NEGRI, PAOLA ANTONIA. — Mystic, in the world Virginia, born in Castellanza near Gallarate (Milan) in 1508, died in Milan on 4 April 1555. She was among the first admitted by St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria to the new *Orto delle Angeliche* of St. Paul (1535). As mistress of novices, she was admired by eminent figures for the supernatural gifts with which she seemed endowed, despite her lack of formal education.
She exercised extraordinary influence in the Veneto region, in Vicenza, Verona, Padua, and Venice, where she brought about notable conversions and vocations. This aroused the political sensitivities of the Venetian Republic, which, under the pretext of vague and unsubstantiated accusations, banished the Barnabites and the Angeliche from its entire territory (1551). The subsequent apostolic visitation imposed enclosure upon them and segregation upon N. in the monastery of St. Clare (1552). However, when she was granted permission to retire to a private household, she was not readmitted to the monastery by the Clarisses due to her poor health. She died at the age of 47 while staying with devout persons.
Whatever the final judgment on her may be, N. remains one of the most distinctive figures of the religious movement of the first half of the 16th century.
*Le Lettere spirituali della devota religiosa angelica P. A. N., milanese. Vita della medesima*, edited by G. B. Fontana (Rome 1576) is an unreliable work, as the biography is hagiographical in tone and many of the letters are actually by Fr. G. Besozzi.