TORELLI, Ludovica, Countess of Guastalla. - Benefactress and lady, b. at Guastalla in 1500, d. at Milan on 28 Oct. 1569.

The only daughter of Achille, duke of Guastalla, at the age of 17 she was the widow of Ludovico Stanga, a Cremonese patrician; at 22 she was orphaned of her father, killed by Ercole Gonzaga at a ball; at 27 she was widowed a second time, after a year of marriage, of Count Antonio Martinengo, a Brescian, murdered by the relatives of his first wife, whom he had killed. At the exhortations of Fra Battista da Crema (v.) she gave herself wholly to works of piety and charity and took the name Paola. Having moved to Milan, she helped St. Anthony M. Zaccaria (v.) in the founding of the Angeliche, for which she erected the convent and church of S. Paolo in Milan and of S. Marta in Cremona; and among them she lived holily, though without wearing their habit or professing their vows. In 1538 she sold to Ferrante Gonzaga the fief of Guastalla and other castles. The convent of the Most Holy Crucifix in Milan, for reformed women, regarded her almost as its foundress. With the Angeliche she took part in the mission of Vicenza (1537), and she was at Ferrara, held in high esteem by Mons. Giberti, and at Venice, where the Barnabites and the Angeliche had assumed the direction of the Hospital of Sts. John and Paul. But when enclosure was imposed on the Angeliche, the T. on 15 Dec. 1553 withdrew first to the widow of the marquis del Vasto, governor of Milan, Maria d'Aragona, princess of Molfetta, then to the convent of the Convertite which she had founded in 1547 at Ferrara. In 1557, at Milan, near S. Barnaba, she founded the College for noble girls fallen into poverty, which the people called, as also the street in which it arose, "della Guastalla," and Porta Ludovica one of the gates of the city. She entrusted its spiritual direction to the Jesuits, and here, comforted by the visit of St. Charles, she expired after 12 years of a most pious life. She was laid in the church of S. Fedele; but with the recent transfer of the College, ruined by the bombardments (1943), from Milan to a villa near Monza, the body of the pious foundress was also transported there and buried in the chapel.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: P. Morigia (v.), Historia della meravigliosa conversione e vita esemplare e beata fine dell'Ulma L. T. contessa di Guariella, Berzani 1592; C. G. Rosignoli, Vita e virtù della contessa L. T., Milano 1686; O. Premoli, Storia dei Barnabiti nel '500, Roma 1913, passim; G. Boffito, Scrittori barnabiti, II, Firenze 1934, pp. 534-40, and IV, ibid. 1937, p. 50. Manuscripts in the general Archive of the Barnabites of Rome: A. P. A. Sfondrati (d. in 1803), Dell'origine e progressi del monastero di S. Paolo; L. M. Torelli B., Della vita di Paola M. Torella (1656).

Virginio M. Colciago

@incollection{ec12_torelli_ludovica_contessa_di_g, author = {Colciago, Virginio Maria}, title = {Torelli, ludovica, contessa di guastalla}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {316--317}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/torelli-ludovica-contessa-di-guastalla} }

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Torelli, Ludovica, Countess of Guastalla

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