Negri, Paola Antonia

NEGRI, PAOLA ANTONIA. - Mystic, in the world Virginia, b. at Castellanza near Gallarate (Milan) in 1508, d. at Milan on 4 April 1555. She was among the first admitted by St. Anthony M. Zaccaria into the new Order of the Angeliche of St. Paul (1535). Elected mistress of the novices, she was, on account of the supernatural gifts with which she seemed endowed, although unlettered, an object of admiration on the part of eminent persons.

Several times in the Veneto, at Vicenza, Verona, Padua, Venice, everywhere she exercised an extraordinary ascendancy that brought about distinguished conversions and religious vocations. This clashed with the political susceptibilities of the Republic which, on the pretext of accusations that were not well specified and even less proved, banished the Barnabites and the Angeliche from the entire Venetian territory (1551). The apostolic visitation that followed imposed enclosure upon the latter and, upon N., segregation in the monastery of S. Chiara (1552). Having however obtained permission to withdraw to a family, when she presented herself to the Poor Clares to re-enter the monastery, she was not received because of her weak health. Taken in by devout persons, she died there at the age of 47.

Whatever the definitive judgment upon her, N. remains always one of the most characteristic figures of the religious movement of the first half of the 16th century.

The Lettere spirituali della devota religiosa angelica P. A. N., milanese. Vita della medesima, edited by G. B. Fontana (Rome 1576) is a scarcely reliable work, because the life smacks of panegyric, and the letters are for the most part by Fr. G. Besozzi.