Patrizi Montoro, Maddalena

PATRIZI MONTORO, MADDALENA. - A woman of action and a writer, b. in Florence on 11 July 1866, d. in Rome on 25 March 1945.

Widowed by the Marquis Patrizi at the age of 42, she devoted herself to women's social problems; she founded the Opera nazionale di patronato e mutuo soccorso per le giovani operaie (National Agency of Patronage and Mutual Aid for Young Women Workers) and promoted the cultural assistance of university women. During the First World War she directed the Addolorata military hospital. On 26 Dec. 1917 she was appointed president of the Unione donne cattoliche (Union of Catholic Women), which had recently been founded; two years later she was at the head of the Unione femminile cattolica italiana (Italian Catholic Women's Union), which she herself had promoted and brought into being, and she remained there until 1934.

She wrote numerous articles for the women's magazines Fiamma viva and Il solco and for La nuova antologia; she published, in addition to short stories, biographies and tales for children (Quando si fa sera [Rome 1940], Novelle di un tempo che fu [Milan 1931], Memorie di famiglia [ibid. 1911]), several lives: Pippo buono (life of St. Philip Neri, Rome 1923); S. Pietro (Turin 1926), Una grande educatrice, Madre Maria Eugenia di Gesù (Isola del Liri 1935).

Augusto Moreschini