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Aldobrandesca was "a matron of good standing";[1] when she was a young woman, her parents arranged a marriage for her, which she reluctantly agreed to, although she grew to love him. After seven years, she was widowed but had no children, so she chose to remain celibate and dedicate herself to prayer. She retired to a small house outside Siena, where she participated in almsgiving and mortification.[2][3] She had many visions about the life of Christ.[4]
She eventually gave away all her possessions, moved into a hospital, and devoted herself to serving the poor. She continued to have visions and ecstasies; a story is told about when she was discovered by a nurse while in a trance that looked like catalepsy. The nurse, thinking that Aldobrandesca had died, called other members of the staff, some of which were amazed and some of which were amused and scoffed her; they pinched her, pierced her with needles, and burnt her with lighted candles. When she recovered consciousness, she was injured from their abuse, but she told them, "God forgive you", and it never happened again.[1][3] Loyola Press goes on to state, "That act of forgiveness tells us more about Aldobrandesca than all of her paranormal experiences. Visions and ecstasies may be evidence of a supernatural touch, but mercy expressed to others is a sure sign of divine love. We honor Aldobrandesca as a saint for her charity, not for her trances".[3]
Before Aldobranesca died, she "won the veneration of all, and many were the cures attributed to her ministrations".[5] Loyola Press reports that Aldobranesca was "a popular curiosity" in Siena because of her miracles, visions, and ecstasies.[3] According to hagiographer Alban Butler, her tomb was at one time "a great centre of devotion"[1] at Saint Thomas Church in Siena. Aldobranesca's feast day is April 26.[3]
Loyola Press
[edit]"She associated herself with the Humiliati, an order of penitents who served the poor and the sick".
"Aldobrandesca’s biographer says she had to fight persistent sexual temptations. Erotic memories of relations with her husband bothered her, and she tried to fight them off by wearing a hair shirt. Aldobrandesca’s biographer assures us that it worked, but her ever more extreme bodily penances suggest that the temptation never faded. Gradually, Aldobrandesca simplified her life, giving away her money and belongings. In her old age she moved to a hospital, where she could care for the sick and the poor. Aldobrandesca also made good use of her spiritual gifts".
She healed a boy who was in pain throughout his body by making the sign of the cross over him. She healed a girl whose face was so puffed up that one of her eyes were entirely closed and a woman seriously ill from breast cancer in the same way. She healed another woman with breast cancer, whose doctor recommended surgery, but she reached the woman first and healed her by anointing her with oil and also making the sign of the cross over her; her tumor disappeared.
Aldobrandesca performed her charitable works daily right up to her death on April 26, 1310".
McCarthy, p. 78
[edit]"There was also Saint Aldobrandesca of Siena (ca. 1249-ca. 1309)., widowed and without children after seven years of marriage, who devoted herself to care for the sick as well as the fallen".
McCarthy describes Aldobrandesca in her discussion of the origins of the Magdalene Laundries, "the work done to reform prostitutes in late-Middle-Ages Italy", who "represented a private spiritual calling rather than a municipal or community endeavor". McCarthy groups Aldobrandesca in with the Magdalene Laundries; some of its members practiced asceticism and were flagellants, and "felt one of their importance chartable members was to reform prostitutes".
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c Butler 1990, p. 166.
- ^ Thurston & Attwater 1990, p. 166.
- ^ a b c d e Cite error: The named reference
loyolapresswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Butler 1990, pp. 166–167.
- ^ Butler 1990, p. 167.
Works cited
[edit]Common citations:
[edit]Watkins[1]
Butler[2]
Saintly Women[3]
Baring-Gould[4]
Catholic Encyclopedia[5]
- ^ Watkins, Basil (2015). The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical Dictionary (8th ed.). London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-567-66415-0.
- ^ Butler, Alban (1995). Butler's Lives of the Saints (2 ed.). Westminster, Maryland: Liturgical Press. p. 470. ISBN 0814623778. OCLC 33824974.
- ^ Dunbar, Agnes B.C. (1901). A Dictionary of Saintly Women. Vol. 1. London: George Bell & Sons. p. 237.
- ^ Baring-Gould, Sabine (1877). The Lives of the Saints (3rd ed.). London: J. Hodges. p. 57.
- ^ Herbermann, Charles G., ed. (1907). The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.