Sainte Marie-Madeleine de Pazzi, vierge
Marie-Madeleine De Pazzi
(1566-1607), carmélite florentine, fut appelée par le Seigneur aux plus hautes
expériences mystiques à travers des purifications douloureuses. Mais c'est en
cheminant humblement dans la pauvreté, la chasteté et l'obéissance qu'elle
assurait sa montée vers Dieu et qu'elle y conduisait les autres.
SOURCE : http://www.paroisse-saint-aygulf.fr/index.php/prieres-et-liturgie/saints-par-mois/icalrepeat.detail/2015/05/25/101/-/sainte-marie-madeleine-de-pazzi-vierge
SAINTE MARIE-MADELEINE de PAZZI
Vierge, Carmélite
(1566-1607)
Sainte Marie-Madeleine de Pazzi, l'une des fleurs les plus suaves qui aient embaumé les jardins du Carmel, naquit à Florence. Dès l'âge de sept ans, à l'école du Ciel, elle était formée à l'oraison, et elle paraissait presque un prodige de mortification. Toute une nuit elle porta une couronne d'épines sur sa tête, avec des douleurs inexprimables, pour imiter son Amour crucifié. Chaque fois que sa mère avait communié, l'enfant s'approchait d'elle et ne pouvait plus la quitter, attirée par la douce odeur de Jésus-Christ.
A partir de sa Première Communion, elle fut prête à tous les sacrifices, et c'est dès lors qu'elle fit à Jésus le voeu de n'avoir jamais d'autre époux que Lui. Aussi, quand plus tard, son père voulut la marier: "Je livrerais plutôt, s'écria-t-elle, ma tête au bourreau que ma chasteté à un homme."
La sainte épouse du Christ entra au Carmel, parce qu'on y communiait presque tous les jours. Dès lors sa vie est un miracle continuel; elle ne vit que d'extases, de ravissements, de souffrances, d'amour. Pendant cinq années, elle fut assaillie d'affreuses tentations; son arme était l'oraison, durant laquelle elle s'écriait souvent; "Où êtes-Vous, mon Dieu, où êtes-Vous?" Un jour, tentée plus fortement qu'à l'ordinaire, elle se jeta dans un buisson d'épines, d'où elle sortit ensanglantée, mais victorieuse.
Elle avait tant de plaisir à proférer ces mots: "La Volonté de Dieu!" qu'elle les répétait continuellement, disant à ses soeurs: "Ne sentez-vous pas combien il est doux de nommer la Volonté de Dieu?" Un jour, ravie en extase, elle alla par tout le couvent en criant: "Mes soeurs, oh! que la Volonté de Dieu est aimable!" Il plut à Dieu de la crucifier longtemps par des douleurs indicibles, qui la clouaient sur son lit, dans un état d'immobilité en même temps que de sensibilité extraordinaire. Loin de demander soulagement, elle s'écriait bien souvent: "Toujours souffrir et ne jamais mourir!"
Son coeur était un brasier ardent consumé par l'amour. Quinze jours avant sa mort, elle dit: "Je quitterai le monde sans avoir pu comprendre comment la créature peut se résoudre à commettre un péché contre son Créateur." Elle répétait souvent: "Si je savais qu'en disant une parole à une autre fin que pour l'amour de Dieu, je dusse devenir plus grande qu'un Séraphin, je ne le ferais jamais." Près de mourir, ses dernières paroles à ses soeurs furent celles-ci: "Je vous prie, au nom de Notre-Seigneur, de n'aimer que Lui seul!"
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/sainte_marie-madeleine_de_pazzi.html
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/sainte_marie-madeleine_de_pazzi.html
Sainte Marie-Madeleine de Pazzi, vierge
Morte à Florence le 25 mai 1607. Canonisé en 1669 par Clément IX.
Clément X inscrivit sa fête en 1670 sous le rite semi-double au 25 mai. Elle fut reportée au 27 mai lors de l’institution de la fête de saint Grégoire VIII en 1728, puis au 29 en 1899 pour céder la place à Saint Bède le Vénérable.
Leçons des Matines avant 1960
Quatrième leçon. Née à Florence de l’illustre famille des Pazzi, Marie-Madeleine prit, on peut dire, dès son berceau, le chemin de la perfection. A dix ans, elle fit vœu de chasteté. Ayant revêtu l’habit de carmélite au monastère de Notre-Dame des Anges, elle se montra un modèle de toutes les vertus. Elle était si pure qu’elle ignorait absolument ce qui peut blesser la pureté. Sur l’ordre de Dieu, elle jeûna pendant cinq ans au pain et à l’eau, sauf les dimanches, où elle usait des mets permis en Carême. Elle châtiait son corps par le cilice, les flagellations, le froid, le jeûne, les veilles, l’insuffisance du vêtement et par toutes sortes de mortifications.
Cinquième leçon. Le feu de l’amour divin la brûlait à ce point que, ne pouvant le supporter, elle était obligée de se rafraîchir la poitrine avec de l’eau. Souvent ravie hors d’elle-même, Marie-Madeleine avait des extases prolongées et merveilleuses ; dans ces extases, elle pénétrait les mystères célestes, et recevait de Dieu des faveurs insignes. Ainsi fortifiée elle soutint un long combat contre les princes des ténèbres, en proie qu’elle fut à la sécheresse, à la désolation, abandonnée de tout le monde et tourmentée de tentations diverses : Dieu le permettant, pour qu’elle devint le modèle d’une invincible patience et de l’humilité la plus profonde.
Sixième leçon. Sa charité envers le prochain a été particulièrement remarquable : souvent elle passait des nuits sans dormir, soit pour accomplir les tâches de ses sœurs, soit pour servir celles qui étaient malades, et elle en a guéri plusieurs en suçant leurs ulcères. Elle déplorait amèrement que les infidèles et les pécheurs fussent en voie de perdition, et s’offrait à endurer tous les tourments pour leur salut. Une vertu héroïque l’ayant fait renoncer, bien des années avant sa mort, à toutes les délices dont le Ciel la comblait, elle répétait souvent : « Souffrir et non mourir ». Enfin, épuisée par une longue et douloureuse infirmité, elle alla se réunir à l’Époux, le vingt-cinq mai -mil six cent sept, à l’âge de quarante et un ans. De nombreux miracles accomplis avant et après sa mort l’ont rendue célèbre. Clément IX l’a inscrite au nombre des saintes Vierges, et son corps s’est jusqu’à présent conservé sans corruption.
Dom Guéranger, l’Année Liturgique
Le Cycle pascal nous offre trois illustres vierges que l’Italie a produites. Nous avons salué dans notre admiration la vaillante Catherine de Sienne ; sous peu de jours, nous célébrerons Angèle de Mérici, entourée de son essaim de jeunes filles ; aujourd’hui le lis de Florence, Madeleine de Pazzi, embaume toute l’Église de ses parfums. Elle a été l’amante et l’imitatrice du divin crucifié ; n’est-il pas juste qu’elle ait part aux allégresses de sa résurrection ?
Madeleine de Pazzi a brillé sur le Carmel par son éclatante pureté et par l’ardeur de son amour. Elle a été, comme Philippe Néri, l’une des plus éclatantes manifestations de la divine charité au sein de la vraie Église, se consumant à l’ombre du cloître comme Philippe dans les labeurs du ministère des âmes, ayant recueilli l’un et l’autre, pour l’accomplir en eux, cette parole de l’Homme-Dieu : « Je suis venu allumer le feu sur la terre ; et quel est mon désir, sinon qu’il s’enflamme [1] ? »
La vie de l’Épouse du Christ fut un miracle continuel. L’extase et les ravissements étaient journaliers chez elle. Les plus vives lumières lui furent communiquées sur les mystères, et, afin de l’épurer davantage pour ces sublimes communications, Dieu lui fit traverser les plus redoutables épreuves de la vie spirituelle. Elle triompha de tout, et son amour montant toujours, elle ne trouvait plus de repos que dans la souffrance, par laquelle seule elle pouvait alimenter le feu qui la consumait. En même temps son cœur débordait d’amour pour les hommes ; elle eût voulu les sauver tous, et sa charité si ardente pour lésâmes s’étendait avec héroïsme jusqu’à leurs corps. Tant que dura ici-bas cette existence toute séraphique, le ciel regarda Florence avec une complaisance particulière ; et le souvenir de tant de merveilles a maintenu dans cette ville, après plus de deux siècles, un culte fervent à l’égard de l’insigne épouse du Sauveur des hommes.
L’un des plus frappants caractères de la divinité et de la sainteté de l’Église apparaît dans ces existences privilégiées, sur lesquelles se montre avec tant d’éclat l’action directe des mystères de notre salut. « Dieu a tant aimé le monde, qu’il lui a donné son Fils unique [2] » ; et ce Fils de Dieu daigne se passionner pour une de ses créatures, produisant en elle de tels effets, que tous les hommes sont à même d’y prendre une idée de l’amour dont son Cœur divin est embrasé pour ce monde qu’il a racheté au prix de son sang. Heureux ceux qui savent goûter ce spectacle, qui savent rendre grâces pour de tels dons ! Ils ont la vraie lumière, tandis que ceux qui s’étonnent et hésitent font voir que les lueurs qui sont en eux luttent encore avec les ténèbres de la nature déchue. L’espace qui nous reste ne nous permet pas, à notre grand regret, de développer davantage le caractère et la vie de notre sainte.
Votre vie ici-bas, ô Madeleine, a semblé celle d’un ange que la volonté divine eût captivé sous les lois de notre nature inférieure et déchue. Toutes vos aspirations vous entraînaient au delà des conditions de la vie présente, et Jésus se plaisait à irriter en vous cette soif d’amour qui ne pouvait s’apaiser qu’aux sources jaillissantes de la vie éternelle [3]. Une lumière céleste vous révélait les mystères divins, votre cœur ne pouvait contenir les trésors de vérité et d’amour que l’Esprit-Saint y accumulait ; et alors votre énergie se réfugiait dans le sacrifice et dans la souffrance, comme si l’anéantissement de vous-même eût pu seul acquitter la dette que vous aviez contractée envers le grand Dieu qui vous comblait de ses faveurs les plus chères.
Âme de séraphin, comment vous suivrons-nous ? Qu’est notre amour auprès du vôtre ? Nous pouvons cependant nous attacher de loin à vos traces. L’année liturgique était le centre de votre existence ; chacune de ses saisons mystérieuses agissait sur vous, et vous apportait, avec de nouvelles lumières, de nouvelles ardeurs. L’Enfant divin de Bethlehem, la sanglante Victime de la croix, le glorieux Époux vainqueur de la mort, l’Esprit rayonnant de sept dons ineffables, vous ravissaient tour à tour ; et votre âme, renouvelée par cette succession de merveilles, se transformait toujours plus en celui qui, pour s’emparer de nos cœurs, a daigné se traduire lui-même dans ces gestes immortels que la sainte Église nous fait repasser chaque année avec le secours d’une grâce toujours nouvelle. Vous aimiez ardemment les âmes durant votre vie mortelle, ô Madeleine ; votre amour s’est accru encore dans la possession du bien suprême ; obtenez-nous la lumière pour voir mieux ce qui ravissait toutes vos puissances, l’ardeur de l’amour pour aimer mieux ce qui passionnait votre cœur.
[1] Luc. XII. 40.
[2] Johan. III, l6.
[3] Johan. IV, 14.
Bhx Cardinal Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum
La fête de cette âme séraphique du Carmel de Florence (+ 25 mai 1607), fut d’abord introduite par Clément X dans le calendrier le 27 du même mois, mais avec le rite semi-double. Quand, en 1900, Léon XIII étendit, pour le même jour, l’office du vénérable Bède à l’Église universelle, sainte Marie-Madeleine dut céder la place au nouveau docteur et sa fête fut transférée au 29.
La messe est celle du Commun des Vierges, comme le 10 février. La première collecte est propre.
Parmi les dons spéciaux qui ont rendu célèbre sainte Marie-Madeleine, de la très noble famille des Pazzi de Florence, notons le parfum qui, maintenant encore, émane de sa dépouille virginale conservée sans corruption.
Les nombreuses révélations qu’eut la Sainte sont également célèbres ; parmi elles il en est une qui concerne l’immense gloire obtenue dans le ciel par saint Louis de Gonzague. Une belle maxime de la Sainte est aussi remarquable. Sainte Thérèse avait coutume de répéter : « Ou souffrir, ou mourir. » Sainte Marie-Madeleine modifia cette parole, et en compléta la signification : « Non pas mourir, mais souffrir. » De fait, toute notre gloire future dépend de la part que nous aurons eue à la passion de Jésus. C’est seulement pour cela que la vie est précieuse.
Dom Pius Parsch, le Guide dans l’année liturgique
Souffrir, ne pas mourir.
Sainte Marie-Madeleine. — Jour de mort : 25 mai 1607. Tombeau : dans le couvent des carmélites, à Florence. Image : On la représente en Carmélite, avec un cierge allumé et une couronne d’épines. Vie : Sainte Marie-Madeleine de Pazzi fut une grande mystique. Elle fit, dès l’âge de 10 ans, le vœu de virginité. Elle entra au couvent des carmélites déchaussées de Florence. Son principal motif fut que, dans ce couvent, on communiait presque tous les jours. Pendant cinq ans, elle ne vécut que de pain et d’eau. Elle se soumit aux plus dures pénitences. Pendant cinq ans, elle connut de grandes sécheresses d’esprit. Son mot de prédilection était : « Souffrir, ne pas mourir ». Elle mourut à l’âge de 41 ans. Son corps a été conservé jusqu’à nos jours, sans corruption, dans une chasse précieuse de cristal, dans l’église des carmélites de Florence.
Pratique : La pureté du cœur et l’amour du Christ sont les vertus principales que l’Église admire dans notre sainte. Ce sont ces vertus qui rendirent son âme capable d’adopter cette devise : « Souffrir, ne pas mourir ». La pureté et l’amour du Seigneur, ce sont aussi les vertus que l’Église voudrait nous voir pratiquer à l’exemple des saints. Sans doute, nous ne pourrons pas arriver à une telle perfection ; essayons du moins, par amour pour le Christ, de souffrir patiemment. — La messe est du commun des vierges (Dilexísti). C’est la belle messe de fiançailles, une des plus belles, dans son unité, de tout le missel.
LETTRE DU PAPE BENOÎT XVI
À L’ARCHEVÊQUE DE FLORENCE
À L’ OCCASION DU IV CENTENAIRE DE LA MORT
DE SAINTE MARIE MADDALENA DE’ PAZZI
A mon vénéré Frère
Monsieur le Cardinal Ennio ANTONELLI
Archevêque de Florence
A l’occasion du IV centenaire de la mort de Sainte Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, je suis heureux de m’unir à la bien-aimée Église florentine, qui souhaite rappeler cette illustre fille, particulièrement chère, ayant été une figure emblématique d’un amour vivant qui renvoie à la dimension mystique essentielle de toute vie chrétienne. Tout en vous saluant avec affection, Monsieur le Cardinal, ainsi que toute la Communauté diocésaine, je rends grâce à Dieu pour le don de cette Sainte, que chaque génération redécouvre singulièrement proche dans sa manière de savoir communiquer un amour ardent pour le Christ et pour l’Église.
Née à Florence le 2 avril 1566, et baptisée sur les fonts du "beau Saint Jean" sous le nom de Caterina, Sainte Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi montra dès son enfance une sensibilité particulière pour le surnaturel et fut attirée par le dialogue intime avec Dieu. Comme de coutume pour les jeunes filles d’une maison noble, son éducation fut confiée aux Dames de Malte, dans le monastère desquelles elle reçut la première communion le 25 mars 1576 et à peine quelques jours plus tard, se consacra pour toujours au Seigneur à travers une promesse de virginité. Revenue dans sa famille, elle approfondit le chemin de la prière avec l’aide des Pères jésuites, qui fréquentaient le palais. Elle réussit habilement à ne pas se laisser conditionner par les exigences mondaines d’un milieu qui, bien que chrétien, ne lui suffisait pas dans son désir de devenir plus conforme à son Époux crucifié. Dans ce contexte, elle mûrit la décision de quitter le monde et d’entrer au Carmel de Sainte-Marie-des-Anges, à Borgo san Frediano, où, le 30 janvier 1583, elle reçut l’habit du Carmel et le nom de sœur Maria Maddalena. Après être tombée gravement malade en mars 1584, elle demanda de pouvoir émettre sa profession de façon anticipée et, le 27 mai, fête de la Trinité, portée en chœur sur une civière, elle prononça pour toujours devant le Seigneur ses vœux de chasteté, de pauvreté et d’obéissance.
A partir de ce moment-là commença une intense période mystique qui allait apporter à la Sainte la renommée de grande extatique. Il existe cinq manuscrits sur lesquels les Carmélites de Sainte-Marie-des-Anges ont rapporté les expériences extraordinaires de leur jeune consœur. "Les Quarante Jours" de l’été 1584 sont suivis par "Les Entretiens" de la première moitié de l’année suivante. Le sommet de la connaissance mystique que Dieu accorda à Maria Maddalena se trouve dans "Révélations et Intelligences" huit jours de splendides extases, qui vont de la veille de la Pentecôte à la fête de la Trinité de l’année 1585. Une intense expérience qui, à l’âge de 19 ans seulement, la rendait capable de couvrir tout le mystère du salut, de l’incarnation du Verbe dans le sein de Marie à la descente de l’Esprit Saint lors de la Pentecôte. Suivirent cinq longues années de purification intérieure - Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi en parle dans le livre "Probatione" -, au cours desquelles le Verbe son Epoux lui ôta le sentiment de la grâce et la laissa comme Daniel dans la fosse aux lions, parmi de nombreuses épreuves et de grandes tentations. C’est dans ce contexte que s’inscrit son ardent engagement pour le renouveau de l’Église, après que, au cours de l’été 1586, des éclats de lumière venus d’En-Haut vinrent lui indiquer le véritable état où elle se trouvait à l’époque post-tridentine. Comme Catherine de Sienne, elle se sentit "forcée" à écrire certaines lettres pour solliciter auprès du Pape, des Cardinaux de la Curie, de son Archevêque et d’autres personnalités ecclésiastiques, un engagement décidé pour le "Renouveau de l’Église", comme le dit le titre du manuscrit qui les contient. Il s’agit de douze lettres dictées en extase, peut-être jamais expédiées, mais qui demeurent comme le témoignage de sa passion pour la Sponsa Verbi.
Avec la Pentecôte de 1590 prit fin la dure épreuve. Cela lui permit de se consacrer de toutes ses forces au service de la communauté et en particulier à la formation des novices. Sœur Maria Maddalena eut le don de vivre la communion avec Dieu sous une forme toujours plus intériorisée, si bien qu’elle devint une référence pour toute la communauté qui, aujourd’hui encore, continue à la considérer comme une "mère". L’amour purifié qui battait dans son cœur l’ouvrait au désir de la pleine conformité avec le Christ, son Époux, jusqu’à partager avec Lui la "souffrance nue" de la Croix. Les trois dernières années de sa vie furent pour elle un vrai calvaire de souffrances. La phtisie commença à se manifester clairement : Sœur Maria Maddalena se vit contrainte de se retirer peu à peu de la vie active de la communauté pour se plonger toujours davantage dans la "souffrance nue pour l’amour de Dieu". Elle connut l’oppression d’atroces souffrances physiques et spirituelles qui durèrent jusqu’à sa mort, qui eut lieu le vendredi 25 mai 1607. Elle s’éteignit vers trois heures de l’après-midi, alors qu’une joie insolite envahissait tout le monastère.
Vingt ans à peine s’étaient écoulés depuis sa mort que le Souverain Pontife florentin Urbain VIII la proclamait déjà Bienheureuse. Ce fut ensuite le Pape Clément IX qui l’inscrivit dans l’Album des Saints le 28 avril 1669. Son corps préservé de toute corruption est la destination de constants pèlerinages. Le monastère où la Sainte vécut est aujourd’hui le Siège du séminaire archiépiscopal de Florence, qui la vénère comme Patronne, et la cellule où elle mourut est devenue une chapelle dans le silence de laquelle on perçoit encore sa présence.
Sainte Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi demeure une présence spirituelle inspiratrice pour les Carmélites de l’Ancienne Observance. En elle, elles voient la "sœur" qui a parcouru entièrement le chemin de l’union transformatrice avec Dieu, et qui indique en Marie l’"étoile" du chemin vers la perfection. Pour tous, cette grande Sainte a le don d’être une maîtresse de spiritualité, en particulier pour les prêtres, envers lesquels elle a toujours nourri une véritable passion.
Je souhaite vivement que les célébrations jubilaires actuelles de sa mort contribuent à faire connaître toujours davantage cette figure lumineuse qui manifeste à tous la dignité et la beauté de la vocation chrétienne. Tout comme, lorsqu’elle était en vie, en sonnant les cloches, elle appelait ses consœurs par le cri "Venez aimer l’amour !", puisse la grande Mystique de Florence, de son séminaire, des monastères carmélites qui s’inspirent d’elle, faire entendre aujourd’hui encore sa voix dans toute l’Église, en diffusant l’annonce de l’amour de Dieu pour toute créature humaine.
Avec ce souhait, je vous confie, Vénéré Frère, ainsi que l’Église florentine, à la céleste protection de Sainte Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi et je donne à tous de tout cœur une Bénédiction apostolique particulière.
Du Vatican, le 29 avril 2007
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
© Copyright 2007 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Marie-Madeleine de’ Pazzi, le trésor caché de l’Église
Quatre cents ans après sa mort, des études et des documents inédits jettent une nouvelle lumière sur la spiritualité “pascale” et joyeuse de la sainte mystique de Florence
par Chiara Vasciaveo
Les notes originales des Colloqui de sainte Marie-Madeleine de’ Pazzi, minutes trouvées en 2005 par Chiara Vasciaveo, Archives de Sainte-Marie-des- Anges, Florence
Le 25 mai 2007, a été célébré le quatrième centenaire de la mort de Sainte Marie-Madeleine (1566-1607), carmélite florentine et maîtresse de vie spirituelle. Sa réputation de sainteté auprès du peuple et du clergé était telle que les procès pour sa béatification commencèrent très tôt, dès 1611. Elle fut proclamée bienheureuse par Urbain VIII le 8 mai 1626, et canonisée le 28 avril 1669 par Clément IX.
Des savants éminents affirment que «Marie-Madeleine de’ Pazzi est, avec Angèle de Foligno et Catherine de Sienne, la sainte italienne dont les textes spirituels sont les plus connus»1. Des nombreux témoins catholiques qui font autorité ont exprimé leur estime pour son témoignage et pour sa parole. Des vénérables comme Diomire du Verbe Incarné (Marguerite Allegri, 1651-1677), membre de l’ordre des Sœurs Établies de la Charité (Philippines de Florence), des bienheureux comme Hyppolite Galantini (†1619) ou des saints comme Alphonse Marie de Liguori (1696-1787)2 et Thérèse de Lisieux (1873-1897)3, ont nourri pour la sainte mystique de Florence une vénération significative.
Paul VI aimait relire ses œuvres, tandis que don Divo Barsotti, au cours de sa dernière visite aux religieuses de Careggi, ne craignait pas de déclarer en des termes intensément autobiographiques: «Sainte Marie-Madeleine vit sa mission d’amour pour nous... C’est pour cela que je voudrais lui confier ma propre personne, ainsi que toute la communauté de Saint Serge... elle a été l’amie, le secours, la lumière de mon chemin. Nous l’en remercions infiniment. Je n’aurais jamais pensé que nous aurait été donnée sur cette terre une expérience vivante et profonde, parfaitement divine»4.
Malheureusement, une dévotion peu avertie et des zélateurs imprudents de son témoignage ont divulgué la vision baroque de la sainte à l’aide de textes et d’images (c’est-à-dire en présentant de son vécu une interprétation particulière, qui en accentue les aspects extraordinaires), en faisant abstraction des paroles de la sainte. Or celles-ci, fortes et tranchantes, sont capables, dans leur pressante demande de renouvellement ecclésial, de s’imprimer au fer rouge dans le cœur de ceux qui les écoutent. C’est peut-être pour cette raison que les écrits authentiques de la carmélite sont si peu fréquentés, même dans ce quadricentenaire, avec les risques que l’on peut imaginer.
Il existe différents modèles de sainteté chrétienne. En général, on comprend assez facilement les missions caractérisées par le service de la charité et de la miséricorde. En revanche, il n’est pas aussi simple d’accepter les dons prophétiques, caractérisés moins par “la prédiction de l’avenir” que par un authentique magistère spirituel, inspiré par l’écoute de la Parole et attesté par la cohérence de la vie.
Une vie cachée
La biographie de sainte Marie-Madeleine n’est pas caractérisée par beaucoup d’événements. C’est dans l’une des familles les plus en vue de la noblesse florentine, de Marie Buondelmonti et de Camillo di Geri de’ Pazzi que naquit le 2 avril 1566 Caterina, leur deuxième fille. Elle fut pensionnaire à deux reprises chez les Chevalières de Malte, à San Giovannino, de 1574 à 1578 et de 1580 à 1581. Elle choisit, trop jeune peut-être, de devenir carmélite en entrant à Sainte-Marie-des-Anges à seize ans, le 27 novembre 1582, peu de temps après la fin du Concile de Trente (1545-1563).
Les cinq premières années de sa vie monastique sont les plus connues de la biographie de Marie-Madeleine. “Absences”, “ravissements”, dramatisations d’épisodes évangéliques s’entrecroisaient avec la vie ordinaire de la jeune carmélite. En réalité, on regroupe sous ces étiquettes une variété de phénomènes forts diversifiés fondés sur la méditation orante de la Parole. Dans le grand carmel de Sainte-Marie-des-Anges (le plus ancien de l’ordre), riche de presque quatre-vingt religieuses à l’époque où y vécut Marie-Madeleine, plusieurs moniales étaient d’un haut profil spirituel, de la mère Evangelista Del Giocondo à Pacifica del Tovaglia, l’une des principales “secrétaires” et amies de la sainte.
Pendant environ vingt ans, cette dernière mena la vie tissée de prière et de travail qui est celle des monastères cloîtrés. D’abord vicaire pour l’accueil des jeunes filles qui fréquentaient la maison d’hôtes (1586-1589), elle fut engagée, à des titres variés, dans la formation des novices à partir de 1589 et devint sous-prieure en 1604. Elle tomba ensuite malade et passa les trois dernières années de sa vie dans les tourments du corps et de l’esprit, pour s’éteindre le 25 mai 1607, à l’âge de quarante et un ans.
« Si Dieu est communicatif »
Le carmel de Sainte-Marie-des-Anges était lié depuis plusieurs années à des cercles féminins proches de la pensée de Savonarole. Y circulaient depuis longtemps des témoignages et des sources manuscrites sur des femmes célèbres et estimées comme les dominicaines sainte Catherine de’ Ricci da Prato (1522-1590) et la bienheureuse Maria Bartolomea de’ Bagnesi (1514-1577), dont le corps est encore vénéré aujourd’hui dans le carmel florentin et dont le confesseur devint, à partir de 1563, le gouverneur même du monastère.
On a parlé plus haut de l’importance des Saintes Écritures. Un témoin précisait pendant le procès canonique: «Je me souviens en particulier que chaque samedi, prenant le livre de l’évangile, elle tirait de l’évangile du dimanche suivant deux ou trois passages de son choix; elle s’exerçait dans la méditation de ces textes pendant toute la semaine, en consacrant environ deux heures chaque matin et une heure chaque soir à cette méditation» (Sum 57). C’est de cette familiarité, qu’elle avait mûri dans les milieux franciscains et dominicains, que naquit sa compréhension personnelle de Dieu comme Dieu communicatif.
La surabondante effusion de l’Esprit, reçue en particulier à la Pentecôte de l’an 1585, conduisit la jeune carmélite sur les voies austères d’un désert, le désert inhérent à la créature et à l’Église qui peinent à faire place à une telle grâce et à la nécessité de grandir dans la miséricorde d’un Dieu qui est «Père très passionné», Verbe donateur d’un «baiser de paix» et Esprit, feu qui transforme5. Ce qui est sûr, au-delà de trop de sentimentalismes que ses dévots n’ont fait qu’exacerber, c’est que le plus grand don que Marie-Madeleine de’ Pazzi puisse faire à notre temps, c’est le caractère central de la Trinité dans la vie spirituelle et dans la vie ecclésiale.
Ainsi, la rencontre avec le Dieu communion enrichit sainte Marie Madeleine non seulement d’une joie profonde, mais aussi d’une prise de conscience graduelle du fait que beaucoup d’hommes et de femmes, extérieurement chrétiens et même, ce qui est pire, religieux et prêtres, répondent à l’offre du Fils et de son Esprit de manière inadéquate. Aimer le Christ, pour sainte Marie-Madeleine, n’a pas seulement voulu dire s’arrêter affectivement sur la considération de ses plaies physiques, mais aussi mûrir un amour passionné pour le corps blessé et déchiré du Christ qu’est l’Église. Pour elle, par exemple, accueillir le Christ a voulu dire ouvrir les yeux sur ses attentes déçues par rapport à une vie religieuse riche de rites, mais pauvre de relations fraternelles.
Aimer le Christ et son Église, malgré la médiocrité – ou, comme elle disait, la «maudite tiédeur» – de tant de baptisés et de «christs» (prêtres), ce fut certainement pour elle «Enfer et Paradis en même temps»; et l’on comprend alors que l’unique don de l’Esprit l’ eût “ obligée”, comme sainte Catherine de Sienne et Savonarole, à entreprendre une œuvre estimée, mais restée inécoutée dans les faits, de «rénovation de l’Église».
De son côté, elle répondit malgré tout à la mission qui lui fut confiée, à travers les rencontres interpersonnelles et les lettres datées (mais pas toujours envoyées) au Pape lui-même et aux cardinaux, en leur rappelant qu’ils avaient tous le devoir de mener une vie personnelle et ecclésiale fondée sur la nudité de l’Évangile.
Pour être épouse et non servante
La mystique de Marie-Madeleine, dans le sillage de Catherine de Sienne, est une mystique ecclésiale qui appelle le peuple de Dieu tout entier à la conversion, non pas pour le “réprimander”, comme certains le soutiennent, mais pour que devant l’Esprit qui frappe à la porte, quelqu’un «s’ouvre à ce don».
Qu’il est beau, le témoignage (dont on a retrouvé l’original) rendu par la prieure Evangelista le premier mai 1595: «moi, sœur Vangelista, en honneur du Père éternel. Je me souviens qu’en ce jour du premier mai 1595, sœur Marie-Madeleine a promis à Dieu de vouloir être son épouse, non sa servante pour son plus grand honneur et pour qu’Il se complaise en elle et trouve une plus grande aide en son don; elle a promis de marcher nue avec son Dieu et de n’entendre que Sa voix et celle de ceux qui en tiennent lieu et, quand elle aurait un doute à propos de quelque chose, elle veut prendre conseil d’abord auprès du Christ nu et de l’âme la plus nue que trouveront ses yeux et ses supérieurs»6.
Si l’on s’en tient aux textes et non aux commentaires, il semble en effet que le cœur de l’expérience de Marie-Madeleine ne se concentre pas sur la souffrance (engendrée aussi par les problèmes de santé et par une ascèse peu équilibrée), mais consiste dans l’approfondissement théologal d’une alliance de noces avec le Seigneur, riche d’un “amour pur” – elle aimait dire «mort» – à savoir l’amour d’une épouse. Elle vécut de cet amour pascal, enraciné dans le sang divinisant de l’Eucharistie, grâce au souffle de l’Esprit. De cet amour a pu jaillir sa fragile parole de femme, pétrie de la force de l’Évangile. De tout cela, son corps intact, non corrompu, est l’humble témoignage, vénéré dans le carmel florentin de Sainte-Marie-des-Anges et gardé encore aujourd’hui par la présence orante de ses sœurs.
Un trésor caché à redécouvrir, pour l’Église florentine et pour l’Église universelle. Don Barsotti espérait qu’un jour, sainte Marie-Madeleine serait reconnue comme docteur de l’Église. Les nombreux pèlerins qui la “rencontrent” et se rendent auprès de son corps, venus de plusieurs continents par des voies presque impensables, font réfléchir sur la nécessité de faire entendre sa voix et d’accomplir sa mission.
Notes
1 G. Pozzi – C. Leonardi, Scrittrici mistiche italiane, Marietti, Gênes 1988, p. 419.
2 Cf. Saint Alphonse M. de Liguori, La vera sposa di Gesù Cristo, Casa Mariana, Frigento 1991, pp. 23.25.29.39.157 ss.
3 Cf. Thérèse de l’Enfant Jésus, Opere complete di santa Teresa di Gesù Bambino e del volto Santo. Scritti e ultime parole, Librairie Éditrice Vaticane – Éd. OCD, Rome 1997, ms. A, 183.
4 D. Barsotti, Riflessioni (12 juillet 2005), transcription, Careggi 2005.
5 C. Vasciaveo, Danzare al passo di Dio. Santa Maria Maddalena di Firenze, Cantagalli, Sienne 2006; “en nous une source d’eau vive”. Mistica e profezia in santa Maria Maddalena di Firenze, in Horeb, 46 (2007), n. 1.
6 Promessa (1er mai 1595), in Miscellanea Santa Maria Maddalena, Archives de Sainte-Marie-des-Anges, 1.4.IA.2
Présentation de Sainte Marie Madeleine de Pazzi
En France, malgré une certaine renommée, sainte Marie Madeleine de Pazzi (1566-1607) est encore peu connue car les publications qui la concernent sont d’accès difficile. Elle jouissait d’une grande popularité au XVIIe siècle, grâce surtout aux Carmes de la Réforme de Touraine qui firent connaître sa vie et son message, et favorisèrent le développement de son culte. L’auteur français le plus considérable est sans doute le P. Léon de Saint Jean. On lui doit plusieurs ouvrages dont une biographie de sainte Marie Madeleine de Pazzi qui connut un grand succès jusqu’à la sixième édition en 1669.
Mais le XVIIIe siècle, époque difficile pour les mystiques, annonçait des temps tragiques. La Révolution française allait chasser de France les Carmes qui affectionnaient la vie et le message de la sainte florentine. Malgré cela, on continua à s’y intéresser à travers des traductions. En 1837, paraissait la “Vie de sainte Marie-Madeleine de Pazzi” par son confesseur, le jésuite Cepari, qui connaîtra cinq éditions successives. En 1873, Dom Anselme Bruniaux, prieur de la Chartreuse de Valbonne, publiait à Paris les “Oeuvres de sainte Marie Madeleine de Pazzi”. Il s’agit d’une anthologie de textes de la sainte. Au XXe siècle, nous devons citer la biographie de Maurice Vaussard “Sainte Marie-Madeleine de’ Pazzi” qui connut trois éditions de 1921 à 1925, et, du même auteur, “Extases et lettres de Sainte Marie-Madeleine de’ Pazzi”, précieux mais bien modeste recueil d’écrits de la carmélite florentine.
* * *
J’ai voulu rendre accessible la pensée et la vie de sainte Marie Madeleine de Pazzi, l’une des plus grandes mystiques de l’Eglise catholique. C’est un geste de gratitude envers la sainte dont l’ouvrage « I Quaranta giorni » a été mon compagnon dans un passage délicat de ma vie. J’ai puisé dans cet écrit des lumières, des raisons d’espérer, qui m’ont aidé à résister à l’abattement et au découragement. L’ouverture à la contemplation de l’amour de Dieu et à la participation aux souffrances du Christ ont rempli d’un sens nouveau cette épreuve. Depuis lors, je n’ai plus quitté Marie Madeleine de Pazzi, et elle ne m’a plus quitté. De cette expérience est né le désir de la faire connaître et aimer, de partager avec d’autres personnes la joie de cette amitié et de cette rencontre.
Je me suis donc engagé dans la traduction des œuvres de la sainte, en commençant par « Les Quarante Jours ». Ce fut un travail long mais aussi une expérience d’amitié spirituelle avec les personnes qui m’ont aidé, soit pour améliorer mon français, soit pour bien saisir et donc bien exprimer certains passages difficiles du texte italien. La recherche de l’éditeur s’avéra pénible. Après plusieurs réponses négatives, j’ai trouvé un éditeur qui accepta de le publier : Jérôme Millon de Grenoble. Je lui serai toujours redevable de m’avoir fait confiance et d’avoir permis la réalisation de ce rêve. Je suis très reconnaissant à Marie-Claude Carrara pour l’excellente qualité de son travail d’édition.
* * *
En 2002, parut Les Quarante Jours, suivi en 2004 par Les Huit jours de l’Esprit Saint et en 2007, par Cinq ans dans la fosse aux lions.
En 2003, les Editions de l’Abbaye de Bellefontaine publiaient, dans la collection Flèche de feu, Les trois extases de la passion de Jésus, avec une importante introduction sur la dimension spirituelle de la passion du Seigneur dans le Carmel et en Marie Madeleine.
La revue Mélanges carmélitains a publié deux articles dédiés à la sainte : La prière au Carmel : sainte Marie Madeleine de’ Pazzi (1566-1607), dans le numéro 1 (2003), et Marie-Madeleine de Pazzi et Thérèse de l’Enfant-Jésus, Sœurs dans l’Esprit, dans le numéro 3 (2005).
* * *
2007 a été une année très importante pour les études sur sainte Marie Madeleine de Pazzi. J’ai eu la grâce de vivre à Florence les moments forts de cet anniversaire, dont certains ont été très émouvants, comme la procession avec l’urne contenant le corps intact de la sainte, du séminaire diocésain, ancien monastère de la sainte, à la magnifique cathédrale sainte Marie del Fiore. Je préparais depuis plusieurs années un guide pour les pèlerins sur les lieux de la vie de la sainte. Il parut quelques jours avant les grandes célébrations florentines. Le livre que j’ai publié en italien Pietre e fuoco, est un guide historique, artistique et spirituel des lieux de vie de la sainte, un livre qui s’élaborait dans ma tête depuis 2003 ; j’en ai parlé avec Alexandra, l’amie américaine dont il est question dans le Prologue de la Sainte flamme. Elle m’a toujours soutenu et encouragé dans ce travail ; je lui en suis très reconnaissant.
En 2008 est enfin paru, La sainte flamme, la suite logique du livre italien « Pietre e fuoco », la biographie de la sainte qui manquait en langue française. C’est une vie accessible, suffisamment complète et riche de textes spirituels de la sainte dont quelques uns sont inédits.
1566
Catherine de Pazzi naît le 2 avril à Florence, après Geri, premier-né de Maître Camillo di Geri de’Pazzi et de Dame Marie de Lorenzo Buondelmonti, et suivie de deux autres frères, Alamanno et Baccio.
Le 3 avril, elle est baptisée dans l’oratoire de Saint Jean Baptiste, et reçoit comme patronne sainte Catherine qu’elle aimera beaucoup ; mais en famille on l’appellera couramment Lucrezia, nom de sa grand-mère paternelle.
1574
Le 25 février, elle entre pour la première fois, comme pensionnaire, au monastère de Saint Jean des Chevaliers, confiée aux bons soins de sa tante maternelle, Sœur Lessandra Buondelmonti.
1576
Le 25 mars, fête de l’Annonciation, elle reçoit la première communion à l’âge de dix ans, dans l’église de Saint Jean des Chevaliers, tenue par les pères Jésuites.
Le 19 avril, jeudi saint, au moment de la sainte communion elle se sent appelée à faire à Dieu le vœu de virginité.
1578
Le 30 novembre, en la fête de l’apôtre saint André, elle tombe en extase pour la première fois en la présence de sa mère, vers le soir, dans un pré de leur villa de Parugiano, près de Prato.
1580
Le 16 mars, par suite du départ de son père pour Cortone, elle est confiée aux Sœurs du Monastère de Saint Jean des Chevaliers, à la condition de pouvoir communier tous les jours de fête.
Le jour de l’Ascension, elle est submergée par l’Amour de Dieu. Elle reçoit une connaissance extraordinaire de la grandeur de Dieu et de sa grâce.
1581
Au retour des siens à Florence, elle rentre en famille dans la villa de Parugiano.
1582
Le 14 août, Catherine entre pour 15 jours au Carmel de Sainte Marie des Anges pour faire l’essai de sa vocation religieuse et de la vie carmélitaine. Elle choisit ce monastère à cause du privilège exceptionnel dont il jouit : celui de la communion quotidienne. Puis elle rejoint sa famille.
Le 27 novembre, veille du premier dimanche de l’Avant, Catherine, bénie par ses parents et accompagnée de sa mère, entre définitivement au monastère de Sainte Marie des Anges.
Le 8 décembre, le chapitre du monastère accepte à l'unanimité la nouvelle postulante.
1583
Ses parents envoient un peintre pour faire le portrait de Catherine avant sa prise d’habit. Elle en est contrariée, mais accepte par obéissance.
Le 30 janvier, elle reçoit l’habit carmélitain et prend le nom de Sœur Marie Madeleine.
Durant l’Avent, elle éprouve l’Amour de Dieu dans sa surabondance comme elle l’avait connu dans la villa de Parugiano.
1584
Le 30 janvier, on diffère la date de sa profession pour attendre d’autres Sœurs qui n’ont pas encore terminé leur Noviciat. Elle prophétise qu’elle fera sa Profession avant les autres.
Au début du mois de mars, elle tombe malade et son état empire rapidement.
Le 27 mai, dimanche de la Trinité, sur un lit, devant l’autel de la Vierge, elle prononce ses vœux. Elle est reconduite à l’infirmerie. À ce moment, commence une période surprenante d’extases, qui surviennent tous les jours après la communion, pendant deux ou trois heures. Cela va durer quarante jours. La maladie continue son cours.
Le 8 juin, vision du drame de la Passion.
Le 10 juin, Jésus lui donne Son cœur et prend en échange celui de la carmélite pour le remplir d’un saint amour.
Le 16 juin, rendant visite au tombeau de la bienheureuse Maria Bagnesi sur l'ordre de son confesseur, elle est guérie de sa maladie.
Le 28 juin, elle reçoit la marque des stigmates ; à sa prière ils seront cachés aux créatures.
Le 6 juillet , elle reçoit la couronne d’épines.
1585
Le soir du 24 mars, veille de l’Annonciation, S. Augustin lui écrit dans le cœur les mots : Verbum caro factum est.
Le 15 avril, elle reçoit dans son âme les stigmates invisibles.
Le dimanche 28 avril, elle reçoit de Jésus l’anneau de son mariage mystique.
Le 21 mai, on lui annonce une grande épreuve : le Seigneur lui demande de se nourrir de pain et d’eau seulement et de ne dormir que 5 heures par jour.
Le 8 juin, veille de la Pentecôte, commence la seconde grande période d’extases : durant huit jours, elle reste en extase jour et nuit, sauf deux heures environ pour prier l’office, et prendre un peu de nourriture. Durant ces jours elle reçoit sept fois, à l'heure de Tierce, sous diverses formes, le Saint-Esprit.
Le 16 juin, fête de la Trinité, commence la grande éprouve appelée, « lac des lions », qui va durer cinq ans.
Le 5 juillet, le Seigneur lui commande de marcher les pieds nus.
1586
Le 20 juillet, elle entre en extase, Dieu l’appelle à la tâche de renouveler l’Église. Elle va dicter 12 lettres à diverses personnes, dont le Pape.
Le 17 septembre, elle reçoit le « voile blanc » de la Vierge, pour avoir triomphé des tentations contre la pureté.
En octobre, elle quitte le Noviciat.
1587
Son frère Alamanno meurt le 14 juillet. Elle voit l’âme de celui-ci peiner au Purgatoire.
1588
Le jeudi 25 février, elle reçoit le faisceau de la Passion.
Le 25 novembre, les épreuves qu’elle subit, la tentation de s’évader et de mourir, atteignent leur point culminant.
1589
Le 30 septembre, elle est élue Sous-maîtresse des novices.
1590
Le 22 avril, jour de Pâque, le Seigneur lui demande de faire encore un Carême de Cinquante jours. Elle jeûne ainsi jusqu’à la Pentecôte.
Le 10 juin, dans la nuit de Pentecôte, elle est enfin libérée du « lac des lions ». Elle reçoit de grands dons et des communications divines.
Sa mère meurt le 24 août. Elle la contemple, joyeuse au Purgatoire, et on lui révèle la gloire qui lui est réservée pour ses actes de charité envers le prochain. Le 7 septembre, elle voit l’âme de sa mère entrer au Paradis.
1592
Le 26 mars, dans une longue extase, elle participe aux douleurs de la Passion.
Le 3 mai, dans un grand excès d’amour, elle sonne les cloches, appelant à aimer l’Amour.
Au mois d’octobre elle reçoit l’office de sacristine.
1595
Le 1er mai, elle demande au Seigneur la souffrance pure.
Elle est élue Maîtresse des jeunes professes.
1597
Mort du père de Sœur Marie Madeleine.
1598
Au chapitre du 2 octobre, elle est élue Maîtresse des novices.
1604
Le 24 juin, dernière extase : Dieu lui accorde ainsi la pure souffrance.
Au chapitre, elle est élue Sous-prieure, contre sa volonté.
Peu après elle tombe malade.
1607
Le 13 mai, après trois ans de maladie, elle reçoit l’Extrême Onction.
Le 25 mai, à huit heures elle entre en agonie. Quand on appelle le Père confesseur, il lui fait dire que par la sainte Obéissance elle doit attendre pour mourir. Elle se réveille un instant et prononce ses derniers mots : « Benedictus Deus ». Elle meurt vers 14 heures.
1608
Un an après sa mort, les carmélites obtiennent de porter les dépouilles mortelles de leur Sœur dans la cellule où elle avait vécu.
1611
Le procès de béatification commence après les nombreux miracles obtenus par son intercession.
1626
Le 8 mai, le Pape Urbain VIII la proclame bienheureuse.
1662
Début du procès de canonisation.
1669
Le 28 avril, le Pape Clément IX l’inscrit dans la gloire des saints.
Sa dépouille vénérée, toujours intacte, repose aujourd’hui dans le nouveau monastère qui lui est dédié sur la colline de Careggi aux environs de la ville de Florence.
St. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi
Carmelite Virgin, born 2 April, 1566; died 25 May, 1607. Of outward events there
were very few in the saint'slife. She came of two noble families, her father being
Camillo Geri de' Pazzi and her mother a Buondelmonti.
She was baptized, and named Caterina, in the great baptistery. Her childhood much
resembled that of some other women saints who have become great mystics,
in an early love of prayer and penance, great charity to the poor, an apostolic spirit of teaching religious truths, and a charm and
sweetness of nature that made her a general favourite. But
above all other spiritual characteristics was Caterina's intense
attraction towards theBlessed
Sacrament, her longing to receive It, and her delight in touching and being near
those who were speaking of It, or who had just been to Communion. She made her own First Communion at the age of ten, and shortly
afterwards vowed her virginity to God. At fourteen she was sent to school at the convent ofCavalaresse, where she lived in so mortified and fervent a manner as to make the sisters prophesy that she would become a great saint; and, on leaving it, she told
her parents of her resolve to enter the religiousstate.
They were truly spiritual people; and, after a little difficulty
in persuading them to relinquish their only daughter, she finally entered in
December, 1582, the Carmelite convent of Santa Maria degl' Angeli, founded by
four Florentine ladies in 1450 and
renowned for its strict observance. Her chief reason for choosing thisconvent was the rule there followed of daily Communion.
Caterina
was clothed in 1583, when she took the name of Maria Maddalena; and on 29 May, 1584, being
then so ill that they feared she would not recover, she was professed. After her profession,
she was subject to an extraordinary daily ecstasy for forty consecutive days, at the end of which time she
appeared at the point of death. She recovered, however, miraculously; and henceforth, in
spite of constant bad health, was able to fill with energy the various offices
to which she was appointed. She became, in turn, mistress of externs--i.e. of
girls coming to the convent on trial--teacher and mistress of the juniors, novice mistress (which post she held for six years), and finally, in 1604,
superior. For five years (1585-90) God allowed her to be tried by terrible inward desolation and temptations, and by external diabolic attacks; but the courageous severity and deephumility of the means that she took for overcoming these only served to make her virtues shine more brilliantly in the eyes of
her community.
From
the time of her clothing with the religious habit till her death the saint's life was one series of
raptures and ecstasies, of which only the most notable
characteristics can be named in a short notice.
- First, these raptures sometimes seized upon her
whole being with such force as to compel her to rapid motion (e.g. towards
some sacred object).
- Secondly, she was frequently able, whilst in ecstasy, to carry
on work belonging to her office--e.g.,embroidery, painting,
etc.--with perfect composure and efficiency.
- Thirdly--and this is the point of chief importance--it was whilst in her states of rapture that St. MaryMagdalen de' Pazzi gave utterance to those wonderful maxims of Divine Love, and those counsels ofperfection for souls, especially in the religious state, which a modern editor of a selection of them declares to be "more frequently quoted by spiritual writers than those even of St. Teresa". These utterances have been preserved to us by the saint's companions, who (unknown to her) took them down from her lips as she poured them forth. She spoke sometimes as of herself, and sometimes as the mouthpiece of one or other of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity. These maxims of the saint are sometimes described as her "Works", although she wrote down none of them herself.
This ecstatic life in no wise interfered
with the saint's usefulness in her community. She was noted for her strong common-sense, as well as for the high
standard and strictness of her government, and was most dearlyloved to the end of her life by all for the spirit of intense charity that accompanied her somewhat severe
code of discipline. As
novice-mistress she was renowned for a miraculous gift of reading her
subjects' hearts--whichgift, indeed, was not entirely confined to her
community. Many miracles, both of this and of other kinds,
she performed for the benefit either of her own convent or of outsiders. She often saw things far off, and is said once to have supernaturally beheld St.
Catherine de' Ricci in her convent at Prato, reading a letter that she had
sent her and writing the answer; but the two saints never met in a natural manner. To St. MaryMagdalen's numerous penances, and to the ardent love of suffering that made her genuinely wish to live long in order to
suffer with Christ, we can here
merely refer; but it must not be forgotten that she was one of the strongest
upholders of the value of suffering for the love of God and the salvation of our fellow-creatures, that ever lived. Her death was fully in
accordance with her life in this respect, for she died after an illness of
nearly three years' duration and of indescribable painfulness, borne with heroic joy to the end. Innumerable miraclesfollowed the saint's death, and the process for her beatification was begun in 1610 under Paul V, and finished under Urban
VIII in 1626. She was not,
however, canonized till sixty-two years after her death, when Clement
IX raised her to the altars in 28 April, 1669. Her feast is kept on 27 May.
Sources
(1) The Oratorian Life (1849), translated from the Italian Life by CEPARI, for a long time confessor to the saint and her community; the edition translated is that of 1669, published in Rome by BERNABO. (2) A MS. Life--of which copies exist in England, only in several convents--compiled by PANTING from the above-named work of CEPARI's, and from another Italian Life by PUCCINI, who was the saint's confessor for about two years before her death. (3) Oeuvres de S. M. M. de' Pazzi, compiled in French by LAURENT MARIA BRANCACCIO, a Neapolitan Carmelite, from Puccini's work. This book consists of her maxims, aspirations, etc., as collected by the Community. (4) A small Manual of the saint's counsels on the Religious Life, translated from the French by FARRINGTON (Dublin, 1891).
"St. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1910. 30 May 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09762a.htm>.
"St. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1910. 30 May 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09762a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Elizabeth T. Knuth. In honor of Ernest E. Larkin, O. Carm.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New
York.
SAINT MARY MAGDALEN OF PAZZI
ST. MARY MAGDALEN of Pazzi, of an illustrious house in Florence, was born in the year 1566, and baptized by the name of Catherine. She received her first communion at ten years of age, and made a vow of virginity at twelve. She took great pleasure in carefully teaching the Christian doctrine to the ignorant. Her father, not knowing her vow, wished to give her in marriage, but she persuaded him to allow her to become a religious. It was more difficult to obtain her mother's consent; but at last she gained it, and she was professed, being then eighteen years of age, in the Carmelite monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence, May 17th, 1584. She changed her name Catherine into that of Mary Magdalen on becoming a nun, and took as her motto, " To suffer or die;" and her life henceforth was a life of penance for sins not her own, and of love of our Lord, who tried her in ways fearful and strange. She was obedient, observant of the rule, humble and mortified, and had a great reverence for the religious life. She loved poverty and suffering, and hungered after Communion. The day of Communion she called the day of love. The charity that burned in her heart led her in her youth to choose the house of the Carmelites, because the religious therein communicated every day. She rejoiced to see others communicate, even when she was not allowed to do so herself; and her love for her sisters grew when she saw them receive our Lord. God raised her to high states of prayer, and gave her rare gifts, enabling her to read the thoughts of her novices, and filling her with wisdom to direct them aright. She was twice chosen mistress of novices, and then made superioress, when God took her to Himself, May 25th, 1607. Her body is incorrupt.
REFLECTION.—St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi was so filled with the love of God that her sisters in the monastery observed it in her love of themselves, and called her " the Mother of Charity," and "the Charity of the Monastery."
SOURCE : http://jesus-passion.com/saint_mary_magdalen_of_pazzi.htm
Mary Magdalene de'Pazzi V (RM)
Born in Florence, Italy, 1566; died there on May 25, 1607; canonized in 1669; feast day formerly May 29.
Mary Magdalene was born into a distinguished family and baptized Catherine. She was educated at the Saint John Convent in Florence. She was pressed to marry but refused, and at 16 she joined the Discalced Carmelites at Saint Mary of the Angels Convent in Florence in 1582. When she was professed the following year, she took the name Mary Magdalene.
She held various offices in the convent and was extremely capable, eventually becoming superioress. While seriously ill, she experienced many ecstasies. After recovering, she practiced extreme mortifications and then fell into a five-year period of acute inner trials and aridity. When she emerged from this state in 1590, she experienced deep spiritual consolations from then on; sisters copied down what she said while in ecstasies, and these accounts were later published. They bear the imprint of the natural beauty of her life.
Mary Magdalene found her vocation in prayer and penance for the reform of "all states of life in the Church" and for the conversion of all men. She believed that suffering brought one to a profound spiritual plane and helped to save one's soul. Mary Magdalene was reputed to have the gift of prophecy and to be able to read minds and perform great cures.
She was an invalid for the last three years of her life and died at the convent. Her body is at the Church of Saint Maria degli Angeli in Florence and is claimed to be incorrupt (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, White).
She is depicted in art as a Carmelite with the Instruments of the Passion kneeling before the Holy Trinity. Christ crowns her with thorns, the Virgin gives her roses (Roeder). She may also be shown (1) receiving the Blessed Sacrament from Jesus; (2) receiving a white veil from the Virgin Mary; (3) being presented to or receiving a ring from Jesus; (4) crowned with thorns and embracing a cross, with rays falling on her from a monstrance; or (5) with flames issuing from her breast (White).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0525.shtml
THE
FAMILY of the Pazzi was one of the most illustrious in the republic of
Florence, and was allied to the sovereign house of Medicis; but the birth of
this saint hath reflected on it greater glory than the long list of heroes,
statesmen, governors, and other great personages which it displays. Nor was her
maternal family of the Blondelmonti inferior in rank, or less fruitful in great
men. She was born in that city in 1566, and in honour of St. Catharine of
Sienna received her name in baptism. From the first dawn of reason there
appeared in her the happy presages of that eminent virtue of which she became a
perfect model. When only seven years old, she was so compassionate to the poor,
that she was wont to deprive herself of her meat to to give it to some beggar;
and such was her devotion, that it was her custom to steal privately from the
company of her play-fellows to spend her time in secret prayer. In her tender
infancy she was accustomed to repeat often the Lord’s Prayer, Hail Mary, and
Creed, and other devotions; and she taught other poor children the same with
wonderful care and zeal. When her father carried her into the country, it was
her custom and her delight to assemble together the little girls of the
village, and to teach them what she knew of the Christian doctrine; which she
did with wonderful modesty and patience. One day it happened that she had begun
to instruct a young girl of one of her father’s tenants in her catechism, when
she was told that she must go back to Florence; but she cried so much at the
thought of leaving her work of charity imperfect, that her father carried the
other girl with them to the city, where the young saint finished her
instruction. At eight or nine years of age she began more ardently to apply
herself to holy prayer, and she employed whole hours in that exercise. In this
divine school she learned the most perfect sentiments of all virtues, and began
to feel so strong a desire to love and please God that worldly amusements were
tedious and bitter to her. She knew no pleasure but in speaking to God, or of
God, or heavenly things. She often left her bed in the night to lie on the
floor or on straw. One day she made herself a crown of rushes interwoven with
thorns, tied it on her head and lay all night with it, suffering the pain which
the pricks of the thorns gave her. To this action she was moved at nine years
of age by a meditation on the sufferings of Christ; which mystery from that
time was the chief object of her pious thoughts and devotions during the
remainder of her life. Once on St. Andrew’s day, in her meditation, her heart
was so inflamed with a desire of suffering with and for Christ, that she
swooned away; and her mother was afraid she was dying. After she was grown up
and a nun, coming to herself from a like fit, she cried out: “O Love, this
grace is like that which I received in my childhood, when my mother thought it
a corporal disorder.” By hair-shirts, and other severe mortifications, she
endeavoured to conform herself to Christ crucified, and put on her head in the
night a plaited crown of prickly olive branches. She always wept at the sight
of any grievous corporal distress, and much more for any spiritual misery of
her neighbour. Such was her tender devotion to the blessed eucharist, that she
loved to be near those who came from the holy communion, as if by love she
perceived the odour of Christ’s presence. She made her first communion with
wonderful devotion at ten years of age; and at twelve, by vow consecrated her
virginity to God. At fourteen, her father being made by the grand-duke governor
of Cortona, she was placed by him a pensioner in the monastery of St. John in
Florence. There she gave full scope to her devotion, and employed every morning
four hours in pious meditation on her knees. Out of humility, she usually kept
at a distance from the nuns, whom she respected as the favourite spouses of Christ.
After
fifteen months her father took her home, with the view of procuring her an
honourable and advantageous match. Several proposals were made to her, and her
parents were very pressing for her consent. But she protested that the disposal
of herself in marriage was no longer in her power. In the choice of a religious
state, being much pleased with the custom of frequent and almost daily
communion practised among the Carmelite nuns, she preferred that Order, and
entered their monastery, in St. Fridian’s suburb, at Florence, on the eve of
the Assumption, in 1582. She continued some days in a secular habit, that she
might be the better acquainted with the rule. It is not to be expressed how
much those holy and fervent virgins were edified by the great virtues which she
practised. But her parents, after fifteen days, took her home again for three
months, the better to try her vocation. However, she would by no means consent
ever to put on fine clothes, or do anything which seemed to favour vanity or
sensuality. Having obtained their blessing, she on the 1st of December returned
to the monastery, being then fifteen years old, and took the habit on the 30th
of January following. When the priest put the crucifix into her hands, saying
those words: God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; 1 a
seraphic ardour appeared in her countenance, and she felt herself inflamed with
a burning desire of suffering during her whole life for Christ; and trampling
under her feet all the vanities of the world, she gave herself most perfectly
to Christ crucified with the most firm purpose never to have any other spouse.
After taking the habit, she threw herself at the feet of her mistress, begging
she would never spare her in the most sensible self-denials and humiliations.
During her novitiate, the example of her fervour excited those who were
witnesses of it to the divine love. Being visited by a severe fit of sickness,
her desire of suffering for the love of Him who died for us, was a subject of
edification to the whole house. One of her sisters asking her how she could
endure so much pain without any complaint, and even without speaking of her
ailments, or even asking for anything to comfort her, she answered, pointing to
a crucifix which was near the side of her bed: “See what the infinite love of
God hath suffered for my salvation. This same love sees my weakness, and gives
me courage. They who call to mind the sufferings of Christ, and offer their own
to God through his passion, find their pains sweet and amiable.” Under this
illness, she was admitted to her religious profession on the 17th of May, 1584.
In
religion, she changed her name Catharine into that of Mary Magdalen, out of
devotion to that great model of penitent souls. After this consecration of
herself to God, she enjoyed great heavenly consolations and frequent raptures
during forty days, especially after her communions; as if her heavenly spouse
would by these caresses celebrate with her his spiritual nuptials. It is the
general remark of the most experienced masters of a spiritual life, that God frequently
visits souls, upon their fervent conversion from the world, with his comforts;
in which, by the divine lights which he infuses, they see their own
nothingness, and advance in the sentiments of sincere humility; and are at the
same time attracted by the feelings of his goodness to run in the sweet odour
of his perfumes. This taste of his consolations encourages them to suffer
trials with joy for his sake; and these never fail to succeed. For God, who is
infinitely jealous of the hearts of his servants, will not suffer in them any
rival. Wherefore, perfectly to crucify in them all secret self-love that they
may be fitted for vessels of his pure love, and to teach them thoroughly to
know themselves, he throws them into the crucible of internal tribulation; and
this fire is usually the more severe, the higher the degree of sanctity is to
which he in his mercy designs to raise them. This our saint experienced by the
state of interior desolation into which she fell from this first taste of his
spiritual joy. But her virtue was solid, because humble, patient, and constant.
She desired not heavenly comforts, deeming herself of all others the most
unworthy; and the favours which she received she endeavoured to conceal from
men, referring them entirely to the gratuitous goodness of their author, and
from them learning the more to humble herself and to raise her soul to his most
pure love. It was always her desire to suffer for his sake, and this her thirst
of the cross seemed insatiable. But whether in anguish or in consolation, the
spring of her affections was the most ardent love of her heavenly spouse. She
was often heard to cry out, “O Love! Love is not loved, not known by his own
creatures! O my Jesus! if I had a voice strong and loud enough that I could be
heard by all men in all the parts of the world, how would I cry out that this
love might be known, loved, and esteemed by all men as the only true
incomprehensible good! but the cursed poison of self-love robs men of this high
knowledge, and renders them incapable of it.” She often invited, with all the
fervour of her soul, all angels, men, stars, birds, beasts, plants, grains of
sand, drops of water, and the whole chorus of the creation, to convert
themselves into tongues, to praise, bless, and magnify the divine immensity and
love. She sighed and wept much for the conversion of sinners, and when called
away by public duties, or obliged to go to rest, often said, “Is it possible
that I should take any rest whilst I consider how much God is offended on earth?
O Love! I do it by obedience, and to fulfil thy holy will.”
Fearing
lest at the time of her profession she might have offended God by too eager a
desire of making that sacrifice, she begged and obtained leave to live as a
novice two years after her vows. This term being completed, coming out of the
novitiate, she was made second directress of the extern young girls. Three
years after, she finished her juniorate, or term amongst the young nuns, and
was employed in instructing the novices. During these first five years,
Almighty God was pleased to exercise her by most severe interior trials. She
fasted always on bread and water, except on Sundays and holidays, on which she
took Lenten diet. She added all other kinds of bodily austerities, and at the
same time suffered most grievous pains and anguish of soul. She was assaulted
with the most violent temptations of impurity, gluttony, pride, infidelity, and
blasphemy. Her imagination was often filled with those abominations, the very
name or thought of which fills chaste souls with the greatest horror. She had
recourse by prayer to the spouse and to the queen of virgins against the
obstinacy and rage of this enemy, and chastised her body with disciplines,
hair-shirts, studded iron girdles, lying hard, and the like inventions. Her
mind was also troubled with the most hideous images of hellish monsters, and
seemed abandoned, like Job, to the power of hell; and her soul was plunged into
a state of darkness in which she was able to see nothing but horror in herself and
in all things about her. Thoughts of blasphemy and infidelity infested her so
violently, that she sometimes cried out to her sisters: “Pray for me that I may
not blaspheme God instead of praising him.” Fasting, which by habit and grace
was formerly easy, now became grievous. Her sisters likewise despised her,
looking on her foregoing graces which they had formerly admired to have been
illusions. Nevertheless, God did not totally withdraw himself from his faithful
spouse. Her chief support and comfort was in the meditation of Christ’s
passion, in which she conceived fresh burning desires to become still more like
that man of interior as well as exterior sorrows. After five years in this suffering
state, God restored to her soul his holy peace and the comfort of his divine
presence. In 1590, on Whitsunday, at Matins, when the Te Deum was intoned she
fell into a rapture, and after the divine office, the joy which shone on her
face and appeared in her words testified the return of her inward comforter.
Squeezing by the hand the mother prioress and the mistress of the novices, she
desired them to rejoice with her, saying: “Now winter is passed with me; assist
me to thank and glorify my good Creator.” She was endued with a spirit of
prophecy, and, among other things, foretold the popedom to Leo XI. and his
death soon after his election.
In 1598
she was appointed mistress of the novices for three years, according to the
custom of the house, and in 1601 was continued in the same office; but in 1604
chosen sub-prioress, which office she discharged till her death. Her union with
God seemed uninterrupted, and his name sufficed to transport her soul in
raptures of love. She often repeated the doxology, Glory be to the Father, and always with incredible ardour
bowing her body, and offering herself to all labours and every sort of death
for God’s honour. She considered only the pure will of God in all things with
inexpressible fervour, and often repeated, “The will of God is ever most
amiable:” and to her sisters, “How rich a traffic have we with God when we do
everything with a pure and vehement intention to please and honour him.” She
appeared in every action like a glowing seraph, glorifying her Creator with all
the powers and strength of her soul, and sometimes cried out: “Come, souls,
come, love your God who so much loveth you. O Love, I die with mortal anguish
when I see how little you are known and loved. O Love! Love! if you find no
place to rest in, come all to me; I will lodge you. O souls created by Love,
why do not you love? She instructed her novices to sing the divine office with
such awe and trembling in the company of the angels, as if they in spirit
prostrated themselves at every word. If the divine office was sung too fast,
she asked leave to go out, and would afterwards say: “What business could you
have of greater importance that you were in such a hurry?” Her extreme thirst
after the salvation of souls made her shed perpetual tears for the conversion
of infidels, heretics, and sinners; and she often exhorted her sisters in the
most moving manner to offer up all their actions for that end. Her devotion to
the holy eucharist was extraordinary; and she used to say, that if it were
necessary, she would joyfully enter the lion’s den, and suffer all pains for the
sake of communicating. But her humility was most admirable. She always spoke of
herself as of the bane of her community, and the outcast and abomination of all
creatures. It was her delight to be forgotten, contemned, reprimanded, and
employed in the meanest offices. She would often cry out, “O nothingness! how
little art thou known!” 2
In 1602
she contracted a violent cold and cough, which in 1603 was followed by the
bursting of a vein and an abundant vomiting of blood, which often returned upon
her. However, she recovered a little, and in October, 1604, she was chosen
sub-prioress. The three last years of her life she endured violent headaches,
fevers, sweats, pains in her breast, was subject to a spitting of blood, and a
scurvy in her gums, by which she lost all her teeth. With these bodily pains
she sometimes laboured under the most grievous inward spiritual dryness and
desolation of soul; yet her prayer was to suffer more, to suffer without any
comfort, and to drink gall without any honey. Love on one side made her desire
to die to be united to her God; yet life seemed desirable that she might still
suffer for love. Having exhorted her sisters to fervour, and to the love of
suffering, she received extreme unction, and still communicated every day
during the twelve days she survived. She expired soon after receiving the holy
sacrament by way of viaticum, on the 25th of May, 1607, being forty-one years,
one month, and twenty-four days old, of which she had lived twenty-four years
and three months in the religious habit. Her body has been often examined, and
always found without any corruption. It is kept in a sumptuous shrine in the
church of her monastery, which was since removed into the city of Florence in
1628. God has honoured it by frequent miraculous cures. The saint was beatified
by Urban VIII. in the year 1626, and canonized by Clement IX. in 1669.
It was
the prayer of this saint under her severest trials, that she might live only to
glorify God by her patience and submission in suffering by his will, and for
his sake. 3 Our love
of God must be very imperfect, since we are so impatient under the least
trials, and so unwilling to suffer, and since we find the duties of religion
troublesome and uneasy. They appear severe in the beginning of a virtuous life;
but to him who has conquered, the yoke of Christ is easy, and to fervour and
love harsh things become pleasant. It is also the property of a habit to render
difficult things easy; for as it becomes a second nature, what flows from it is
natural, consequently pleasant and easy. When the love of virtue has once
rooted itself in the soul, its practice is no more than embracing and enjoying
what we love. This therefore is one constant character of perfection in
scripture, that delight and pleasure accompany the practice of virtue. The ways of wisdom are the ways of
pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. 4 And to
him who loves, the
commandments of God are not grievous. 5 Hence it
is that the good man’s delight
is in the law of the Lord, and he meditates therein night and day. 6 Nor does
he delight less in action than meditation. The Psalmist frequently expresses an
inconceivable joy and transport in the meditation and practice of the commands
of God. 7 The first
Christians, whose whole lives were a continued fervent exercise of devotion,
faith, and charity, are said to have eaten their meat with gladness and singleness of
heart. 8 The holy
Ghost gives us a delightful description of the apostles as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;
as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things. 9 Another
property of divine love is, that it is always active, and never ceases to exert
itself with zeal and fervour in all manner of good works.
Note 1. Gal. vi. 14. [back]
Note 2. F. Ferdinandi Salvi, sub-prior of the
Carmelites at Bologna, in Italy, made a collection of twelve letters of St.
Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, with several other monuments. They were reprinted at
Venice in 1739, at the end of the spiritual works of this holy virgin. F. Salvi
published in Italian several relations of miracles performed at Bologna through
the intercession of this holy virgin, printed at Milan in the years 1724, 1730,
and 1731. [back]
Note 3. Pati non mori. [back]
Note 4. Prov. iii. 17. [back]
Note 5. 1 John v. 3. [back]
Note 6. Psalm i. 2. [back]
Note 7. Psalm xviii. [back]
Note 8. Acts ii. 46. [back]
Note 9. 2 Cor. vi. 10. [back]
Rev.
Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume V: May. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
Mary Magdalene de'Pazzi V (RM)
Born in Florence, Italy, 1566; died there on May 25, 1607; canonized in 1669; feast day formerly May 29.
Mary Magdalene was born into a distinguished family and baptized Catherine. She was educated at the Saint John Convent in Florence. She was pressed to marry but refused, and at 16 she joined the Discalced Carmelites at Saint Mary of the Angels Convent in Florence in 1582. When she was professed the following year, she took the name Mary Magdalene.
She held various offices in the convent and was extremely capable, eventually becoming superioress. While seriously ill, she experienced many ecstasies. After recovering, she practiced extreme mortifications and then fell into a five-year period of acute inner trials and aridity. When she emerged from this state in 1590, she experienced deep spiritual consolations from then on; sisters copied down what she said while in ecstasies, and these accounts were later published. They bear the imprint of the natural beauty of her life.
Mary Magdalene found her vocation in prayer and penance for the reform of "all states of life in the Church" and for the conversion of all men. She believed that suffering brought one to a profound spiritual plane and helped to save one's soul. Mary Magdalene was reputed to have the gift of prophecy and to be able to read minds and perform great cures.
She was an invalid for the last three years of her life and died at the convent. Her body is at the Church of Saint Maria degli Angeli in Florence and is claimed to be incorrupt (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, White).
She is depicted in art as a Carmelite with the Instruments of the Passion kneeling before the Holy Trinity. Christ crowns her with thorns, the Virgin gives her roses (Roeder). She may also be shown (1) receiving the Blessed Sacrament from Jesus; (2) receiving a white veil from the Virgin Mary; (3) being presented to or receiving a ring from Jesus; (4) crowned with thorns and embracing a cross, with rays falling on her from a monstrance; or (5) with flames issuing from her breast (White).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0525.shtml
St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, Virgin
From her life, written
by her confessarius, Puccini, and from the bull of her canonization. See Baert,
the Bollandist, t. 6, Maij, p. 177.
A.D. 1607.
THE
FAMILY of the Pazzi was one of the most illustrious in the republic of
Florence, and was allied to the sovereign house of Medicis; but the birth of
this saint hath reflected on it greater glory than the long list of heroes,
statesmen, governors, and other great personages which it displays. Nor was her
maternal family of the Blondelmonti inferior in rank, or less fruitful in great
men. She was born in that city in 1566, and in honour of St. Catharine of
Sienna received her name in baptism. From the first dawn of reason there
appeared in her the happy presages of that eminent virtue of which she became a
perfect model. When only seven years old, she was so compassionate to the poor,
that she was wont to deprive herself of her meat to to give it to some beggar;
and such was her devotion, that it was her custom to steal privately from the
company of her play-fellows to spend her time in secret prayer. In her tender
infancy she was accustomed to repeat often the Lord’s Prayer, Hail Mary, and
Creed, and other devotions; and she taught other poor children the same with
wonderful care and zeal. When her father carried her into the country, it was
her custom and her delight to assemble together the little girls of the
village, and to teach them what she knew of the Christian doctrine; which she
did with wonderful modesty and patience. One day it happened that she had begun
to instruct a young girl of one of her father’s tenants in her catechism, when
she was told that she must go back to Florence; but she cried so much at the
thought of leaving her work of charity imperfect, that her father carried the
other girl with them to the city, where the young saint finished her
instruction. At eight or nine years of age she began more ardently to apply
herself to holy prayer, and she employed whole hours in that exercise. In this
divine school she learned the most perfect sentiments of all virtues, and began
to feel so strong a desire to love and please God that worldly amusements were
tedious and bitter to her. She knew no pleasure but in speaking to God, or of
God, or heavenly things. She often left her bed in the night to lie on the
floor or on straw. One day she made herself a crown of rushes interwoven with
thorns, tied it on her head and lay all night with it, suffering the pain which
the pricks of the thorns gave her. To this action she was moved at nine years
of age by a meditation on the sufferings of Christ; which mystery from that
time was the chief object of her pious thoughts and devotions during the
remainder of her life. Once on St. Andrew’s day, in her meditation, her heart
was so inflamed with a desire of suffering with and for Christ, that she
swooned away; and her mother was afraid she was dying. After she was grown up
and a nun, coming to herself from a like fit, she cried out: “O Love, this
grace is like that which I received in my childhood, when my mother thought it
a corporal disorder.” By hair-shirts, and other severe mortifications, she
endeavoured to conform herself to Christ crucified, and put on her head in the
night a plaited crown of prickly olive branches. She always wept at the sight
of any grievous corporal distress, and much more for any spiritual misery of
her neighbour. Such was her tender devotion to the blessed eucharist, that she
loved to be near those who came from the holy communion, as if by love she
perceived the odour of Christ’s presence. She made her first communion with
wonderful devotion at ten years of age; and at twelve, by vow consecrated her
virginity to God. At fourteen, her father being made by the grand-duke governor
of Cortona, she was placed by him a pensioner in the monastery of St. John in
Florence. There she gave full scope to her devotion, and employed every morning
four hours in pious meditation on her knees. Out of humility, she usually kept
at a distance from the nuns, whom she respected as the favourite spouses of Christ.
After
fifteen months her father took her home, with the view of procuring her an
honourable and advantageous match. Several proposals were made to her, and her
parents were very pressing for her consent. But she protested that the disposal
of herself in marriage was no longer in her power. In the choice of a religious
state, being much pleased with the custom of frequent and almost daily
communion practised among the Carmelite nuns, she preferred that Order, and
entered their monastery, in St. Fridian’s suburb, at Florence, on the eve of
the Assumption, in 1582. She continued some days in a secular habit, that she
might be the better acquainted with the rule. It is not to be expressed how
much those holy and fervent virgins were edified by the great virtues which she
practised. But her parents, after fifteen days, took her home again for three
months, the better to try her vocation. However, she would by no means consent
ever to put on fine clothes, or do anything which seemed to favour vanity or
sensuality. Having obtained their blessing, she on the 1st of December returned
to the monastery, being then fifteen years old, and took the habit on the 30th
of January following. When the priest put the crucifix into her hands, saying
those words: God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; 1 a
seraphic ardour appeared in her countenance, and she felt herself inflamed with
a burning desire of suffering during her whole life for Christ; and trampling
under her feet all the vanities of the world, she gave herself most perfectly
to Christ crucified with the most firm purpose never to have any other spouse.
After taking the habit, she threw herself at the feet of her mistress, begging
she would never spare her in the most sensible self-denials and humiliations.
During her novitiate, the example of her fervour excited those who were
witnesses of it to the divine love. Being visited by a severe fit of sickness,
her desire of suffering for the love of Him who died for us, was a subject of
edification to the whole house. One of her sisters asking her how she could
endure so much pain without any complaint, and even without speaking of her
ailments, or even asking for anything to comfort her, she answered, pointing to
a crucifix which was near the side of her bed: “See what the infinite love of
God hath suffered for my salvation. This same love sees my weakness, and gives
me courage. They who call to mind the sufferings of Christ, and offer their own
to God through his passion, find their pains sweet and amiable.” Under this
illness, she was admitted to her religious profession on the 17th of May, 1584.
In
religion, she changed her name Catharine into that of Mary Magdalen, out of
devotion to that great model of penitent souls. After this consecration of
herself to God, she enjoyed great heavenly consolations and frequent raptures
during forty days, especially after her communions; as if her heavenly spouse
would by these caresses celebrate with her his spiritual nuptials. It is the
general remark of the most experienced masters of a spiritual life, that God frequently
visits souls, upon their fervent conversion from the world, with his comforts;
in which, by the divine lights which he infuses, they see their own
nothingness, and advance in the sentiments of sincere humility; and are at the
same time attracted by the feelings of his goodness to run in the sweet odour
of his perfumes. This taste of his consolations encourages them to suffer
trials with joy for his sake; and these never fail to succeed. For God, who is
infinitely jealous of the hearts of his servants, will not suffer in them any
rival. Wherefore, perfectly to crucify in them all secret self-love that they
may be fitted for vessels of his pure love, and to teach them thoroughly to
know themselves, he throws them into the crucible of internal tribulation; and
this fire is usually the more severe, the higher the degree of sanctity is to
which he in his mercy designs to raise them. This our saint experienced by the
state of interior desolation into which she fell from this first taste of his
spiritual joy. But her virtue was solid, because humble, patient, and constant.
She desired not heavenly comforts, deeming herself of all others the most
unworthy; and the favours which she received she endeavoured to conceal from
men, referring them entirely to the gratuitous goodness of their author, and
from them learning the more to humble herself and to raise her soul to his most
pure love. It was always her desire to suffer for his sake, and this her thirst
of the cross seemed insatiable. But whether in anguish or in consolation, the
spring of her affections was the most ardent love of her heavenly spouse. She
was often heard to cry out, “O Love! Love is not loved, not known by his own
creatures! O my Jesus! if I had a voice strong and loud enough that I could be
heard by all men in all the parts of the world, how would I cry out that this
love might be known, loved, and esteemed by all men as the only true
incomprehensible good! but the cursed poison of self-love robs men of this high
knowledge, and renders them incapable of it.” She often invited, with all the
fervour of her soul, all angels, men, stars, birds, beasts, plants, grains of
sand, drops of water, and the whole chorus of the creation, to convert
themselves into tongues, to praise, bless, and magnify the divine immensity and
love. She sighed and wept much for the conversion of sinners, and when called
away by public duties, or obliged to go to rest, often said, “Is it possible
that I should take any rest whilst I consider how much God is offended on earth?
O Love! I do it by obedience, and to fulfil thy holy will.”
Fearing
lest at the time of her profession she might have offended God by too eager a
desire of making that sacrifice, she begged and obtained leave to live as a
novice two years after her vows. This term being completed, coming out of the
novitiate, she was made second directress of the extern young girls. Three
years after, she finished her juniorate, or term amongst the young nuns, and
was employed in instructing the novices. During these first five years,
Almighty God was pleased to exercise her by most severe interior trials. She
fasted always on bread and water, except on Sundays and holidays, on which she
took Lenten diet. She added all other kinds of bodily austerities, and at the
same time suffered most grievous pains and anguish of soul. She was assaulted
with the most violent temptations of impurity, gluttony, pride, infidelity, and
blasphemy. Her imagination was often filled with those abominations, the very
name or thought of which fills chaste souls with the greatest horror. She had
recourse by prayer to the spouse and to the queen of virgins against the
obstinacy and rage of this enemy, and chastised her body with disciplines,
hair-shirts, studded iron girdles, lying hard, and the like inventions. Her
mind was also troubled with the most hideous images of hellish monsters, and
seemed abandoned, like Job, to the power of hell; and her soul was plunged into
a state of darkness in which she was able to see nothing but horror in herself and
in all things about her. Thoughts of blasphemy and infidelity infested her so
violently, that she sometimes cried out to her sisters: “Pray for me that I may
not blaspheme God instead of praising him.” Fasting, which by habit and grace
was formerly easy, now became grievous. Her sisters likewise despised her,
looking on her foregoing graces which they had formerly admired to have been
illusions. Nevertheless, God did not totally withdraw himself from his faithful
spouse. Her chief support and comfort was in the meditation of Christ’s
passion, in which she conceived fresh burning desires to become still more like
that man of interior as well as exterior sorrows. After five years in this suffering
state, God restored to her soul his holy peace and the comfort of his divine
presence. In 1590, on Whitsunday, at Matins, when the Te Deum was intoned she
fell into a rapture, and after the divine office, the joy which shone on her
face and appeared in her words testified the return of her inward comforter.
Squeezing by the hand the mother prioress and the mistress of the novices, she
desired them to rejoice with her, saying: “Now winter is passed with me; assist
me to thank and glorify my good Creator.” She was endued with a spirit of
prophecy, and, among other things, foretold the popedom to Leo XI. and his
death soon after his election.
In 1598
she was appointed mistress of the novices for three years, according to the
custom of the house, and in 1601 was continued in the same office; but in 1604
chosen sub-prioress, which office she discharged till her death. Her union with
God seemed uninterrupted, and his name sufficed to transport her soul in
raptures of love. She often repeated the doxology, Glory be to the Father, and always with incredible ardour
bowing her body, and offering herself to all labours and every sort of death
for God’s honour. She considered only the pure will of God in all things with
inexpressible fervour, and often repeated, “The will of God is ever most
amiable:” and to her sisters, “How rich a traffic have we with God when we do
everything with a pure and vehement intention to please and honour him.” She
appeared in every action like a glowing seraph, glorifying her Creator with all
the powers and strength of her soul, and sometimes cried out: “Come, souls,
come, love your God who so much loveth you. O Love, I die with mortal anguish
when I see how little you are known and loved. O Love! Love! if you find no
place to rest in, come all to me; I will lodge you. O souls created by Love,
why do not you love? She instructed her novices to sing the divine office with
such awe and trembling in the company of the angels, as if they in spirit
prostrated themselves at every word. If the divine office was sung too fast,
she asked leave to go out, and would afterwards say: “What business could you
have of greater importance that you were in such a hurry?” Her extreme thirst
after the salvation of souls made her shed perpetual tears for the conversion
of infidels, heretics, and sinners; and she often exhorted her sisters in the
most moving manner to offer up all their actions for that end. Her devotion to
the holy eucharist was extraordinary; and she used to say, that if it were
necessary, she would joyfully enter the lion’s den, and suffer all pains for the
sake of communicating. But her humility was most admirable. She always spoke of
herself as of the bane of her community, and the outcast and abomination of all
creatures. It was her delight to be forgotten, contemned, reprimanded, and
employed in the meanest offices. She would often cry out, “O nothingness! how
little art thou known!” 2
In 1602
she contracted a violent cold and cough, which in 1603 was followed by the
bursting of a vein and an abundant vomiting of blood, which often returned upon
her. However, she recovered a little, and in October, 1604, she was chosen
sub-prioress. The three last years of her life she endured violent headaches,
fevers, sweats, pains in her breast, was subject to a spitting of blood, and a
scurvy in her gums, by which she lost all her teeth. With these bodily pains
she sometimes laboured under the most grievous inward spiritual dryness and
desolation of soul; yet her prayer was to suffer more, to suffer without any
comfort, and to drink gall without any honey. Love on one side made her desire
to die to be united to her God; yet life seemed desirable that she might still
suffer for love. Having exhorted her sisters to fervour, and to the love of
suffering, she received extreme unction, and still communicated every day
during the twelve days she survived. She expired soon after receiving the holy
sacrament by way of viaticum, on the 25th of May, 1607, being forty-one years,
one month, and twenty-four days old, of which she had lived twenty-four years
and three months in the religious habit. Her body has been often examined, and
always found without any corruption. It is kept in a sumptuous shrine in the
church of her monastery, which was since removed into the city of Florence in
1628. God has honoured it by frequent miraculous cures. The saint was beatified
by Urban VIII. in the year 1626, and canonized by Clement IX. in 1669.
It was
the prayer of this saint under her severest trials, that she might live only to
glorify God by her patience and submission in suffering by his will, and for
his sake. 3 Our love
of God must be very imperfect, since we are so impatient under the least
trials, and so unwilling to suffer, and since we find the duties of religion
troublesome and uneasy. They appear severe in the beginning of a virtuous life;
but to him who has conquered, the yoke of Christ is easy, and to fervour and
love harsh things become pleasant. It is also the property of a habit to render
difficult things easy; for as it becomes a second nature, what flows from it is
natural, consequently pleasant and easy. When the love of virtue has once
rooted itself in the soul, its practice is no more than embracing and enjoying
what we love. This therefore is one constant character of perfection in
scripture, that delight and pleasure accompany the practice of virtue. The ways of wisdom are the ways of
pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. 4 And to
him who loves, the
commandments of God are not grievous. 5 Hence it
is that the good man’s delight
is in the law of the Lord, and he meditates therein night and day. 6 Nor does
he delight less in action than meditation. The Psalmist frequently expresses an
inconceivable joy and transport in the meditation and practice of the commands
of God. 7 The first
Christians, whose whole lives were a continued fervent exercise of devotion,
faith, and charity, are said to have eaten their meat with gladness and singleness of
heart. 8 The holy
Ghost gives us a delightful description of the apostles as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;
as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things. 9 Another
property of divine love is, that it is always active, and never ceases to exert
itself with zeal and fervour in all manner of good works.
Note 1. Gal. vi. 14. [back]
Note 2. F. Ferdinandi Salvi, sub-prior of the
Carmelites at Bologna, in Italy, made a collection of twelve letters of St.
Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, with several other monuments. They were reprinted at
Venice in 1739, at the end of the spiritual works of this holy virgin. F. Salvi
published in Italian several relations of miracles performed at Bologna through
the intercession of this holy virgin, printed at Milan in the years 1724, 1730,
and 1731. [back]
Note 3. Pati non mori. [back]
Note 4. Prov. iii. 17. [back]
Note 5. 1 John v. 3. [back]
Note 6. Psalm i. 2. [back]
Note 7. Psalm xviii. [back]
Note 8. Acts ii. 46. [back]
Note 9. 2 Cor. vi. 10. [back]
Rev.
Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume V: May. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
LETTERA DI SUA SANTITÀ BENEDETTO XVI
ALL’ARCIVESCOVO DI FIRENZE
IN OCCASIONE DEL IV CENTENARIO DELLA MORTE
DI SANTA MARIA MADDALENA DE’ PAZZI
Al Venerato Fratello
il Signor Cardinale Ennio Antonelli
Arcivescovo di Firenze
In occasione del IV centenario della morte di santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, sono lieto di unirmi all’amata Chiesa fiorentina, che desidera ricordare questa sua figlia illustre, particolarmente cara per essere figura emblematica di un amore vivo che rimanda all’essenziale dimensione mistica di ogni vita cristiana. Mentre con affetto saluto Lei, Signor Cardinale, e l’intera Comunità diocesana, rendo grazie a Dio per il dono di questa Santa, che ogni generazione riscopre singolarmente vicina nel saper comunicare un ardente amore per Cristo e per la Chiesa.
Nata a Firenze il 2 aprile 1566 e battezzata al fonte del "bel San Giovanni" con il nome di Caterina, santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi fin dalla fanciullezza mostrò una particolare sensibilità verso il soprannaturale e fu attratta dall’intimo colloquio con Dio. Come era consuetudine per le fanciulle di nobile casato, la sua educazione fu affidata alle Cavalieresse di Malta, nel cui monastero ricevette la prima comunione il 25 marzo 1576 ed appena qualche giorno dopo si consegnò per sempre al Signore con una promessa di verginità. Rientrata in famiglia, approfondì il cammino della preghiera con l’aiuto dei Padri Gesuiti, che frequentavano il palazzo. Abilmente, riusciva a non lasciarsi condizionare dalle esigenze mondane di un ambiente che, se pur cristiano, non le bastava nel suo desiderio di diventare più simile al suo Sposo crocifisso. In questo contesto maturò la decisione di lasciare il mondo e di entrare nel Carmelo di Santa Maria degli Angeli, a Borgo san Frediano, dove il 30 gennaio 1583 ricevette l’abito del Carmelo e il nome di suor Maria Maddalena. Ammalatasi gravemente nel marzo del 1584, chiese di poter emettere la professione prima del tempo e, il 27 maggio, festa della Trinità, portata in coro su un lettino, pronunciò per sempre davanti al Signore i suoi voti di castità, povertà e obbedienza.
Da questo momento ebbe inizio un’intensa stagione mistica dalla quale sarebbe venuta alla Santa la fama di grande estatica. Sono cinque i manoscritti in cui le Carmelitane di Santa Maria degli Angeli hanno riportato le esperienze straordinarie della loro giovane consorella. A "I Quaranta Giorni" dell’estate 1584, fanno seguito "I Colloqui" della prima metà dell’anno successivo. L’apice della mistica conoscenza che Dio concesse di sé a suor Maria Maddalena si trova in "Revelationi e Intelligentie", otto giorni di splendide estasi che vanno dalla vigilia di Pentecoste alla festa della Trinità dell’anno 1585. Una intensa esperienza che, a soli 19 anni di età, la rendeva capace di spaziare su tutto il mistero della salvezza, dall’incarnazione del Verbo nel seno di Maria alla discesa dello Spirito Santo nella Pentecoste. Seguirono cinque lunghi anni d’interiore purificazione – Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi ne parla nel libro della "Probatione" –, nei quali il Verbo suo Sposo le sottrasse il sentimento della grazia e la lasciò come Daniele nella fossa dei leoni, tra molte prove e grandi tentazioni. E’ in questo contesto che si inserisce il suo ardente impegno per il rinnovamento della Chiesa, dopo che nell’estate del 1586 bagliori di luce dall’alto vennero a mostrarle il vero stato in cui essa si trovava nell’epoca post-tridentina. Come Caterina da Siena, si sentì "forzata" a scrivere alcune lettere per sollecitare, presso il Papa, i Cardinali di Curia, il suo Arcivescovo ed altre personalità ecclesiastiche, un deciso impegno per la "Renovatione della Chiesa", come dice il titolo del manoscritto che le contiene. Si tratta di dodici lettere dettate in estasi, forse mai spedite, ma che rimangono come testimonianza della sua passione per la Sponsa Verbi.
Con la Pentecoste del 1590 ebbe termine la dura prova. Questo le permise di dedicarsi con ogni energia al servizio della comunità ed in particolare alla formazione delle novizie. Suor Maria Maddalena ebbe il dono di vivere la comunione con Dio in una forma sempre più interiorizzata, sì da diventare un riferimento per tutta la comunità, che ancora oggi continua a considerarla come "madre". L’amore purificato, che pulsava nel suo cuore, la apriva al desiderio della piena conformità con Cristo, suo Sposo, fino a condividere con lui il "nudo patire" della croce. Gli ultimi tre anni della sua vita furono per lei un vero calvario di sofferenze. La tisi cominciò a manifestarsi chiaramente: Suor Maria Maddalena si vide costretta a ritrarsi pian piano dalla vita attiva della comunità per immergersi sempre più nel "patir nudamente per amore di Dio". Si ritrovò oppressa da pene atroci nel fisico e nello spirito che durarono fino alla morte, sopravvenuta il venerdì 25 maggio 1607. Si spense intorno alle tre del pomeriggio, mentre una gioia insolita pervadeva tutto il monastero.
Non erano passati vent’anni dalla sua morte che già il Pontefice fiorentino Urbano VIII la proclamava beata. Fu poi il Papa Clemente IX ad iscriverla nell’Albo dei Santi il 28 aprile 1669. Il suo corpo rimasto incorrotto è meta di costanti pellegrinaggi. Il monastero in cui la Santa visse è oggi sede del Seminario arcivescovile di Firenze, che la venera come Patrona, e la cella in cui morì è diventata una cappella nel cui silenzio si percepisce ancora la sua presenza.
Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi rimane una spirituale presenza ispiratrice per le Carmelitane dell’Antica Osservanza. In lei esse vedono la "sorella" che ha percorso interamente la via dell’unione trasformante con Dio e che addita in Maria la "stella" del cammino verso la perfezione. Per tutti questa grande Santa ha il dono di essere maestra di spiritualità, particolarmente per i sacerdoti, verso i quali nutrì sempre una vera passione.
Auspico vivamente che le presenti celebrazioni giubilari della sua morte contribuiscano a far conoscere sempre più questa luminosa figura, che a tutti manifesta la dignità e la bellezza della vocazione cristiana. Come, mentre era in vita, attaccandosi alle campane sollecitava le sue consorelle con il grido: "Venite ad amare l’Amore!", la grande Mistica, da Firenze, dal suo Seminario, dai monasteri carmelitani che a lei si ispirano, possa ancora oggi far sentire la sua voce in tutta la Chiesa, diffondendo l’annuncio dell’amore di Dio per ogni creatura umana.
Con questo augurio, affido Lei, Venerato Fratello, e la Chiesa fiorentina alla celeste protezione di santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi e di cuore imparto a tutti una speciale Benedizione Apostolica.
Dal Vaticano, 29 Aprile 2007
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
© Copyright 2007 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20070429_maddalena-pazzi_it.html
Appartiene alla casata de’ Pazzi, potenti (e violenti) per generazioni in Firenze, e ancora autorevoli alla sua epoca. Battezzata con il nome di Caterina, a 16 anni entra nel monastero carmelitano di Santa Maria degli Angeli in Firenze e come novizia prende il nome di Maria Maddalena.
Nel maggio 1584 soffre di una misteriosa malattia che le impedisce di stare coricata. Al momento di pronunciare i voti, devono portarla davanti all’altare nel suo letto, dove "dì e notte sta sempre a sedere". Ed ecco poi quelle estasi, che si succederanno per molti anni. Le descrivono cinque volumi di manoscritti, opera di consorelle che registravano gesti e parole sue in quelle ore. (Parole sorprendenti: nelle estasi, lei usava un linguaggio colto, “specialistico”, di gran lunga superiore al livello della sua istruzione). Questi resoconti, che lei legge e corregge, e che acuti teologi perlustrano in punto di dottrina, contengono – espresso in mille modi e visioni e voci – l’invito appassionato a ricambiare l’amore di Cristo per l’uomo, testimoniato dalla Passione.
Più tardi le voci dall’alto le chiedono di promuovere la “rinnovazione della Chiesa” (iniziata dal Concilio di Trento con i suoi decreti), esortando e ammonendo le sue gerarchie. Maria Maddalena esita, teme di ingannarsi. Preferirebbe offrire la vita per l’evangelizzazione, segue con gioia l’opera dei missionari in Giappone... Voci autorevoli la rassicurano, e allora lei scrive a papa Sisto V, ai cardinali della Curia; e tre lettere manda ad Alessandro de’ Medici, arcivescovo di Firenze, che poi incontra in monastero. "Questa figliola ha veramente parlato in persona dello Spirito Santo", dirà lui. Maria Maddalena gli annuncia pure che presto lo faranno Papa, ma che non durerà molto (e così gli ha predetto anche Filippo Neri). Infatti, Alessandro viene eletto il 10 maggio 1605 con il nome di Leone XI, e soltanto 26 giorni dopo è già morto.
Per suor Maria Maddalena finisce il tempo delle estasi e incomincia quello delle malattie. Del “nudo soffrire”, come lei dice, che durerà fino alla sua morte, già accompagnata da voci di miracoli, che porteranno nel 1611 l’apertura del processo canonico per la sua beatificazione, a pochi anni dalla morte avvenuta nel 1607. Papa Clemente IX, il 22 aprile del 1669, la canonizzerà. Le spoglie di santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi ora riposano nell’omonimo monastero, a Firenze.
Autore: Domenico Agasso
Spunti bibliografici su Santa Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi
a cura di LibreriadelSanto.it
Santa Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi
Vergine
25
maggio - Memoria Facoltativa
Firenze, 2 aprile 1566 - 25 maggio 1607
Nasce nel
1566 e appartiene alla casata de' Pazzi, potenti (e violenti) per generazioni a
Firenze, e ancora autorevoli alla sua epoca. Battezzata con il nome di
Caterina, a 16 anni entra nel monastero carmelitano di Santa Maria degli Angeli
in Firenze e come novizia prende il nome di Maria Maddalena. Nel maggio 1584
soffre di una misteriosa malattia che le impedisce di stare coricata. Al
momento di pronunciare i voti, devono portarla davanti all'altare nel suo
letto. Da questo momento vivrà diverse estasi, che si succederanno per molti
anni. Le descrivono cinque volumi di manoscritti, opera di consorelle che
registravano gesti e parole sue in quelle ore. Più tardi le voci dall'alto le
chiedono di promuovere la «rinnovazione della Chiesa» (iniziata dal Concilio di
Trento con i suoi decreti), esortando e ammonendo le sue gerarchie. Scrive così
a papa Sisto V, ai cardinali della curia; e tre lettere manda ad Alessandro de'
Medici, arcivescovo di Firenze, predicendogli il suo breve pontificato. La
mistica morirà nel 1607 dopo lunghe malattie. (Avvenire)
Etimologia:
Maria = amata da Dio, dall'egiziano; signora, dall'ebraico
Emblema: Giglio
Martirologio
Romano: Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi, vergine dell’Ordine delle Carmelitane,
che a Firenze in Cristo condusse una vita nascosta di preghiera e di
abnegazione, pregò ardentemente per la riforma della Chiesa e, arricchita da
Dio di doni straordinari, fu per le consorelle insigne guida verso la
perfezione.
Una santa
da capogiro. Parte della sua vita si svolge come fuori dal mondo, in lunghe e
ripetute estasi, con momenti e atti quasi “intraducibili” oggi: come lo scambio
del suo cuore con quello di Gesù, le stigmate invisibili, i colloqui con la
Santissima Trinità... Scene vertiginose di familiarità divino-umana; dopo le
quali, però, lei ritorna tranquilla e laboriosa monaca, riassorbita nella
quotidianità delle incombenze.
Appartiene alla casata de’ Pazzi, potenti (e violenti) per generazioni in Firenze, e ancora autorevoli alla sua epoca. Battezzata con il nome di Caterina, a 16 anni entra nel monastero carmelitano di Santa Maria degli Angeli in Firenze e come novizia prende il nome di Maria Maddalena.
Nel maggio 1584 soffre di una misteriosa malattia che le impedisce di stare coricata. Al momento di pronunciare i voti, devono portarla davanti all’altare nel suo letto, dove "dì e notte sta sempre a sedere". Ed ecco poi quelle estasi, che si succederanno per molti anni. Le descrivono cinque volumi di manoscritti, opera di consorelle che registravano gesti e parole sue in quelle ore. (Parole sorprendenti: nelle estasi, lei usava un linguaggio colto, “specialistico”, di gran lunga superiore al livello della sua istruzione). Questi resoconti, che lei legge e corregge, e che acuti teologi perlustrano in punto di dottrina, contengono – espresso in mille modi e visioni e voci – l’invito appassionato a ricambiare l’amore di Cristo per l’uomo, testimoniato dalla Passione.
Più tardi le voci dall’alto le chiedono di promuovere la “rinnovazione della Chiesa” (iniziata dal Concilio di Trento con i suoi decreti), esortando e ammonendo le sue gerarchie. Maria Maddalena esita, teme di ingannarsi. Preferirebbe offrire la vita per l’evangelizzazione, segue con gioia l’opera dei missionari in Giappone... Voci autorevoli la rassicurano, e allora lei scrive a papa Sisto V, ai cardinali della Curia; e tre lettere manda ad Alessandro de’ Medici, arcivescovo di Firenze, che poi incontra in monastero. "Questa figliola ha veramente parlato in persona dello Spirito Santo", dirà lui. Maria Maddalena gli annuncia pure che presto lo faranno Papa, ma che non durerà molto (e così gli ha predetto anche Filippo Neri). Infatti, Alessandro viene eletto il 10 maggio 1605 con il nome di Leone XI, e soltanto 26 giorni dopo è già morto.
Per suor Maria Maddalena finisce il tempo delle estasi e incomincia quello delle malattie. Del “nudo soffrire”, come lei dice, che durerà fino alla sua morte, già accompagnata da voci di miracoli, che porteranno nel 1611 l’apertura del processo canonico per la sua beatificazione, a pochi anni dalla morte avvenuta nel 1607. Papa Clemente IX, il 22 aprile del 1669, la canonizzerà. Le spoglie di santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi ora riposano nell’omonimo monastero, a Firenze.
Autore: Domenico Agasso
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Voir aussi : http://www.zenit.org/fr/articles/sainte-marie-madeleine-de-pazzi-maitre-spirituel-pour-les-pretres
