PATRIZI MONTORO, MADDALENA. - Woman of action and writer, b. in Firenze on 11 July 1866, d. in Roma on 25 March 1945.
Widowed of the Marchese Patrizi at the age of forty-two, she devoted herself to women’s social issues; she founded the Opera nazionale di patronato e mutuo soccorso per le giovani operaie and promoted the cultural assistance of university women. During the First World War she directed the military hospital of the Addolorata. On 26 Dec. 1917 she was appointed president of the Unione donne cattoliche, recently founded; two years later she headed the Unione femminile cattolica italiana, which she herself promoted and brought into being, and remained there until 1934.
She wrote numerous articles in the women’s periodicals Fiamma viva and Il solco and in La nuova antologia; besides short stories, biographies, and tales for children (Quando si fa sera [Roma 1940], Novelle di un tempo che fu [Milano 1931], Memorie di famiglia [ivi 1911]), she published several lives: Pippo buono (life of St. Filippo Neri, Roma 1923); S. Pietro (Torino 1926), Una grande educatrice, Madre Maria Eugenia di Gesù (Isola del Liri 1935).