A widow of the Marquis Patrizi at the age of 42, she devoted herself to women's social issues; she founded the National Opera for patronage and mutual aid for young female workers and promoted cultural assistance for university women. During the First World War, she directed the military hospital of the Addolorata. On 26 December 1917 she was appointed president of the Union of Catholic Women, recently founded; two years later she became head of the Italian Catholic Women's Union, which she herself had promoted and established, and remained in that position until 1934.
She wrote numerous articles for the women's magazines *Fiamma viva* and *Il Solco* and for *La Nuova Antologia*; besides short stories, she published biographies and children's stories (Quando si fa sera [Rome 1940], Novelle di un tempo che fu [Milan 1931], Memorie di famiglia [ibid. 1911]), as well as some 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).