SORDINI, CATERINA. - In religion Maria Maddalena dell'Incarnazione, foundress of the Perpetual Adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament, b. at Porto S. Stefano (Grosseto) on 16 Apr. 1770, d. at Rome on 29 Nov. 1824.
Having entered the Franciscan Tertiaries at Ischia in 1788, and having been elected superior in 1802, she felt impelled to carry out a divine command, already received in a vision, to found a convent where perpetual adoration might be established. Having therefore gone to Rome with two fellow sisters in 1807, she purchased from the Carmelites the house and church of SS. Gioacchino ed Anna alle Quattro Fontane, where, on 8 July, the new Institute of the Adorers began. On 2 Feb. 1808 its Constitutions were approved and continuous exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament was granted; on 22 July 1818 the Institute received the confirmation of Pio VII, subsequently renewed by Gregorio XVI (1838), Leone XIII (1898), and Pio XI (1927). Under Gregorio XVI it obtained a larger convent (S. Maddalena al Quirinale, now S. Gioacchino dei Monti) and soon spread through Italy, Europe, and the Americas.