoned*, which desires nothing, seeks nothing, and wants nothing except what God wills, which does not consider what perfection one might attain or in what state one finds oneself because her sole aim is to honor God, remained perfectly orthodox, for while the powers of the intellect were stilled, the intellect itself was not annihilated. The thought of M. M. had a great influence among the Quietists, who distorted the meaning of the Saint’s conception by annihilating the intellect itself.
M. M. was canonized by Clement IX in 1669 (the bull was published the following year by Clement X). Her feast is celebrated on 29 May.
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