Bienheureuse Lucie
Brocolelli
Tertiaire
dominicaine (+ v. 1544)
Originaire de l'Ombrie,
elle se maria, puis avec l'accord de son époux, elle devint tertiaire
dominicaine à Viterbe. Elle fut envoyée comme prieure à Ferrare, mais cette
stigmatisée de la Passion du Christ était incapable de diriger sa communauté.
Déposée, elle connut d'abord bien des vexations, puis elle fut oubliée et vécut
ainsi trente-neuf ans sans jamais se plaindre. Son culte fut confirmé en 1710
par le pape Clément XI.
À Ferrare en Émilie, l’an
1544, la bienheureuse Lucie Broccadelli, religieuse, qui supporta avec patience
de multiples épreuves et tourments tant dans le mariage que dans le monastère
du Tiers-Ordre de Saint Dominique, où elle fut contrainte à l’isolement
total.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/9166/Bienheureuse-Lucie-Brocolelli.html
Also
known as
Lucy Brocolelli
Lucy de Alessio
Lucia Broccadelli
Lucia Brocadelli
Profile
The eldest of eleven children of
Bartolomeo Broccadelli and Gentilina Cassio. A pious child,
at age five she received a vision of Our Lady, and
at age seven she saw Mary and
received a scapular from Saint Dominic
de Guzman. By age twelve she had taken private vows and had decided to
become a Dominican.
However, her father died,
she was placed in the care of her uncle, and at age 15 she was betrothed in
an arranged marriage to Count Pietro
de Alessio of Milan, Italy.
Her fondness for Pietro and her duty to her family conflicted with her desire
for the religious
life, and the stress caused her to become ill until
she received a vision of Mary, Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine.
She finally married the count,
but he understood that they would live as brother and sister.
Lucy took over the
operation of the count‘s
household. She taught catechism to
the servants,
began caring for the local poor,
and spent her evenings in prayer.
The servants claimed
that Saint Catherine, Saint Agnes
of Rome and Saint Agnes
of Montepulciano helped her bake bread
for the poor.
At one point Lucy simply walked away from home, planning to become an anchorite;
she claimed that Saint Dominic brought
her back as she had other things to do; her husband had her locked up, possibly
for what he considered her own safety. This became the breaking point for them;
a few weeks later Lucy returned to her mother‘s
home. Pietro eventually became a Franciscan and
noted preacher.
In 1496 she
moved to Viterbo, Italy,
and joined a group of Dominican tertiaries.
Her visions continued, she began to fall into ecstasies during prayer, and
received the signs of the stigmata.
Word of her visions and actions got around, and curiosity seekers came to gawk
at her. Her bishop investigated
her himself, but did not come to any conclusion about the nature of her
visions, and referred her to the Inquisition.
They investigated, reached no decision, and referred her to the Vatican.
The Pope,
with the help of Blessed Columba
of Rieti, decided that the mystical signs were of God, and asked
Lucy to pray for
him.
Lucy returned to Viterbo where
the locals were excited to have her back. However, the count of Ferrara, Italy who
had just built a convent of Saint Catherine
of Siena in Narni, Italy,
asked Lucy to serve as its prioress;
she agreed, with the plan to make it a house of very strict observance. This
triggered a two-year conflict between the two cities which actually led to
armed conflict when the count sent
troops to Viterbo in 1499 to
escort her to the convent.
There she ran into additional problems as many novices were
unable to live under the strict rules; there was sometimes a circus atmosphere
at the house as the count brought
visitors to show off Lucy, and would demand that she show signs of stigmata.
In 1505 the Dominicans replaced
her as prioress,
and the new superior had her confined; for her remaining 39 years she lived in
silence, speaking only to her confessor,
completely obedient, never complaining, utterly forgotten by the outside world,
and spending all free time in prayer,
frequently going into ecstasies and
receiving visions.
Born
13
December 1476 in Narni, Umbria, Italy as Lucy
Brocolelli
15
November 1544 at
the Saint Catherine
of Siena convent in Ferrara, Italy of
natural causes
miracles were
reported at her tomb, people began to visit her grave to pray, and
she was re-interred twice to make it easier for them
interred in the cathedral in Ferrara
body incorrupt
1 March 1710 (cultus
confirmed) by Pope Clement
XI
Additional
Information
Life
of Blessed Lucy of Narni, by Lady Georgiana Fullerton
Saints
and Saintly Dominicans, by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie
Cormier, O.P.
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
images
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
nettsteder
i norsk
strony
w jezyku polskim
MLA
Citation
“Blessed Lucy of
Narni“. CatholicSaints.Info. 31 January 2022. Web. 19 February 2026.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-lucy-of-narni/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-lucy-of-narni/
Blessed Lucy Brocolelli
of Narni, OP V (AC)
Born in 1476; died 1544;
beatified 1720. Very early, it became evident to her pious Italian family that
this child was set for something unusual in life, for some of her heavenly
favors were visible. When Lucy was five years old, she had a vision of Our
Lady; two years later, Our Lady came with Saint Dominic, who gave her the
scapular. At age 12, she made private vows and, even at this early age, had
determined to become a Dominican. However, family affairs were to make this
difficult. Lucy's father died, leaving her in the care of an uncle. He felt
that the best way to dispose of a pretty niece was to marry her off as soon as
possible.
The efforts of her uncle
to get Lucy successfully married form a colorful chapter in the life of the
Blessed Lucy. At one time, he arranged a big family party, and his choice of
Lucy's husband was there. He thought it better not to tell Lucy what he had in
mind, because she had such queer ideas, so he presented the young man to her in
front of the entire assembly. The young man made a valiant attempt to place a
ring on Lucy's finger, and he was thoroughly slapped for his pains.
The next time, the uncle
approached the matter with more tact, arranging a marriage with Count Pietro of
Milan, who was not a stranger to the family. Lucy was, in fact, very fond of him,
but she had resolved to live as a religious. The strain of the situation made
her seriously ill. During her illness, Our Lady appeared to her again,
accompanied by Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine, and told her to go ahead with
the marriage as a legal contract, but to explain to Pietro that she was bound
to her vow of virginity and must keep it. When Lucy recovered, the matter was
explained to Pietro, and the marriage was solemnized.
Lucy's life now became
that of the mistress of a large and busy household. She took great care to
instruct the servants in their religion and soon became known for her
benefactions to the poor.
Pietro, to do him
justice, never seems to have objected when his young wife gave away clothes and
food, nor when she performed great penances. He knew that she wore a hair-shirt
under her rich clothing, and that she spent most of the night in prayer and
working for the poor. He even made allowances for the legend told him by the
servants, that SS Catherine, Agnes, and Agnes of Montepulciano came to help her
make bread for the poor. However, when a talkative servant one day informed him
that Lucy was entertaining a handsome young man, who seemed to be an old
friend, Pietro took his sword and went to see. He was embarrassed to find Lucy
contemplating a large and beautiful crucifix, and he was further confused when
the servant told him that was the young man.
When Lucy departed for
the desert to become an anchorite, and returned the next day, saying that Saint
Dominic had brought her home, Pietro's patience finally gave out. He had his
young wife locked up. Here she remained for the season of Lent; sympathetic
servants brought her food until Easter. Perhaps they had both decided that Lucy
could not live the life God had planned for her in Pietro's house. She returned
to her mother's house and put on the habit of a Dominican tertiary.
Shortly after this, Lucy
went to Viterbo and joined a group of Third Order sisters. She tried very hard
to hide her spiritual favors, because they complicated her life wherever she
went. She had the stigmata visibly, and she was usually in ecstasy, which meant
a steady stream of curious people who wanted to question her, investigate her,
or just stare at her. Even the sisters were nervous about her methods of
prayer. Once they called in the bishop, and he watched with them for 12 hours,
while Lucy went through the drama of the Passion.
The bishop hesitated to
pass judgment and called in the inquisition. From here, she was referred
directly to the pope. After talking to her, the pope pronounced in her favor
and told her to go home and pray for him. Here the hard-pressed Pietro had his
final appearance in Lucy's life. He made a last effort to persuade Lucy to
change her plans and come back to him. Finally he decided to become a
Franciscan, and, in later years, he was a famous preacher.
When Lucy returned to
Viterbo, she may have thought her troubles were over, but they were just
beginning. The duke of Ferrara, in the manner of other wealthy nobles with a guilty
conscience, decided to build a monastery and, hearing of the fame of the mystic
of Viterbo, demanded that she come there and be prioress. Lucy had been praying
for some time that a means would be found to build a new convent of strict
observance, and she agreed to go to the new convent at Narni.
This touched off a
two-year battle between the towns. Viterbo had the mystic and did not want to
lose her; the duke of Ferrara sent his troops to take her by force, and much
blood was shed before she was finally brought to Narni. The shock and grief of
this violence was a new trial for Lucy. The duke sent his daughter-in-law,
Lucrezia Borgia, to find postulants for the new convent. The records say,
sedately: "Many of these did not persevere."
The duke of Ferrara liked
to show off the convent he had founded. He brought all his guests to see it.
One time, he arrived with a troop of dancing girls, who had been entertaining
at a banquet, and demanded that Lucy show them her stigmata and, if possible,
go into ecstasy. It is not surprising that such events would upset religious
life, and that sooner or later something would have to be done about it. Some
of the sisters, naturally, thought it was Lucy's fault.
The petitioned the
bishop, and he sent six nuns from the Second Order to reform the community.
Lucy's foundation was of the Third Order; exactly what the difference was we do
not know. The Second Order nuns, according to the chronicle, "brought in
the very folds of their veils the seed of war"; nuns of the Second Order
wore black veils, a privilege not allowed to tertiaries.
The uneasy episode ended
when one of the visitors was made prioress. Lucy was placed on penance. The
nature of her fault is not mentioned, nor is there any explanation of the fact
that, until her death, 39 years later, she was never allowed to speak to anyone
but her confessor, who was chosen by the prioress.
The Dominican provincial,
probably nervous for the prestige of the order, would not let any member of the
order go to see her. Her stigmata disappeared, too late to do her any good, and
vindictive companions said: "See, she was a fraud all the time." When
she died in 1544, people thought she had been dead for many years.
It is hard to understand
how anyone not a saint could have so long endured such a life. Lucy's only
friends during her 39 years of exile were heavenly ones; the Dominican,
Catherine of Racconigi, sometimes visited her--evidently by bi-location--and
her heavenly friends often came to brighten her lonely cell.
Lucy was buried without
honors, but miracles occurring at her tomb soon made it necessary to transfer
her relics to a more accessible place. She was reinterred, first in the
monastery church, then in the cathedral (Dorcy).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1115.shtml
Blessed Lucy of Narni,
V.O.P.
Memorial Day: November
16th
Profile
Very early, it became
evident to her pious Italian family that this child was set for something
unusual in life, for some of her heavenly favors were visible. When Lucy was
five years old, she had a vision of Our Lady; two years later, Our Lady came with
Saint Dominic, who gave her the scapular. At age 12, she made private vows and,
even at this early age, had determined to become a Dominican. However, family
affairs were to make this difficult. Lucy's father died, leaving her in the
care of an uncle. He felt that the best way to dispose of a pretty niece was to
marry her off as soon as possible.
The efforts of her uncle
to get Lucy successfully married form a colorful chapter in the life of the
Blessed Lucy. At one time, he arranged a big family party, and his choice of
Lucy's husband was there. He thought it better not to tell Lucy what he had in
mind, because she had such queer ideas, so he presented the young man to her in
front of the entire assembly. The young man made a valiant attempt to place a
ring on Lucy's finger, and he was thoroughly slapped for his pains.
The next time, the uncle
approached the matter with more tact, arranging a marriage with Count Pietro of
Milan, who was not a stranger to the family. Lucy was, in fact, very fond of
him, but she had resolved to live as a religious. The strain of the situation
made her seriously ill. During her illness, Our Lady appeared to her again,
accompanied by Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine, and told her to go ahead with
the marriage as a legal contract, but to explain to Pietro that she was bound
to her vow of virginity and must keep it. When Lucy recovered, the matter was
explained to Pietro, and the marriage was solemnized.
Lucy's life now became
that of the mistress of a large and busy household. She took great care to
instruct the servants in their religion and soon became known for her
benefactions to the poor.
Pietro, to do him
justice, never seems to have objected when his young wife gave away clothes and
food, nor when she performed great penances. He knew that she wore a hair-shirt
under her rich clothing, and that she spent most of the night in prayer and
working for the poor. He even made allowances for the legend told him by the
servants, that SS Catherine, Agnes, and Agnes of Montepulciano came to help her
make bread for the poor. However, when a talkative servant one day informed him
that Lucy was entertaining a handsome young man, who seemed to be an old friend,
Pietro took his sword and went to see. He was embarrassed to find Lucy
contemplating a large and beautiful crucifix, and he was further confused when
the servant told him that was the young man.
When Lucy departed for
the desert to become an anchorite, and returned the next day, saying that Saint
Dominic had brought her home, Pietro's patience finally gave out. He had his
young wife locked up. Here she remained for the season of Lent; sympathetic
servants brought her food until Easter. Perhaps they had both decided that Lucy
could not live the life God had planned for her in Pietro's house. She returned
to her mother's house and put on the habit of a Dominican tertiary.
Shortly after this, Lucy
went to Viterbo and joined a group of Third Order sisters. She tried very hard
to hide her spiritual favors, because they complicated her life wherever she
went. She had the stigmata visibly, and she was usually in ecstasy, which meant
a steady stream of curious people who wanted to question her, investigate her,
or just stare at her. Even the sisters were nervous about her methods of
prayer. Once they called in the bishop, and he watched with them for 12 hours,
while Lucy went through the drama of the Passion.
The bishop hesitated to
pass judgment and called in the inquisition. From here, she was referred
directly to the pope. After talking to her, the pope pronounced in her favor
and told her to go home and pray for him. Here the hard-pressed Pietro had his
final appearance in Lucy's life. He made a last effort to persuade Lucy to
change her plans and come back to him. Finally he decided to become a
Franciscan, and, in later years, he was a famous preacher.
When Lucy returned to
Viterbo, she may have thought her troubles were over, but they were just
beginning. The duke of Ferrara, in the manner of other wealthy nobles with a
guilty conscience, decided to build a monastery and, hearing of the fame of the
mystic of Viterbo, demanded that she come there and be prioress. Lucy had been
praying for some time that a means would be found to build a new convent of
strict observance, and she agreed to go to the new convent at Narni.
This touched off a
two-year battle between the towns. Viterbo had the mystic and did not want to
lose her; the duke of Ferrara sent his troops to take her by force, and much
blood was shed before she was finally brought to Narni. The shock and grief of
this violence was a new trial for Lucy. The duke sent his daughter-in-law,
Lucrezia Borgia, to find postulants for the new convent. The records say,
sedately: "Many of these did not persevere."
The duke of Ferrara liked
to show off the convent he had founded. He brought all his guests to see it.
One time, he arrived with a troop of dancing girls, who had been entertaining
at a banquet, and demanded that Lucy show them her stigmata and, if possible,
go into ecstasy. It is not surprising that such events would upset religious
life, and that sooner or later something would have to be done about it. Some
of the sisters, naturally, thought it was Lucy's fault.
The petitioned the
bishop, and he sent six nuns from the Second Order to reform the community.
Lucy's foundation was of the Third Order; exactly what the difference was we do
not know. The Second Order nuns, according to the chronicle, "brought in
the very folds of their veils the seed of war"; nuns of the Second Order
wore black veils, a privilege not allowed to tertiaries.
The uneasy episode ended
when one of the visitors was made prioress. Lucy was placed on penance. The
nature of her fault is not mentioned, nor is there any explanation of the fact
that, until her death, 39 years later, she was never allowed to speak to anyone
but her confessor, who was chosen by the prioress.
The Dominican provincial,
probably nervous for the prestige of the order, would not let any member of the
order go to see her. Her stigmata disappeared, too late to do her any good, and
vindictive companions said: "See, she was a fraud all the time." When
she died in 1544, people thought she had been dead for many years.
It is hard to understand
how anyone not a saint could have so long endured such a life. Lucy's only
friends during her 39 years of exile were heavenly ones; the Dominican,
Catherine of Racconigi, sometimes visited her--evidently by bi-location--and
her heavenly friends often came to brighten her lonely cell.
Lucy was buried without
honors, but miracles occurring at her tomb soon made it necessary to transfer
her relics to a more accessible place. She was reinterred, first in the
monastery church, then in the cathedral (Dorcy).
Born: in Narni,
Italy in 1476
Died: died in 1544
Beatified: Pope
Clement XI in 1720 declared her Blessed.
Prayers/Commemorations
First Vespers:
Ant. This is a wise
Virgin whom the Lord found watching, who took her lamp and oil, and when the
Lord came she entered with Him into the marriage feast
V. Pray for us Blessed
Lucy
R. That we may be made
worthy of the promises of Christ
Lauds:
Ant. Come, O my chosen
one, and I will place my throne in thee, for the King hath exceedingly desired
thy beauty
V. Virgins shall be led
to the King after her
R. Her companions shall
be presented to Thee
Second Vespers:
Ant. She has girded her
loins with courage and hath strengthened her arm; therefore shall her lamp not
be put out forever
V. Pray for us Blessed
Lucy
R. That we may be made
worthy of the promises of Christ
Prayer:
Let us Pray: O God,
who, by the gifts of virginity and patience, didst enable Blessed Lucy, adorned
with the marks of the passion of Thy Son, to elude the alluring world, and to
overcome its persecutions grant, through her intercession and example, that we
may be neither overcome by the snares of earth nor subdued by adversity.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
SOURCE :
http://www.willingshepherds.org/Dominican%20Saints%20November.html#Lucy Narni
BLESSED LUCY OF NARNI
by Lady Georgiana Fullerton
T h e C h i l
d h o o d
IT was towards the latter end of the 15th century that Lucia Brocadelli (Broccoletti) was born in the ancient city of Narnia, in Umbria, where her father's house had long held a noble and distinguished rank. Even as a baby in the cradle, there were not wanting signs which marked her as no ordinary child; and if we may credit the account given us by her old biographers, both her nurses and mother were accustomed to see her daily visited by an unknown religious dressed in the Dominican habit, whose majestic appearance seemed something more than human, and who, taking her from her cradle, embraced her tenderly, and gave her her blessing. They watched closely, to see whence this mysterious visitor came and whither she went, but were never able to follow her; and the mother becoming at length alarmed at the daily recurrence of this circumstance, it was revealed to her that her child's unknown visitor was no other than Saint Catherine of Sienna, to whom she was given as an adopted daughter.
The accounts that have been preserved of Lucia's childhood have a peculiar
interest of their own. Whilst the early biographies of many saints present us
with instances of extraordinary graces and favours granted to them in infancy,
quite as numerous and remarkable as those bestowed on Blessed Lucy, yet in her
case we find them mixed with the details of a characteristic vivacity of
temperament, which give them a lifelike reality, and show her to us, in the
midst of her supernatural visitations, with all the impetuosity of an
imaginative child. When she was only four years old, her mother's brother, Don
Simon, came on a visit to his sister's house, and brought with him from Rome
various toys and presents for the children. Lucy was given her choice; and
whilst the others were loudly clamouring for the dolls and puppets, she
selected a little rosary with an image of the Child Jesus; and this being given
to her, she took it in her arms, bestowing every name of childish endearment on
it, kissing its hands and feet, and calling it her dear Christarello, a name
which continued to be given to it ever afterwards. The rest of the day she
spent in her own little room, where she arranged a corner for the reception of
the Christarello, and was never tired of seeing and caressing her new treasure.
Henceforth it was here that she spent the happiest moments of the day. If ever
she got into any trouble in the house, it was here she came to pour out all her
sorrow; and the innocent simplicity of her devotion was so pleasing to God,
that more than once He permitted that the Christarello should wipe away the
tears which she shed on these occasions with His little hand, as was several
times witnessed by her mother, who watched her through the half-open door.
As she grew a little
older, she began to accompany her mother to church; and they frequently went to
visit the great church of Saint Augustine, which was close to the house where
they lived. Now it happened that in this church, among other devout images, there
was a small bas-relief of the Blessed Virgin holding her Divine Son in her
arms, which took the child's fancy the first time they entered, so that she
stopped to look at it. Her mother observed her as she lingered behind:
"Lucy," she said, "do you know who that beautiful lady is whom
you see there? She is the Mother of your Christarello; and the little Child
whom she carries in her arms is the Christarello also. If you like, we will
come here sometimes; and you shall bring the rosary you are so fond of, and say
it before her image." Lucy was delighted at the idea; and whenever she
could escape from her nurse's hand, she found her way to the church, to admire
this new object of her devotion.
One day, being thus
occupied, the thought came into her head, how much she would like to hold the
Christarello for once in her own arms, as she had learnt to hold her little
baby brother. She therefore prayed to the Blessed Virgin with great earnestness
that her request might be granted, and immediately the marble figure of the
little Jesus was extended to her by His Mother, and placed in her arms. Nor was
this all: no sooner had she received her precious burden, than she felt the
cold marble become a living Child; and, full of delight, she ran home still
carrying Him; and though she met many people on the way, who stopped her as she
hurried along, and tried to take Him from her, she succeeded in getting safe to
her own room at home, where she shut herself up with her treasure, and remained
with Him for three days and nights without food or sleep, insensible to all the
entreaties and remonstrances of her astonished mother. Conquered at length by
fatigue, on the third day she fell asleep; and when she woke she became
sensible of the truth that God abides only with those who watch with Him; for,
on opening her eyes, the first thing she perceived was that the Christarello
was gone. Her cries of distress were heard by her mother, who, to console her,
carried her once more to the church; and there they found the marble child
restored to the image as before, although for the three previous days its place
in the arms of the Virgin's figure had been empty.
She was accustomed from time to time to pay a visit to the uncle before
mentioned, and when about seven years old she went as usual to spend some time
with him at his country house. She remembered, on the occasion of a former
visit, to have seen a room in some part of the house where there were some
little angels painted on the walls, as it seemed to her, holding their hands and
dancing; and the first morning after her arrival, she determined to set out on
a diligent search after the dancing angels. The room in which they were painted
was in a wing of the house which had fallen out of repair, and was no longer
used by the family; a staircase had led to the upper story, but this was now
fallen and in ruins; and though Lucy, as she stood at the bottom, could see the
little angels on the wall above her head, all her efforts were unavailing to
climb the broken staircase and reach the object of her search. She had recourse
to her usual expedient, prayer to the Christarello, and instantly found herself
in the empty room, without well knowing how she came there. But her thoughts
were soon busy with the angels. There they were; little winged children, their
heads garlanded with flowers, their mantles floating as it seemed in the air;
and they danced with such an air of enjoyment and superhuman grace, that Lucy
sat on the ground before them, absorbed in admiration. As she sat thus, she heard
her own name called from the window. She turned round, expecting to see her
uncle or some of the servants of the house; but a very different spectacle met
her eye. A glorious company of saints and angels stood round the Person of
Jesus Himself. On His right was His Virgin Mother; on His left, Saint Catherine
and the great Patriarch Saint Dominic, with many others.
Then those mystic
espousals were celebrated which we read of in so many other tales of the Saints
of God: the Divine Spouse receiving the hand of the delighted child from His
Blessed Mother, placed a ring on her finger, which she preserved to the hour of
her death; after which He assigned her to the special guardianship of Saint
Dominic and Saint Catherine, whom from that day she always was used to call her
"father and mother." "And have you nothing to give Me?" He
then asked of His little Spouse; "will you not give Me that silk mantle
and pretty necklace?" Lucy was dressed in the rich fashion of the day,
with a crimson damask mantle over her other garments, and a necklace of gold
and coral beads about her neck; but at these words of her Spouse, she hastily
stripped them off, and lay them at His feet. He did not fail, however, to give
her a richer dress in their place; for she had no sooner taken off the silk
mantle, than Saint Dominic clothed her with the scapular of his order, which
she continued to wear during the rest of her life under her other clothes.
When the vision had disappeared, Lucy found herself full of a new and inexpressible joy. She turned to the little angels on the wall, the only companions left her after the last of the heavenly train had faded from her eyes, and with the simplicity of her childish glee, she spoke to them as though they were alive. "You dear little angels," she said, "are you not glad at what our Lord has done?" Then the angels seemed to move from the wall, and to become, indeed, full of life; and they spoke to her in reply, and said they were very glad to have her for their queen and lady, as the Spouse of their dear Lord. And they invited her to join in their dance of joy, and sang so sweet and harmonious a music, and held out their hands so kindly and graciously, that Lucy would have been well content never to have left her happy place of retreat; nor would she have done so, if she had not been found by her uncle, and carried against her will back to the house.
T h e M a r r i a g e
The death of her father, left her whilst still young, to the guardianship of
her uncle. All her own wishes were fixed on a life of religion, but her uncle
had different views for her; and after long resistance on her part, he
succeeded in inducing her to accept as her husband Count Pietro of Milan, a
young nobleman of considerable worth and abilities. The marriage was accordingly
celebrated; but not until, in answer to earnest prayers, Lucy had received a
divine revelation that a life so contrary to all her own wishes and intentions
was indeed God's will regarding her.
Doubtless it is one of those cases in which it is not easy for us to follow the
ways of Divine Providence. The marriage was followed by much suffering to both
parties; yet, if we be willing to take the Saints' lives as they are given us,
without seeking to reduce the supernatural elements we find in them to the
level of our own understanding, we shall not he disposed to doubt the truth of
the revelation which commanded it, or to fancy things would have been much
better if Blessed Lucy had never been placed in a position so little in harmony
with her own wishes. On the contrary, we must admire the grace of God, which
would perhaps never have been so amply manifested in His servant, had she been
called to a more congenial way of life. We are accustomed to admire the
wonderful variety of examples which are presented to us in the lives of the
Saints: that of Blessed Lucy offers us one of a soul with all her sympathies
and desires fixed on the higher life of religion, yet fulfilling with perfect
exactitude the minutest duties of a different vocation. She sanctified herself
in the will of God, though that will was manifested to her in a position which
the world is used to call the hardest of all to bear - an ill-assorted
marriage. She found means to practise the humiliation of the cloister, without
laying aside the duties, or even the becoming dignity, of her station.
Her first care, on finding herself the young mistress of a house full of
servants, was with them, whom she ever looked on less as menials than as a
cherished portion of her family. And in the beautiful account given us of her
intercourse with them, we must remember that at the period in which she lived,
it was considered nothing uncommon or unbecoming for ladies of the highest rank
to join in the household occupations, and take their part in the day's employment,
working with their servants, and presiding amongst them with an affectionate
familiarity, which, without rendering them less a mistress, gave them at the
same time almost the position of a mother. Blessed Lucy delighted in the
opportunities, which the simple manners of the day thus afforded her, of laying
aside her rich dress and ornaments, and assisting in her own kitchen, where she
always chose the meanest and most tiresome offices. What was with others only
done in compliance with the ordinary habit of the day, was with her made the
occasion of secret humiliations. One of her servants, a woman of very holy life
and disposition, she took into her confidence, submitting herself to her
direction, and obeying her as a religious superior. On Holy Thursday, she
washed the feet of all her domestics; and that with so touching a devotion as
to draw tears from the eyes of the rudest and most indifferent among them. So
perfect was the discipline she succeeded in introducing among them, that, far
from presenting the spectacle of disorder so common in households filled with a
crowd of feudal retainers of all kinds, her palace had the quietude and
serenity of a monastery. Never was an oath or licentious word heard among them;
the name of God was honoured; and habits of devotion became cherished and
familiar, where before they had been too often an occasion of mockery. All the
family dined at the same table; and during the repast the Lives of the Saints,
or the Holy Scriptures, were read aloud. If any fault were committed by any of
the household, Blessed Lucy knew how to punish it so rigorously as to prevent a
repetition of the offence; and in this she was often assisted by the gift of
prophecy, which she enjoyed in a remarkable degree.
We read an amusing
account of two of her maidens, who took the opportunity of their mistress's
absence at church to kill two fine capons, which they resolved to dress
privately for their own eating. The birds were already on the spit, when their
mistress was heard entering the house. Fearful of discovery, they took the
half-roasted capons from the fire, and hid them under a bed. Blessed Lucy,
however, knew all that had happened. "Where are the capons," she
said, "that were in the court this morning?" "They have flown
away," said the two women, in great confusion: "we have been looking
for them every where." "Do not try to deceive God, my children,"
replied Blessed Lucy: "they are both under your bed; if you will follow
me, I will show them to you." The servants followed her in silent dismay;
but their astonishment was still more increased, when not only did she lead
them to the very place where they had hidden their spoils, hut calling the
birds to come out, they flew out alive, and began to crow lustily.
In another story of her life, we find her represented with her women washing
the linen of the house by the side of a river that flowed by the castle. Whilst
so engaged, one of them fell into the river and sank to the bottom; but Blessed
Lucy made the sign of the cross over the water, and immediately the drowning
woman appeared on the surface safe and sound, close to the river's bank.
And in the midst of these simple and homely occupations, the supernatural life
of prayer, and ecstacy, and communion with God, was never for a moment interrupted.
Strange and beautiful sights were seen by many of those who were present in the
church when she communicated: sometimes a column of fire rested on her head;
sometimes her face itself shone and sparkled like the sun. Once two little
children, whom she had adopted as her own, saw, as they knelt behind her, two
angels come and crown their mother with a garland, of exquisite roses. But the
children began to weep; for they said one to another, "Certainly our
mother cannot have long to live, for the angels are even now crowning her with
flowers."
The beauty of her face, and its extraordinary brilliancy at these times, had a
singular power in controlling those who beheld it. Even Count Pietro himself
was tamed and conquered by a glance from her eye, when it shone with this more
than human splendour.
This mention of Count Pietro's name reminds us that it is tune we should say
something of him, and of his share in a story which has in some parts, as we
read it, the character of a romance. He was not a bad man; he seems indeed to
have had many good qualities, and to have been possessed in some respects of a
degree of refinement beyond what was common at the time. He was sincerely
attached to his saintly wife; but he could not understand her. They were beings
of different worlds; and the very qualities which extorted his respect and
admiration often sadly perplexed and worried him. Her very affection for
himself was above his comprehension; his own feelings were too much made up of
the ordinary selfishness of the world, for him to know how to measure the love
of one whose love was in God. He felt her power over himself; and whilst he
yielded to it, it irritated him, and not the less because there was nothing of
which he could complain. This irritation showed itself in a morose jealousy,
sometimes varied by fits of passionate violence; in which he went so far as to
confine his wife to her room, and once even to threaten her life.
T h e E s c a p e
All this, and the yet more wearing trial of their daily intercourse, was borne by Blessed Lucy with unvarying sweetness and gentleness. But though she accommodated herself in every thing to his sullen temper, and even showed him a true and loyal obedience, the desire after those heavenly espousals to which she had been promised whilst still a child never left her heart; and as time went on, she began to look about for some opportunity of carrying her wishes into effect. In those days it was no uncommon spectacle to see a wife or a husband, in obedience to the interior call of heaven, abandon every tie of flesh and blood for the retirement of the cloister; nor was the propriety of such a step ever questioned. Society, as a body, in the ages of faith, acknowledged the principle, that one whom Christ calls should leave all and follow Him. When, therefore, we hear that Blessed Lucy at length resolved to leave her husband's house, and take the habit of religion in the Order of Saint Dominic, we must remember that she was no more acting contrary to the custom of the age, than when she worked with her servants in the kitchen. It is not an easy matter at any time for us to judge of the vocation or conscience of another; but when we have to carry back our investigation four hundred years, we can hardly hope that the whole history of a resolution of this nature, - why it was carried out now, and why it was not carried out before her marriage, - should be laid open before us like the pages of a book. Of one thing only we cannot doubt, - God's will had been very clearly and sufficiently declared; both at first, when she consented to give up her own wishes, and now, when the time was come for them to be granted. She contented herself at first with receiving the habit of the third order, and remaining in her mother's house for a year; during which time she had to endure much from the indignation of her husband, who expressed his own disapproval of her step in a very summary way, by burning down the monastery of the prior who had given her the habit. But her uncles at length took the case into their own hands; and after considering the very extraordinary signs of a divine call which had been made manifest in her life, they decided that she should be suffered to follow it without further molestation, and placed her in the monastery of Saint Catherine of Sienna at Rome.
F r o m R o m e t o V i t e r b o
Within a year from her entrance there, the fame of her sanctity had become so
universal, that Father Joachim Turriano, the General of the Order, being about
to found a new convent of nuns at Viterbo, selected her as the prioress of the
new foundation; on which office she accordingly entered in the year 1496, being
then exactly twenty years of age. So great was the reputation she enjoyed, that
though the number of religious sent with her to Viterbo by the general was only
five, the crowds that applied for admission as soon as her presence was known
was so great that the convent had to be enlarged; and she soon saw herself at
the head of a numerous and flourishing community.
Meanwhile, her unhappy husband had not abandoned all hopes of inducing her even
yet to return to the world. He had followed her to Rome, and made vain efforts
to see and speak with her: he now followed her also to Viterbo; and though
unsuccessful in his attempts to obtain the slightest answer to his continual
applications and appeals, he continued to linger about the convent, in the
restless mood of one who would not give up his design as hopeless. Every tongue
around him was busy with the fame of Lucy's saintliness; from one he heard of
her almost continual prayer, from another, of the glory which was seen to hover
over her face in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament: but soon, in the
February following her removal to Viterbo, the interest of all was absorbed in
a new report, - that she had received the sacred stigmata; and that in so
remarkable a manner as to put all doubt on the subject out of the question.
T h e S t i g
m a t a : 1496 February 25
For it was in the choir,
with the other religious, that, being engaged in profound meditation on the
Passion, she was observed by one of the sisters to look pale and as if
suffering acute pain. The sister went up to her to support her, and was struck
with the appearance of her hands, the bones of which seemed dislocated, and the
nerves torn. "Mother of God!" she exclaimed, "what is the matter
with your hands?" "Nothing," was the faint reply; "they are
only gone to sleep." But within a few moments the agony she was enduring
and endeavouring to conceal overpowered her, and she became perfectly
senseless. They carried her from the choir and restored her to consciousness,
so that she was able to return within an hour and receive Holy Communion; but
the same sister who had first observed her, being convinced something very
extraordinary had happened, continued to watch her, and followed her to her
cell. She then remarked that her hands were livid, and the skin raised and much
inflamed; and by the end of the week the wounds became large and open, and shed
so great an abundance of blood that it could no longer be concealed. The
excitement which followed, when these circumstances became generally known, can
hardly be described.
A minute investigation
was first made by the Bishop of Viterbo; after which three successive
commissions of inquiry were appointed by the command of the Pope to examine the
affair, and each of these inquiries terminated in the declaration that the
truth of the miracle was beyond all dispute. Multitudes flocked to the convent
to see and touch the sacred wounds, and came back full of the wonders which
their own eyes had witnessed. Duke Hercules of Este, the future son-in-law of
the Pope, made earnest applications to his uncle to suffer her to be removed to
his own city of Ferrara; and whilst all these things were going on, Count
Pietro still remained in Viterbo.
The world about him was echoing with his wife's renown, but none knew his own
connection with her. Each marvel that he heard did but seem to widen the gulf
between them; yet still he stayed and lingered within sight of the walls that
shut her from him for ever: now bitterly accusing himself for the blindness of
his own conduct towards her; now striving to keep alive a kind of despairing
hope that, could he but once gain admittance to her presence, he might even yet
regain possession of a treasure which, when it was his, he knew not how to
value. At length his desires were granted. A sudden inspiration induced Lucy to
consent to an interview: it was the first that had taken place since she had
fled from his house, and it was the last they ever had in this life.
It must have been a singular meeting: the two years of their separation had
altered both. As to the Count, his restless despair had worn him to an old man.
He had never seen Narni since the day of her departure for Rome, whither he had
followed her; and had spent the long days of those two years hanging about the
convent-gates like some miserable beggar. And the same two years had placed
Lucy far beyond his reach, as it were in a supernatural world above him. When
she stood before him at the grate, and he beheld her marked with those sacred
and mysterious wounds, and bearing in her whole appearance the air of one whose
sympathies were for ever removed from the affections of humanity, his heart
failed him. He had thought to speak to her of her home, and the claims which
should recall her to the world; he saw before him something a little lower than
the angels; and falling on his knees, he bent his eyes to the ground, and
remained silent. Then she spoke; and heaven seemed to speak to him by her
voice. The mists of earthly passion rolled away from his heart as he listened;
the world and its hopes died in him at that moment; an extraordinary struggle
tore his very soul, then passed away, and left it in a profound calm. For the
first time he caught a glimpse of that reality which till now he had treated as
a dream; the world and its unquiet joys were now themselves the dream, and
heaven opened on him as the reality. All life fell away from him in that hour;
and when his wife ceased speaking, she had won his soul to God. He dragged
himself to her feet, and bathed them in his tears; he conjured her pardon for
all the persecutions and violence of the past, and renounced every right or
claim over her obedience for ever. Then, leaving her without another word, he
obeyed the voice which had so powerfully spoken to his heart; for within a few
weeks he took the habit of the Friars Minor of the strict observance; and
persevering in it for many years, died a little before his wife, with the
reputation of sanctity.
T o F e r r a r a
Were this a romance, the story of Blessed Lucy might well end here. But her
life was yet scarcely begun. Shortly after the interview with her husband just
spoken of, Duke Hercules obtained the Pope's orders for her removal to Ferrara.
This was only done by stealth; for the people of Viterbo having got
intelligence of the design, guarded the city night and day; so that, in order
to gain possession of the Saint, the duke was reduced to the expedient of
loading several mules with large baskets, as if full of goods; and in one of
these Blessed Lucy was concealed and carried off, under the guardianship of a
strong body of armed men. Being arrived at Ferrara, the duke received her with
extraordinary honours, and built a magnificent convent for her reception, to
which Pope Alexander VI. granted singular privileges, by a brief wherein he
declared her to have "followed the footsteps of Saint Catherine of Sienna
in all things." In this convent she gave the habit to her own mother, as
well as to many noble ladies of Ferrara.
It were too long to tell of all the signs of Divine favour which were granted
to her during the first years of her new government; of the miracles wrought by
her hands, the visions of marvellous beauty that were given to her gaze; and
the familiarity with which she seemed to live among the saints and angels. Thus
one day, passing into the dormitory, she was met by the figure of a religious,
whom she knew to be Saint Catherine of Sienna. Prostrating herself at her feet,
she prayed her to bless the new monastery, which was dedicated in her name. The
saint willingly complied, and they went through the house together; Blessed
Lucy carrying the holy water, whilst Saint Catherine sprinkled the cells, as
the manner is in blessing a house. Whilst they went along, they sang together
the hymn _Ace Maris Stella_; and having finished, Saint Catherine left her
staff with Blessed Lucy, and took her leave. And another time they saw in the
same dormitory a great company of angels, and the form of one of surpassing
beauty, and clad in an azure robe in the midst of them, standing among them as
their queen. Then she sent them hither and thither, like soldiers to their
posts, and bid them guard the various offices of the monastery;
"for," she said, "we must take possession of this house."
One lingers over this period of her story, unwilling to pass on to the
sorrowful conclusion. God, who had elevated her so highly in the sight of the
world, was about to set upon her life the seal of a profound humiliation.
Hitherto she had been placed before the eyes of man as an object of
enthusiastic veneration: her convent gates were crowded by peisons of all
ranks, who thronged only to see her for a moment. Duke Hercules of Este applied
to her for counsel in all difficulties of state. The Pope had issued
extraordinary briefs to enable the religious of other convents and orders to
pass under her government, and even to leave the second order to join her
community, which belonged to the third, - a privilege we shall scarcely find
granted in any other case. But now these triumphs and distinctions were about
to have an end.
T h e T r i a
l
Blessed Lucy was about
twenty-nine years of age. The honour in which she was held, and the public
celebrity she enjoyed, were a continual source of sorrow and humiliation to
her; and with the desire to escape from something of the popular applause which
followed her, she ceased not earnestly to implore her Divine Spouse to remove
from her the visible marks of the sacred stigmata, which were the chief cause
of the veneration which was paid her by the world. Her request was in part
granted, the wounds in her hands and feet closed; but that of the side, which
was concealed from the eyes of others, remained open to the hour of her death.
Whether the withdrawal of these visible tokens of the Divine favour was the
cause of the change in the sentiments of her subjects, we are not told; but we
find shortly after, that some among them, disgusted at her refusal to allow the
community to become incorporated with the second order, rose in rebellion, and
even attempted her life. The scandal of this crime was concealed through the
exertions of Lucy herself; but on the death of her great protector, Duke
Hercules, in 1505, the discontented members of the community recommenced their
plots against her authority and reputation. Then - designs were laid with
consummate art; and at length they publicly accused her of having been seen in
her cell endeavouring to re-open the wounds of her hands and feet with a knife,
in order to impose on the public. Their evidence was so ably concocted, that
they succeeded in gaining over the heads of the order to their side.
Hasty and violent
measures were at once adopted; every apostolic privilege granted by Pope
Alexander was revoked; she was degraded from her office of prioress, deprived
of every right and voice in the community, and placed below the youngest novice
in the house. She was, moreover, forbidden to speak to any one except the
confessor, kept in a strict imprisonment, and treated in every way as if proved
guilty of an infamous imposture. Nor was this disgrace confined within the
enclosure of her own monastery; it spread as far as her reputation had
extended. All Italy was moved with a transport of indignation against her; the
storm of invective which was raised reached her even in her prison; her name
became a proverb of reproach through Europe; and the nuns who had been
professed at her hands made their professions over again to the new prioress,
as if their vows formerly made to her had been invalid.
One can hardly picture a state of desolation equal to that in which Blessed
Lucy now found herself. It was as if this token of deep abjection and
humiliation were required as a confirmation of her saintliness. If any such
proof were indeed needed, it was furnished by the conduct which she exhibited
under this extraordinary trial. During the whole remaining period of her life,
a space of eight-and-thirty years, she bore her heavy cross without a murmur.
Perhaps its hardest suffering was, to live thus among those whom she had
gathered, together with her own hands, and had sought to lead to the highest
paths of religion, compelled now to be a silent witness of their wickedness.
Her life was a long prayer for her persecutors, and we are assured that no
sorrow or regret ever seemed to shadow the deep tranquillity of her soul. So
far as it touched herself, she took it as a more precious token of her Spouse's
love than all the graces and favours He had ever heaped on her before. But it
is no part of saintliness to be indifferent to the sins of others; and we can
scarcely fathom the anguish which must hourly have pierced her heart, at the
ingratitude and malignity of her unworthy children.
T h e E n d
And so closed the life which had opened in such a joyous and beautiful
childhood. God indeed knew how to comfort one whom the world had utterly cast
out; and though cut off from the least communication with any human being, she
could scarcely be pitied whilst her neglected and solitary cell was the resort
of celestial visitants and friends. The reader is possibly a little tired of
such tales; yet we ask his indulgence whilst referring to one of these last
incidents in the life of Blessed Lucy, which we can scarcely omit.
There lived at the same
time, at Caramagna in Savoy, another beatified saint of the same illustrious
order, Blessed Catherine of Raconigi. She had never seen Blessed Lucy; but had
heard of her saintly fame, and the lustre of her life and miracles, and then
also of her sufferings and disgrace. But the saints of God judge not as the
world judges; and Catherine knew by the light of divine illumination the
falsehood of the charges brought against her sister. She had ever longed to see
and speak with her; and now more than ever, when the glitter of the world's
applause was exchanged for its contumely and persecution. The thought of her sister,
never seen with mortal eye, yet so dearly loved in God, never left her mind;
and she prayed earnestly to their common Lord and Spouse, that He would comfort
and support her, and, if such were His blessed will, satisfy in some way her
own intense desire to hold some kind of intercourse with her even in this life.
One night, as she was thus praying in her cell at Caramagna, her desires were
heard and granted. The same evening Lucy was also alone and in prayer; and to
her in like manner God had revealed the sanctity of Catherine, kindling in her
heart a loving sympathy with one who, though a stranger in the world's
language, had been brought very near to her heart in the mysteries of the Heart
of Jesus. We cannot say how and in what way it was, but they spent that night
together; but when morning came, and found her again alone as before, Lucy had
received such strength and consolation from her sister's visit, that, as her
biographer says, "she desired new affronts and persecutions for the glory
of that Lord who knew so well how to comfort and suppoit her in them."
Her last illness came on her in her sixty-eighth year: for eight-and-thirty
years she had lived stripped of all human consolation; and the malice of her
enemies continued unabated to the last. None came near her, as she lay weak and
dying on her miserable bed. Like her Lord and Master, they hid their faces from
her, counting her as a leper. The ordinary offices of charity, which they would
have done to the poorest beggar in the streets, they denied to her; she was
left to die as she had lived, alone. But if the world abandoned her, God did
not. Her pillow was smoothed and tended by more than a mother's care. Saint
Catherine did not neglect her charge. It is said she was more than once seen by
the sick-bed, having in her company one of the sisters of the community, who
had departed a short time before, with the reputation of sanctity; and together
they did the office of infirmarians to the dying Saint. When the last hour drew
nigh, she called the sisters around her bed, and humbly asked their pardon for
any scandal she had given them in life. We do not find one word of
justification, or remonstrance, or even of regret; only some broken words of
exhortation, not to be offended at her imperfection, but to love God and be
detached from creatures, and abide steadfastly by their rule. At midnight, on
the 15th of November, 1544, she felt the moment of release was at hand; and
without any death-struggle or sign of suffering, she raised her hands and
cried, "Up to heaven, up to heaven!" and so expired, with a smile
that remained on the dead face with so extraordinary a beauty, that none could
look on it without a sentiment of awe, for they knew it was the beauty of one
of God's Saints.
T h e T r u t h
The truth could not longer be concealed; one supernatural token after another
was given to declare the blessedness of the departed soul. Angelic voices were
heard singing above the cell by all the sisters; an extraordinary perfume
filled the cell and the whole house; and the community, who had probably for
the most part been deceived by one or two in authority, without any malice on
their own part, now loudly insisted on justice being done to the deceased. It
was done, so far as funeral honours can make amends for a life of cruelty and
calumniation. The body was exposed in the church; and the fickle crowds who had
called her an impostor while living, crowded now to see and touch the sacred
remains. The wound in her side was examined, and found dripping with fresh wet
blood; the sick were cured, and evil spirits cast out, by cloths which had been
placed on the relics.
Four years after the body was taken from its grave, and found fresh and
beautiful as in life. Then it was again exposed in the church to the veneration
of the faithful, who crowded once more to pay it honour, and were wonder-struck
at the perfume, as of sweet violets, which issued from it, and attached to
every thing which it touched. And it was again disinterred, little more than a
century ago, in 1710, when it presented the same appearance as before, and the
sacred stigmata were observed distinct and visible to all. On this occasion a
part of the body was translated to Narni, where it now reposes in a magnificent
shrine, and receives extraordinary honours, amid the scene of her childish
devotion to the Christarello. Perhaps, as we read of these honours to the dead,
we may feel they were but poor reparation for the calumnies and injuries heaped
on her while living: or, if we seek to measure these things in the balance of
the sanctuary, we can believe that to her blessed spirit now, those long years
of abandonment and desolation, which cut her off from all communion with this
earth for more than half her mortal life, were a far more precious gift than
all the shrines, and funeral honours, and popular veneration, which the world
in its tardy repentance was moved to give her.
She was finally beatified by Pope Clement XI (1700-1721) on 1710 March
1. The official document is dated March 26. In 1797 her body was
transferred from the convent of Saint Catherine of Siena to the Cathedral of
Ferrara. And on 1935 May 26 - to the Cathedral of Narni.***
The text of this document
was abstracted from the Project Gutenberg text of The
Life of Saint Frances of Rome, of Blessed Lucy of Narni, of Dominica of
Paradiso, and of Anne de Montmorency by Lady Georgiana
Fullerton. It was produced as an online text by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
for
a Chronology of Blessed Lucy
SOURCE : http://www.narnia.it/lucia1_eu.htm
Lucia
Brocadelli, Lucrezia Borgia and Ercole I d'Este: A Tentative Chronology
NARNI
1476 December 13. Lucia
Brocadelli, the oldest of the 11 children of Bartolomeo Brocadelli and
Gentilina Cassio, is born in Narnia.
1480 April 14. Lucrezia
Borgia, the third of four children of Rodrigo Borgia and Vanozza dei Catanei,
is born in Subiaco.
1483 November 10. Martin
Luther is born at Eisleben in Saxony.
1487. The Dominican
Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer ( Henricus Institoris: 1430-1505 ) publishes in
Strasburg the notorious witch-hunter's handbook "Malleus Maleficarum"
(The Hammer of Witches); considered "one of the most vicious and damaging
books in all of world literature".
1489. Lucia Brocadelli's
spiritual director, Padre Martino da Tivoli, the prior of the convent of St.
Dominic in Narni, allows 12-year-old Lucy to make the wow of perpetual
consecration.
1490. Lucia is thirteen.
Her father Bartolomeo, the treasurer of Narni, dies being only 40 years old.
Her uncles and relatives begin pressing her to marry.
1491. The 14-year-old
Lucia marries the 22-year-old lawyer Count Pietro di Alessio from Milan (the
adopted son of his aunt who is living in Narni) and becomes the Countess Lucia
di Alessio (La Signora Contessa Lucia).
1492 August 11 Lucrezia's
father Rodrigo becomes Pope Alexander VI. On October 12 "Columbus
discovers America".
1493 June 12 The
13-year-old Lucrezia marries Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro.
1494 March 30. Soon after
the beginning of Lent (February 12) Pietro di Alessio puts Countess Lucia in
solitary confinement. On the Easter Day, March 30th, she escapes to her
mother's house. Pietro remains calm and patiently keeps waiting for her return.
But she does something he had never expected.
1494 May 8 (Ascension).
The seventeen-year-old Lucia receives from her spiritual director Padre Martino
da Tivoli, the habit of Dominican Tertiaries and becomes Sister Lucia of the
Third Order of Saint Dominic. Her furious husband tries to kill Padre Martino
and burns down the Dominican priory. Despite his constant harassment Sister
Lucia stays in Narni with her mother until the beginning of 1495.
R O M E a n d V I T E R B
O
1495. With the support of
her uncles, Suor Lucia goes to Rome and enters the monastery of the Dominican
Tertiaries near Pantheon (in which St. Catherine of Siena died in 1380). Her
sanctity impresses everyone so much that by the end of the year Master General
of the Dominican Order Joachim Turriano, decides to send her as the prioress
with five other sisters to found a new monastery of Dominican tertiaries in
Viterbo. (There is also another version of this event).
1496 February 25. The
19-year-old Lucy arrives in Viterbo by the end of January and at the convent of
St. Thomas, in the morning of the second Friday of Lent, 1496 February 25, she
receives the Sacred Wounds (the Stigmata), which begin to bleed more and more
profusely. During the Passion Week, Lucy seems so close to death that her
mother and Padre Martino are summoned from Narni. But she survives - and
immediately becomes a celebrity. Special commisions are formed, a local medical
examination of her stigmata takes place and then their ecclesiastical
investigation by the inquisitor of Bologna, Dominican Giovanni Cagnazzo de
Tabia. All attest their authenticity. (Another version describes the first two
investigations slightly differently).
At some later time in
1496 Count Pietro di Alessio meets Lucia in Viterbo; for the first time since
1494, and also for the very last time. Then he returns to Narnia, sells all his
property and joins the Franciscans (He died in September 1544 - just a month
and a half before Lucy - as a fine preacher with the reputation of sanctity;
often using the examples from their married life in his sermons).
1497 April 23 begins the
third investigation of Lucy's Stigmata wounds, conducted by another Inquisitor
of Bologna, Domenico di Gargnano. Much more thorough than the first two - the
detailed notarial document can be found in Kramer's Clipeum.
1497 May 13 the pope
Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.
Meanwhile the fame of
Sister Lucy continues to spread and reaches Ferrara (about 370 km or 230 miles
to the north). Duke Ercole I d'Este (Ercole il Magnifico: 1471-1505), asks
Domenico da Gargagno to write to Lucia and to invite her in his name to Ferrara
as his counselor, promissing to build her a monastery. Lucia accepts his offer
immediately. The Duke begins negotiations with the papal court, with the
Dominican Order and the municipal council of Viterbo.
1497 August 9. Duke
Ercole himself writes to Sister Lucy telling her that he is very pleased with
her decision and that he is sending her two monks and two mules to pick her up.
1497 October 14. Two
moths later, Antonio Mei da Narni, one of uncles of Lucy, responds to the Duke
that, when he went to Viterbo to pick Lucia up (supposedly "to see her
dying mother"), he was arrested, brought to Palazzo dei Signori (City
Hall) and barely escaped unmolested. So now he is asking the Duke to send him
twenty-four well armed mounted soldiers, and one good additional horse for
Lucia...
1497 December 20. The
pope annuls Lucrezia's four-year marriage to Giovanni Sforza.
1498 January 10. The
Duke's captain Alessandro da Fiorano writes to him that as he was hiding while
waiting for Lucia at a Marian shrine near Viterbo, he was discovered,
surrounded by about 400 soldiers, taken captive and led into the city... where
he tried to explain to the authorities that he was their friend, and had been
merely waiting there for two of his own soldiers who had gone to pray... But
they told him very plainly to go home and to tell the Duke to forget his
fantasies!...
1498 January 18. The pope
requests Lucia to be sent to him in Rome; the municipal council of Viterbo
refuses to let her leave the city. (Another version, describing her visit and
her conversation with the Pope seems improbable).
1498. Duke Ercole (who
has been in contact with Savonarola since 1495) also keeps writing repeatedly
to the Florentine Signoria asking for his release. His letters have no effect.
1498 May 23 Fra Girolamo
Savonarola (1452-1498) and two of his companions are burned at the Piazza della
Signoria in Florence. Some of his followers flee to his home city of Ferrara
which now begins to become a center of the Savonarolan spirituality. At the
hour of Savonarola's execution "a nun in Viterbo has a vision of three
Dominicans being summoned by singing angels to Paradise" ("It is not
unlikely" that this nun was LB).
1498 July 21. 18-year-old
Lucrezia marries the 18-year-old Duke Alfonso of Aragon (Bisceglie).
1498. The Pope and the
General of the Dominicans cotinue to keep writing to the city of Viterbo again
and again, asking them to let Lucia go and threatening severe penalties if they
don't.. The magistrates of the city continue to refuse. In 1901 Luigi Gandini
found and published 61 letters of the Duke, Sister Lucy, her uncle and Captain
de Fiorano, beginning 1497 August 9 and ending 1500 April 13. This whole
colourful affair can be found there in much detail ("Sulla venuta in
Ferrara della beata Suor Lucia da Narni...").
F E R R A R A
1499 April 15. Finally
22-year-old Lucia secretly leaves Viterbo. Escorted by the Duke's soldiers she
stops at her mother's house in Narni and on 1499 May 7th she is solemnly
received in Ferrara, as the spiritual guide and personal adviser (madre
spirituale e consigliera) of the Duke Ercole I d'Este - who meets her with his
Court at the city gates. (The entire process cost him about 3000 ducats...).
Immediately 13 young candidates apply at her new religious community. They are
joined by Lucia's mother Gentilina who arrived to Ferrara together with her and
with some other noble Narnian ladies.
1499 June 2, less than a
month after Lucia's arrival, the Duke Ercole himself lays the first stone for
the construction of the convent and of the church of St. Catherine of Siena
(then on the street of St. Catherine, now Via Arianuova).
1499 November 1
Lucrezia's and Alfonso's son Rodrigo is born.
1500 January 1. Girolamo
Savonarola's niece Veronica, at the age of thirteen, receives her habit of a
Dominican Tertiary and the religious name of Suor Girolama at Lucy's community
of Santa Caterina da Siena. (Twice the prioress, she died there in 1553).
1500 March 2. The fourth
official inquisitorial examination of Lucy's stigmata wounds is conducted by
the papal nuncio and inquisitor Heinrich Kramer (the author of the notorious
1487 witchcraft treatise) who is on his way from Rome to Moravia (now Czech
Republic). March 4 Duke Ercole writes his famous letter, outligning his theory
of the efficacy of holy women (see below).
1500 Summer. Lucrezia's
deeply beloved 20-year-old husband Alfonso of Aragon is murdered and two months
later the pope formally proposes her in marriage to the Prince Alfonso d'Este
of Ferrara (his father Ercole is very upset and yields only 1501 July 8. The
verbal marriage contract then takes place on 1 September).
1501 April 20. The
Inquisitor Kramer publishes in Olomouc (in Moravia) a manual for preachers how
to confute heretics ("Sancte Romane ecclesie fidei defensionis
clipeum...") which also contains a lengthy letter of Duke Ercole I of 1500
March 4, affirming the authenticity of Lucia Brocadelli's mystical gifts and
the notarial document of her 1497 April 23 examination in Viterbo. (The first
printed biographical notice about Lucy).
1501 May 29. The
promulgation of the official Breve of Erection by the Pope Alexander VI which
nominates Lucia as the first prioress granting her the final authority and a
number of exceptional priviledges to her whole community (freedom of movement
etc)..
1501 August 5, on the
feast of Saint Dominic, Suor Lucia and her 22 companions solemnly move into
their long-awaited new convent. When completed (in 1503), it had special
quarters for 'La Madre (Abbadessa) Suor Lucia', 46 cells for novices and 95
cells for the sisters; it also had an exceptional number of sacred paintings
and other works of art.
1501 September 16. The
Inquisitor Kramer publishes in Moravia a booklet about the mystical experiences
of Sister Lucy and three other holy Italian women: "Stigmifere virginis
Lucie de Narnia... facta admiratione digna". It contains a new letter of
1501 January 23 by the Duke Ercole and three other letters by the bishops of
Ferrara, Adria and Milan. Also a four page poem (carmen theocasticon) in
Lucia's praise. Four days later this booklet is there also published in German;
later in Latin and in Spanish in Seville. Two more (abridged and anonymous)
versions appear: one in Latin in Nuremberg 1501 and another again in German
(Strasburg 1502). [A total of five printed versions appear in three different
languages within two years].
1501 December 30 the
25-year-old son of the Duke Ercole, Prince Alfonso d'Este marries 21-year-old
Lucrezia Borgia by proxy in the Sala Paolina at the Vatican. Lucrezia leaves
Rome on January 6 and makes her state entry into Ferrara on 1502 February 2
with a huge dowry and "her personal gift" of eleven Sisters and
candidates for Sister Lucy's convent (which are timed to arrive a couple days
ahead).
1502 February 16 (or
January 18). At the personal request of the pope, Lucy is officially examined
again (for the FIFTH time!) by the pope's physician Bernardo Bongiovanni da
Recanati, Bishop of Venosa; at the presence of the entire Court. All her
miraculous gifts, especially her ability to read thoughts and to predict future
events, are confirmed as real again.
1502. Lucia continues
councelling both nobility and ordinary people, rich and poor; is marked by a
stunning wisdom and discernment. She is also visited by other Italian holy
women (Stefana Quinzani, Caterina da Racconigi). By July 1502 her community of
S. Catherina of Siena (of the Third Order of St. Dominic) reaches 72 members.
The Duke Ercole anticipates a hundred; Lucrezia is helping Lucia with
recruiting more vocations. Meanwhile the sisters themselves are divided. Some
say that Lucy is much too young (then 25) to be a prioress and that she is not
strict enough; while others accuse her "of excessive asceticism and
evangelical radicality". Many are jelous of her priviledges and of her fame.
1503 March 26. The pope
sends to Lucia 10 more sisters from another older Ferrarese Dominican convent
(S. Caterina Martire of the Second Dominican Order).
(1503. Copernicus
receives his doctorate from the University of Ferrara in the spring of 1503.
Lived 1473-1543)
1503 August 18. The pope,
Lucrezia's father Alexander VI, dies (72 yrs old).
1503 September 2. Lucy is
replaced by a new prioress Suor Maria da Parma, one of the ten sisters the pope
sent her in March. The new pope Pius III, installed on October 8 and dies on
October 18. On October 31 he is replaced by Julius II (1503-1513), the patron
of Michelangelo.
1504 Corpus Christi. Suor
Lucia is officially present at the ducal palace to witness the procession. On
December 13th she is 28 years old, the Duke is 73.
T h e S i l e n c e
1505 January 24 Lucy's
patron Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara dies. Prince Alfonso becomes Duke
Alfonso I d'Este (1505-1534). Some sisters at St. Catherine's convent
immediately rise up in an open rebellion.
1505 February 20. Lucy,
in the presence of the Dominican Vicar General and the new Duchess Lucrezia,
has to sign a document which repeals all her privileges and in which she
accepts the prohibition to leave the house and to speak to anyone in private (without
the presence and supervision of another sister). Even her right to chose her
spiritual director is taken away. Her Savonarolan confessor Fra Niccolo is
replaced by Fra Benedetto da Mantova who is hostile toward her mystical
experiences; her stigmata wounds disappear. Formerly a central figure of the
Savonarolan Church reform movement, now she is very successfully discredited by
being publicly accused of fraud - of simulating sanctity and of fabricating the
wounds. (Probably she is also even accused of sorcery and tortured by the
Inquisition). Her name is more and more often "prudently ignored";
whatever positive was previously written about her is now carefully deleted in
the new editions. Exposed to the coldness and mistrust of her own community - and
to the public disgrace and contempt - she lives for the remaining 39 years of
her life (1505-1544) in total isolation. Forgotten by all those who previously
venerated her so much - now - "known only to God". The saints
continue to visit her in her visions. Shortly before her death, in the sixth of
her, recently discovered, "Seven Revelations", she tells about the
Virgin Mary saying to her: "Your name is Light because you are the
daughter of the eternal light" (Tuo nome Luce perche sei fiola de la
eterna luce). And Jesus is telling about her to the apostle Paul: "She
[Lucy] has been greatly crucified by her false enemies. Some have broken her
head, others the fingers of her hand, some have pulled her around and treated
her badly, some have thrown her into the well, some have knocked out her teeth.
And she has suffered all these things and great pain with true patience for my
love".
1518 November 24.
Lucrezia's mother dies.
1519 June 24. The Duchess
Lucrezia (Borgia) Ercole dies after a difficult pregnancy with Isabella Maria
d'Este (her eighth child - being only 39 years old). She is buried at the
convent Corpus Domini. Her last Savonarolan spiritual director Tommaso Caiani in
1528 was assasinated in Tuscany, allegedly on orders of Pope Clement VII. His
correspondence with Lucrezia was recently (2006) published by Gabriella Zarri
under the title of "La religione di Lucrezia Borgia".
1521 January 3. Pope Leo
X excommunicates Martin Luther (who lived 1483-1546 and who in 1511 had spent a
month in Rome). In 1525 Giulia Farnese dies.
1534 October 31 dies
Lucrezia's husband Duke Alfonso d'Este (born 1476 July 21 - five months older
than Lucia). His and Lucrezia's son succeeds him as Ercole II d'Este
(1534-1559).
1544. At the request of
her confessor Lucy writes down a brief account of some of her revelations
(which were discovered at the Pavia Library in 1999).
* * *
1544 November 15. Two
hours after midnight Suor Lucia Brocadelli dies and three days later she is
buried at her convent (67 yrs old). The funeral has to be delayed because of a
sudden and completely unexpected flood of visitors all wanting to pay her their
last respects.
L A T E R
1545 December 13. The
Council of Trent opens (47 years after Girolamo Savonarola died).
1546 February 18. Martin
Luther dies at Eisleben (where he was born 1483 November 10)
1548 August 27. Lucia's
body is found intact and is transferred to a glass urn.
(1564 February 15: Galileo
Galilei is born in Pisa. 1567 October 1: Pietro Carnesecchi (friend of Giulia
Gonzaga) is burned in Rome. 1600 February 17: Giordano Bruno is burned in Rome.
1647 November 15 the
Church officially recognizes the Sister Lucy's uninterrupted veneration of the
people.
1710 March 1 Lucia is
declared Blessed by Pope Clement XI (1700-1721). On June 10 her relic arrives
at the Cathedral of Narni and is placed in a special chapel.
1797 Napoleon suppresses
the Blessed Lucy's convent of St. Catherine and her body is transferred to the
altar of St. Lorence in the Cathedral of Ferrara. The site of her convent is
cleared in 1813.
1932 August 23 she is
visited by more than 500 pilgrims from the diocese of Narni
1935 May 26 (Sixth Sunday
of Easter). After 440 years, at the request of Cesare Boccoleri, Bishop of
Narnia (Terni and Narni), and with the consent of Ruggero Bovelli, Archbishop
of Ferrara, BEATA LUCIA DE NARNIA RETURNS HOME (which she had left in 1495) and
is SOLEMNLY RECEIVED BY THE PEOPLE AND THE CITY OF NARNI.
kvz 2008 II 4 14:28
Below: Beata Lucia -
Girolamo Savonarola. Alexander VI - Lucrezia Borgia - Ercole I d'Este. The
Cathedral and the Castle of Ferrara - The Cathedral of Narni.
Kindly send your
impressions, additions and corrections to fgiusepp2@tin.it
Immagini su concessione
della Diocesi di Terni-Narni-Amelia - Ufficio per i Beni Culturali
ecclesiastici (autorizzazione 099/10).
SOURCE : http://www.narnia.it/luciachronology.htm
Blessed Lucia Brocadelli
of Narnia
Born in 1476; died 1544;
beatified in 1710.
Already very early it
became evident to her pious Italian family that this child was set for
something unusual in life. When Lucy was five years old, she had a vision of
the Child Jesus with Our Lady. Two years later, Our Lady appeared with Child
Jesus, Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Dominic. Jesus gave her a ring and
Saint Dominic gave her the scapular. At age 12, she made a private vow of total
consecration, determined, even at this early age, to become a Dominican.
However, family affairs were to make this difficult. Next year Lucy's father
died, leaving her in the care of an uncle. And this uncle felt that the best
way to dispose of a pretty niece was to marry her off as soon as possible.
The efforts of her uncle
to get Lucy successfully married form a colorful chapter in the life of the
Blessed Lucy. At one time, he arranged a big family party, and his choice of
Lucy's husband was there. He thought it better not to tell Lucy what he had in
mind, because she had such queer ideas, so he presented the young man to her in
front of the entire assembly. The young man made a valiant attempt to place a
ring on Lucy's finger, and he was thoroughly slapped for his pains.
The next time, the uncle
approached the matter with more tact, arranging a marriage with Count Pietro of
Milan, who was not a stranger to the family. Lucy was, in fact, very fond of
him, but she had resolved to live as a religious. The strain of the situation
made her seriously ill. During her illness, Our Lady appeared to her again,
accompanied by Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine, and told her to go ahead with
the marriage as a legal contract, but to explain to Pietro that she was bound
to her vow of virginity and must keep it. When Lucy recovered, the matter was
explained to Pietro, and in 1491 the marriage was solemnized.
Lucy's life now became
that of the mistress of a large and busy household. She took great care to
instruct the servants in their religion and soon became known for her
benefactions to the poor. Pietro, to do him justice, never seems to have
objected when his young wife gave away clothes and food, nor when she performed
great penances. He knew that she wore a hair-shirt under her rich clothing, and
that she spent most of the night in prayer and working for the poor. He even
made allowances for the legend told him by the servants, that SS Catherine,
Agnes, and Agnes of Montepulciano came to help her make bread for the poor.
Only when a talkative servant one day informed him that Lucy was entertaining a
handsome young man, who seemed to be an old friend, Pietro took his sword and
went to see. He was embarrassed to find Lucy contemplating a large and
beautiful crucifix, and he was further confused when the servant told him that
the figure on the crucifix looked like the young man he had seen.
But when, after having
disappeared for the entire night, Countess Lucia returned home early in the
morning in the company of two men and claimed that they were Saint Dominic and
John the Baptist, Pietro's patience finally gave out. He had his young wife
locked up. Here she remained for the season of Lent; sympathetic servants
brought her food until Easter. Being allowed to go to the church, Lucy never
returned. She went to her mother's house and on the Feast of the Ascension,
1494 May 8, she put on the habit of a Dominican tertiary.
Count Pietro was furious,
burned down the Dominican priory and even tried to kill her spiritual director
who had given her the habit. Rich and influential, he continued to try to bring
her back. Next year Lucia went to Rome and entered the monastery of the
Dominican tertiaries near Pantheon. Her sanctity impressed everyone so much
that by the end of the year, with five other sisters, she was sent by the
Master General of the Dominicans to start a new monastery in Viterbo.
Friday, 1496 February 25,
Lucia received the Stigmata, the Sacred Wounds. She tried very hard to hide her
spiritual favors, because they complicated her life wherever she went. She had
the stigmata visibly, and she was usually in ecstasy, which meant a steady
stream of curious people who wanted to question her, investigate her, or just
stare at her. Even the sisters were nervous about her methods of prayer. Once
they called in the bishop, and he watched Lucy with the sisters for 12 hours,
while she went through the drama of the Passion.
The bishop hesitated to
pass judgment and called for special commissions; the second one was presided
by a famous Inquisitor of Bologna. All declared that her stigmata were
authentic. Here the hard-pressed Pietro had his final appearance in Lucy's
life. He made a last effort to persuade Lucy to change her plans and to come
back to him. After seeing her, he returned to Narni, sold everything he had and
became a Franciscan. In later years, he was a famous preacher.
The duke of Ferrara was
planning to build a monastery and, hearing of the fame of the mystic of
Viterbo, asked Sister Lucia to come there and be its prioress. Lucy had been
praying for some time that a means would be found to build a new convent of
strict observance, and she agreed to go to Ferrara.
This touched off a
two-year battle between the towns. Viterbo had the mystic and did not want to
lose her; the duke of Ferrara sent first his messengers and then his troops to
bring her. Much money and time was lost before she finally escaped from Viterbo
and was solemnly received in Ferrara on 1499 May 7. Later Duke Ercole asked his
future daughter-in-law, Lucrezia Borgia, to bring for Lucy's convent eleven
candidates from Rome on her way to Ferrara. They arrived a few days ahead of
Lucrezia's state entry into Ferrara on 1502 February 2. But the records say,
sedately: "Many of these did not persevere."
The duke of Ferrara liked
to show off the convent he had founded. He brought all his guests to see it.
One time, he arrived with a troop of dancing girls, who had been entertaining
at a banquet, and demanded that Lucy show them her stigmata and, if possible,
go into ecstasy. It is not surprising that such events would upset religious
life, and that sooner or later something would have to be done about it. Some
of the sisters, naturally, thought it was Lucy's fault.
They petitioned the
bishop, and, by the order of the Pope, he sent ten nuns from the Second Order
to reform the community. Lucy's foundation was of the Third Order; of people
who remain laymen even after their vows. The Second Order "real"
nuns, according to the chronicle, "brought in the very folds of their
veils the seed of war"; nuns of the Second Order wore black veils, a
privilege not allowed to tertiaries.
The uneasy episode ended
when one of these ten nuns was made prioress and when Duke Ercole died on 24
January 1505. Lucy was placed on penance. The nature of her fault is not
mentioned, nor was there any explanation of the fact that, until her death, 39
years later, she was never allowed to speak to anyone but her confessor, who
was chosen by the prioress. Only now, 500 years later, the situation is slowly
beginning to clear.
The Dominican provincial,
probably nervous for the prestige of the order, would not let any member of the
order go to see her. Her stigmata disappeared, too late to do her any good, and
vindictive companions said: "See, she was a fraud all the time." When
she died in 1544, people thought she had been dead for many years. It is hard
to understand how anyone not a saint could have so long endured such a life.
Lucy's only friends during her 39 years of exile were heavenly ones; the
Dominican Catherine of Racconigi, sometimes visited her--evidently by
bi-location--and her other heavenly friends often also came to brighten her
lonely cell.
Immediately after her
death everything suddenly changed. When her body was laid out for burial so
many people wanted to pay their last respects that her funeral had to be
delayed by three days. Her tomb in the monastery church was opened four years
later and her perfectly preserved body was transferred to a glass case. When
Napoleon suppressed her monastery in 1797 her body was transferred to the
Cathedral of Ferrara and on 1935 May 26 - to the Cathedral of Narni.
Yes, there is a small
town in Italy, very close to Rome, that bears the Italian name of Narni. Until
about 200 years ago, for about two thousand years, it was known only as Narnia.
And this ancient name even today still continues unchanged not only in Latin
but also in some English books.
It certainly continues in
the seven books of the "Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis, who
found this name in an atlas when he was about fourteen years old. The little
Lucy of his Chronicles, just like the Blessed Lucy, is also a girl who believes
and who can see many things that other people cannot see.
For
Know more open the Wardrobe of Narnia
Immagini su concessione
della Diocesi di Terni-Narni-Amelia - Ufficio per i Beni Culturali
ecclesiastici (autorizzazione 099/10).
A Bibliography of LUCIA
BROCADELLI of Narni (1476 - 1544)
1476 - 1600 .&
Undated
Vita della b. Lucia
copiata dall'originale di sua mano. Undated Manuscript. Ferrara, Archivio della
Curia Archivescovile: Residui Ecclesiastici E. 14
Lettere autografe e copie
di letere della Beata Suor Lucia da Narni. Manuscripts. Archivio di Stato di
Modena, Giurisdizione Sovrana, Santi e beati, busta 430 A
Processi di
beatificazione della b. Lucia da Narni. Manuscripts. Archivio Storico
Diocesano di Curia arcivescovile di Ferrara: Residui ecclesiastici. Fondo Santa
Caterina da Siena, busta 3/25-26.
Domenico di GARGNANO, The
inquisitorial examination of Lucia Brocadelli by the Inquisitor Domenico di
Gargnano on 1497 April 23 in Viterbo. The notarial document. Published in
Kramer's Clipeum in 1501 (see below).
Ercole I d'ESTE
(1431-1505) and Lucia BROCADELLI (1476-1544), Lettere. Published in Luigi
GANDINI, Sulla venuta in Ferrara della beata Suor Lucia da Narni. Sue lettere
ed altri documenti inediti, 1497-1498-1499. Modena 1901 (repeated below).
Heinrich KRAMER (Henricus
INSTITORIS: 1430-1505), Sancte Romane ecclesie fidei defensionis clipeum
Adversus waldensium seu Pickardorum heresim (briefly called : Clipeum). Olmutz
1501 April 20. Includes 12 pages in quarto (30 cm) about Lucia Brocadelli and
three other Italian living saints.
Heinrich KRAMER (ed.),
Stigmifere virginis Lucie de Narnia aliarumque spiritualium personarum feminei
sexus facta admiratione digna (briefly: Stigmifere). Olmutz 1501 September 16.
Eight leaves (16 pages) in quarto; within two years published in three
languages, four cities and five editions (two in Olmutz, one in Nuremberg,
Seville and Strasburg).
Lucia BROCADELLI, Seven
Revelations. The Book of Blessed Lucia of Narni written in her own hand in the
year of Our Lord 1544. Introduced and Translated by E. Ann MATTER. Published in
Maiju LEHMIJOKE-GARDNER (ed.), Dominican Penitent Women. New York 2005, 216-43.
316 p. [Original manuscript in Pavia, Biblioteca Civica "Bonetta" MS
II.112 (gia B12).]
Arcangelo MARCHESELLI di
Viadana (1500?), Vita di Lucia da Narni. A lost manuscript of a near
contemporary (see Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum II, 1721, 209). Used by
Razzi, see his Parte II, 83.
Serafino RAZZI
(1531-1611), Seconda parte delle Vite de' santi e beati dell'ordine de' frati
predicatori nelle quale si raccontano le vita, et opere, di molte Sante, e
Beate Donne del medesimo ordine. Firenze 1577, 151-57, 179. 183 p.
Serafino RAZZI, Vita dei
Santi e Beati del sacro ordine de' Frati Predicatori, cosi' huomini, come
donne: con aggiunta di molte vite che nella prima impressione non erano.
Firenze 1588. 356 p.
1601 - 1700
Giacomo MARCIANESE,
Narratione della nascita, vita, e morte della B. Lucia da Narni dell'ordine di
S. Domenico, fondatrice del monastero di S. Caterina da Siena di Ferrara.
Ferrara 1616. 239 p.
Giacomo MARCIANESE,
Narratione della nascita, vita, e morte della b. Lucia da Narni dell'ordine di
San Domenico, fondatrice del monastero di Santa Caterina da Siena di Ferrara.
Ferrara 1640. 227 p.
Giacomo MARCIANESE, Vita
della B. Lucia di Narni dell'Ordine di S. Domenico fondatrice delli monasteri
di S. Domenico di Viterbo, e di S. Catarina da Siena di Ferrara. Con l'aggiunta
in quest'ultima impressione d'alcune notitie particolari, e d'vna gratia
specialissima. Viterbo 1663. 240 p.
Giacinto Maria ANTI
(1684-1727), L'immobilita del proposito, ouero la virginita trionfante di Lucia
da Narni. Opera sacra di Giacinto Maria Anti. Vicenza 1691. 171 p.
1701 - 1800
CLEMENS XI, Papa
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Novena ad onore della
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http://www.narnia.it/lucia1_eu.htm or http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?doc=33385
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/ per fra Tommaso Maria Granello dei predicatori. Ferrara 1879. 230 p.
1901 - 2000
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Ordine di S. Domenico. Sue lettere ed altri documenti inediti, 1497-1498-1499.
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(1914-1988), Blessed Lucy of Narni (1476-1544). In Saint Dominic's Family:
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632 p.
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(1869-1935), Dukes and Poets in Ferrara: A Study in the Poetry, Religion, and
Politics of the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries. New York 1968 (1904),
364-381, 466. 578 p.
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Brocadelli (Broccadelli), Lucia. In Dizionario biografico degli
Italiani. Roma 1972, 14:381-83.
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profezia alle corti padane: le pie consigliere dei principi. In Paolo ROSSI et
al., Il Rinascimento nelle corti padane: Societ e cultura. Atti del Convegno di
Ferrara-Reggio Emilia, 1975. Bari 1977, 201-237. 617 p.
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vive: Per una tipologia della santita' femminile nel primo Cinquecento. In
Annali dell'Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento 6 (1980): 388-9.
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vince sempre: Biografia della Beata Lucia Brocadelli (Nel cinquantenario della
Traslazione delle Reliquie). Manoscritto. Narni 1985. 37 p.
http://www.narnia.it/lucia1.htm
Lucia Brocadelli e il suo
tempo: Atti del Convegno di studio tenuto a Narni il 24-25 ottobre 1986. Terni
1989. 147 p.
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vive: Profezie di corte e devozione femminile tra '400 e '500 (Cultura e
religiosita feminile nella prima eta moderna). Torino 1990 (1992, 2000),
96-97, 134. 258 p.
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Marriage: Sexual Abstinence in Medieval Wedlock. Princeton 1993, 218-22, 275.
375 p.
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Patronage as Repression: Lucia Brocadelli da Narnia and Ercole d'Este. In Scott
L. WAUGH and Peter D. DIEHL (ed.), Christendom and Its Discontents: Exclusion,
Persecution, and Rebellion, 1000-1500. Cambridge 1996, 168-176. [9 p.] 376
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Ferrara: Ercole d'Este, 1471-1505, and the Invention of a Ducal Capital.
Cambridge 1996, 176, 180-81, 327, 371, 382. 534 p.
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Gabriella ZARRI, Women and Faith: Catholic Religious Life in Italy From Late
Antiquity to the Present. Cambridge 1999, 496 p.
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MAGGI, Maiju LEHMIJOKI-GARDNER, e Gabriella ZARRI, Lucia Brocadelli da Narni:
Riscoperta di un manoscritto pavese. In Bolletino della societa pavese di
storia patria 100 (2000): 173-99, esp. 177, 189-99. G. Zarri, Lucia, pp.99-116.
2001 - 2007
E. Ann MATTER, Armando
MAGGI, and Maiju LEHMIJOKI-GARDNER (ed.), Le rivelazioni of Lucia Brocadelli da
Narni. Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 71 (2001): 311-44. [34 p.]
Gabriella ZARRI, Lucia da
Narni e il movimento femminile savonaroliano. In Gigliola FRAGNITO e Mario
MIEGGE (ed.) Girolamo Savonarola da Ferrara all'Europa: Atti del Convegno
tenuto a Ferrara nel 1998 per la celebrazione del 5. centenario della morte di Girolamo
Savonarola. Firenze 2001, 99-116; esp. 102-12. 553 p.
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e politica: L'esperienza femminile nel terz'ordine della penitenza di San
Domenico. In Rassegna Storica online, n. 1 NS (IV), 2003 (suppl. a
Storiadelmondo, n.4, 24 gennaio 2003).
http://www.storiadelmondo.com/rso/1/tozzi.terziarie.pdf [31
p.]
Or: http://www.medio-evo.org/misticaepolitica.htm 32-38
[63 p.]
Tamar HERZIG, The Rise
and Fall of a Savonarolan Visionary: Lucia Brocadelli's [Forgotten]
Contribution to the Piagnone [Savonarolan] Movement. In Archiv fur
Reformationsgeschichte / Archive for Reformation History 95[/i] (2004), 3460.
[27 p.]
Tamar HERZIG, Holy Women,
Male Promoters, and Savonarolan Piety in Northern Italy, c. 1498-1545. Ph.D.
diss., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2005, 1215. 541 p. (On Lucia
194-224).
E. Ann MATTER, Lucia
Brocadelli: Seven Revelations. In Maiju LEHMIJOKI-GARDNER (ed.), Dominican
Penitent Women. New York 2005, 212-43. [32 p.] 316 p.
E. Ann MATTER, Religious
Dissidence and the Bible in Sixteenth-Century Italy: The Idiosyncratic Bible of
Lucia Brocadelli da Narni. In Scripture and Pluralism: Reading the Bible in the
Religiously Plural Worlds of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Leiden 2005. 248
p.
Tamar HERZIG, Witches,
Saints, and Heretics: Heinrich Kramer's Ties with Italian Women Mystics. In
Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft (journal), Summer 2006, 24-55 [32 p.]
http://magic.pennpress.org/PennPress/journals/magic/sampleArt3.pdf .
(P.31: "Lucia Brocadelli, also known as Lucia of Narni, [is] the most
famous Italian living saint ('santa viva') of the early sixteenth
century".)
Gabriella ZARRI, La
religione di Lucrezia Borgia : Le lettere inedite del confessore. Roma 2006,
116-130. [14 p.] 332 p. [P.S. The name Brocadelli here is spelled as
Broccadelli and Brucurelli].
Tamar HERZIG,
Savonarola's Women: Visions and Reform in Renaissance Italy. Chicago (Fall)
2007, 320 p.
P.S. Tamar Herzig is a
visiting scholar at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of
Pennsylvania. She received her Ph.D., Summa cum laude, in History from the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2005 with a dissertation on Holy Women, Male
Promoters, and Savonarolan Piety and has also been the recipient of many
scholarships and awards.
Dr. Herzig also
contributed to the book L'Italia dell'inquisitore. Storia e geografia
dell'Italia del Cinquecento nella 'Descrittione' di Leandro Alberti (2004) with
her chapter on Fra Leandro Alberti and the Savonarolan Movement in Northern
Italy.
Reference: RICERCA
BIBLIOGRAFICA; Accesso al Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale Italiano (SNB), ai
cataloghi stranieri, ai cataloghi storici e a quelli specialistici:
http://www.internetculturale.it/moduli/opac/opac.jsp .
Etc
kvz 2007 IX 5 17:44
Kindly send your
impressions, additions and corrections to fgiusepp2@tin.it
biografia
aggiornata per approfondimenti
Immagini su concessione
della Diocesi di Terni-Narni-Amelia - Ufficio per i Beni Culturali
ecclesiastici (autorizzazione 099/10).
SOURCE : http://www.narnia.it/luciabiografia.htm
Beata Lucia
Broccadelli Religiosa domenicana
Festa: 15 novembre
Narni, Terni, 1476 -
Ferrara, 15 novembre 1544
Della famiglia
Broccadelli, già a 12 anni si consacrò a Dio con voto di verginità. Suo
malgrado, fu costretta dai familiari a sposarsi. Dopo un breve ma penoso
periodo di vita matrimoniale, si separò dal marito, il quale più tardi
diventerà frate francescano. Nel 1494 entrò nel Terz'Ordine domenicano a Narni.
Fu a Roma e poi a Viterbo dove il 25 febbraio 1496 ricevette le stimmate,
verificate dallo stesso papa, da medici e da teologi. Il duca di Ferrara Ercole
I, conosciuta la santità di Lucia, le chiese di diventare sua consigliera e le
costruì il monastero di s. Caterina da Siena per l'educazione delle giovani
ferraresi. Negli ultimi anni di vita conobbe il disprezzo e l'umiliazione, che
accettò con imperturbabile serenità.
Martirologio
Romano: A Ferrara, beata Lucia Broccadelli, religiosa, che tanto nella
vita matrimoniale quanto nel monastero del Terz’Ordine di San Domenico sopportò
con pazienza molte sofferenze e umiliazioni.
La vicenda terrena della beata Lucia è simile, nei suoi tratti principali, a quella d’altre beate domenicane vissute in Italia tra la fine del 1400 e la prima metà del 1500: favorite di grazie mistiche fin dall’infanzia, desiderose di seguire il modello di vita di Santa Caterina da Siena, contrastate spesso duramente dall’ambiente familiare, considerate “sante vive” dal popolo, cercate dai potenti Signori dell’epoca per averne consiglio, appoggio e prestigio…
Ciò che colpisce in Lucia è il netto distacco tra il primo periodo della sua vita, quello dei suoi anni giovanili che trascorre inserita nel contesto sociale e religioso, costretta suo malgrado a subire gli eccessi di una notorietà non voluta, e il secondo periodo, lungo quasi il doppio, in cui vive disprezzata e dimenticata da tutti fino alla morte, operando come parafulmine nascosto in Ferrara, città cardine della Signoria Estense, nella quale si influenzano reciprocamente potere, cultura e religione.
Lucia nasce a Narni, città tra le più antiche ed illustri dell’Umbria, da una famiglia di elevato ceto sociale: il padre Bartolomeo Broccadelli ricopre la carica di tesoriere della città quando, il 13 dicembre 1476, la sua giovane sposa Gentilina Cassio, nobile e cristiana fervente, dà alla luce la primogenita di otto figli, che viene subito battezzata col nome della santa martire siracusana che la Chiesa festeggia in quel giorno.
Lucia da bambina è vivace, intraprendente e nutre una profonda pietà, potremmo dire straordinaria rispetto alla sua età, con manifestazione di fenomeni soprannaturali, che ella accoglie con la semplicità propria dell’infanzia e racconta con naturalezza ai suoi familiari.
S. Caterina da Siena, San G. Battista, San Pietro, martire domenicano, spesso la visitano e la istruiscono sulle verità della fede; la Madonna, venerata nell’immagine lignea che si trova nella Chiesa di S. Agostino, dove frequentemente la mamma si reca a pregare con la figlioletta, accondiscende alla richiesta innocente di quella bimba di cinque anni e le depone in braccio il piccolo Gesù, il suo “Cristarello” come Lucia lo chiama da quando uno zio le ha portato un’immagine di Gesù Bambino tornando da un viaggio a Roma.
A sette anni, durante una visione, riceve da Gesù stesso l’invito a divenire sue sposa: lo slancio del suo consenso è accompagnato da una perfetta conoscenza del significato di tale consacrazione. Infatti, ella espone subito al suo confessore, P. Martino da Tivoli, priore del convento domenicano di S. Maria Maggiore, il suo desiderio di emettere il voto di verginità, ma egli con saggezza le chiede di attendere fino all’età di dodici anni.
Appena emesso il voto, Lucia deve subito respingere una proposta di matrimonio che il padre vuole imporle: egli cede momentaneamente, e poi la morte immatura, avvenuta nel 1490, gli impedisce di continuare a contrastare la scelta radicale compiuta dalla figlia. Per aiutare la vedova e gli otto figli, subentrano nella cura della famiglia gli zii paterni, che pensano immediatamente a dare la quattordicenne nipote in sposa ad un loro conoscente: la separano dalla mamma, che ritengono condiscendente verso il proposito della figlia, e a sua insaputa preparano l’incontro col futuro sposo, ma Lucia, riavutasi dalla sorpresa, lo allontana energicamente, si sfila l’anello che egli le ha velocemente messo al dito e lo calpesta, poi fugge.
Passato poco tempo, ecco una prova maggiore per Lucia: un giovane giurista milanese, il conte Pietro di Alessio, che vive a Narni presso una ricca zia, la chiede in sposa perché, fortemente innamorato di lei, attende da anni il momento opportuno per contrarre matrimonio. Gli zii, felicissimi, sottopongono la nipote ad insistenze minacciose ed il terribile contrasto interiore in cui viene a trovarsi, fa ammalare gravemente la giovanetta.
Durante questa malattia le appare la Vergine Santissima, che la invita a sottomettersi alla volontà dei parenti, perché l’aiuterebbe Dio stesso a custodire illibata la verginità promessa con voto.
Ascoltato il parere del confessore, Lucia manifesta al conte Pietro la decisione di mantenere fede al suo voto anche contraendo matrimonio ed egli promette di rispettare il suo proposito, convinto nel suo animo che, col tempo, cambierà idea.
Secondo l’uso del tempo, le famiglie nobili e ricche hanno numerose persone di servizio, perciò Lucia, quale nuova padrona, prende a cuore l’andamento della casa, sollecita che vi regni innanzitutto l’amore del Signore ed il bene spirituale delle persone.
Si dà all’esercizio della carità verso i poveri e gli afflitti, largheggiando in elemosine ed ottenendo interventi miracolosi di Dio per sfamare con pane sostanzioso tutte le vittime della carestia che colpisce Narni in quel periodo; trascorre il suo tempo con la servitù, aiutando nelle faccende di casa, scendendo al fiume Nera a lavare insieme alle sue domestiche, vestita in modo dimesso, in netto contrasto con le usanze dei nobili del tempo.
Ogni giorno recita il S. Rosario con i suoi servi e li istruisce nella dottrina cristiana; non tollera pettegolezzi, maldicenze o parole volgari, ma in caso di malattia si trasforma in premurosa infermiera dei suoi subalterni.
Il marito al principio si compiace dell’attività caritativa di Lucia e ne ammira le singolari virtù, poi poco alla volta, istigato dai motteggi e dalle insinuazioni malevole di parenti e amici, comincia a dubitare della sincerità della sua sposa e a considerarla un’ipocrita che sotto il nome di estasi nasconde imbrogli, i quali alimentano la sua gelosia: giunge così ad imprigionarla in una stanzetta buia per tutta la quaresima del 1494.
All’avvicinarsi della Pasqua, Lucia invoca la grazia di uscire per accostarsi alla S. Eucarestia ed il marito, dopo un intervento divino, si arrende: la fa scarcerare ed, anzi, la autorizza a vivere liberamente la sua scelta di vita. Dopo quegli anni di acuto travaglio per la logorante situazione matrimoniale, la giovane non si lascia scappare l’occasione offerta, perciò partecipa alla Messa pasquale e poi non ritorna in casa del marito, ma si rifugia da sua madre, su consiglio del confessore P. Martino, in attesa di essere accolta tra le Terziarie domenicane. L’agognato desiderio si realizza il giorno dell’Ascensione, alla presenza della mamma e di una zia, quando riceve da P. Martino l’abito delle sorelle della Penitenza nella chiesa di San Domenico.
Davanti al fatto compiuto fratelli e zii reagiscono con violenza per timore della vendetta del conte Pietro, il quale infatti sfoga la sua ira cercando di uccidere P. Martino, ritenendolo responsabile dell’accaduto, e ne incendia il convento.
Poiché le persecuzioni del marito non cessano e la situazione diventa insostenibile, si ritiene opportuno mandare Suor Lucia lontano da Narni: a diciannove anni ella lascia la sua città natale e giunge a Roma, accolta dalle Terziarie domenicane che abitano nella casa dove è vissuta negli ultimi anni S. Caterina da Siena, nei pressi della Basilica di S. Maria sopra Minerva.
Si distingue subito per la sua generosità, il suo impegno nell’osservanza della regola e la sua pietà, diventando centro di unione per la comunità. Ma anche a Roma si teme che il marito, attraverso le sue amicizie con persone influenti, possa recar danni al convento e perciò si decide che Suor Lucia faccia parte del drappello di Terziarie destinate ad aiutare il rinnovamento spirituale del Monastero di S. Tommaso a Viterbo, e qui giunge nel gennaio del 1496.
Inizia così il periodo in cui la fama di santità della giovane terziaria si diffonde non solo tra il popolo, ma anche presso personaggi potenti, fino al Papa stesso, Alessandro VI. La sua vita virtuosa e penitente attira l’attenzione; le sue estasi prolungate, le visioni celesti, le flagellazioni aspre unite a prolungati digiuni, riempiono di ammirazione.
Un dono specialissimo, inoltre, le ha preparato lo Sposo celeste, a cui fin da piccola Suor Lucia ha chiesto la grazia di partecipare ai dolori della sua Passione per assomigliare il più possibile a Lui Crocifisso: la notte del 25 febbraio, mentre partecipa alla recita corale del Mattutino del II venerdì di quaresima, entra in estasi e rivive le scene della Passione momento per momento. Giunta alla Crocifissione, supplica il Signore di farla partecipe dei suoi dolori: «Voglio stare insieme con te: dammi i segni della tua Passione finchè io viva e che siano permanenti». Gesù Crocifisso appaga il suo ardente desiderio trafiggendole il costato, le mani e i piedi.
Nei primi giorni ella riesce a tener nascosto il dolore e le tumefazioni che si stanno formando, poi il fisico è sopraffatto a tal punto che le consorelle avvertono P. Martino e la mamma, che da Narni accorrono al suo capezzale credendola moribonda: in questo modo diventano testimoni oculari del dono mistico concessale da Dio perché possono osservare le sue stimmate sanguinanti.
Le consorelle sono convinte di avere con loro una seconda Santa Caterina e la circondano di attenzioni; vedendo il suo contegno umile ed esemplare nell’osservanza regolare, seguono con fiducia i suoi consigli spirituali. Ma il fenomeno delle stimmate, secondo la prassi prudente della Chiesa, va analizzato e studiato per accertarne la veridicità. Non dimentichiamo che siamo in un’epoca in cui i tribunali dell’Inquisizione sono molto vigilanti, i fenomeni mistici sono trattati spesso alla stregua di opere di stregoneria o considerati frutto di isterismo, la persona indagata è sottoposta a domande d’ogni tipo, con accertamenti anche umilianti, nell’ambito di un processo vero e proprio, con una commissione giudicatrice di cui fanno parte Vescovi, teologi, medici, autorità locali e rappresentanti della nobiltà.
Suor Lucia, nell’arco di sei anni, subisce cinque di questi esami, uno anche con la presenza del medico del Papa, perché Alessandro VI vuol essere sicuro dell’origine soprannaturale del fenomeno, anche per dimostrare a quanti la negano ancora, la realtà della stimmatizzazione di S. Caterina da Siena, scopo per il quale la stessa Suor Lucia le aveva implorate da Gesù Crocifisso.
Il risultato di tali “ispezioni” è una piena conferma della soprannaturalità del fenomeno: sono piaghe che nessun artificio umano può produrre. Ogni venerdì ne sgorga sangue vivo e profumato, al cui contatto più di un malato acquista la sanità.
Anche il conte Pietro, svanito ogni proposito di vendetta, si presenta al Monastero di Viterbo spinto dal desiderio di verificare questo nuovo prodigio che pone la sua giovane sposa al centro dell’attenzione. Suor Lucia approfitta dell’occasione per parlargli della bellezza della vita religiosa e dei pericoli che incontra l’anima legata alle vanità del mondo; tornato a Narni, dopo breve tempo egli decide di farsi religioso francescano e consuma la sua vita nell’annuncio del Vangelo.
Intanto la fama di santità della terziaria stimmatizzata si diffonde in Italia ed anche fuori. Il duca di Ferrara, Ercole I d’Este, stabilisce di far venire presso di sé la suora ormai celebre per assicurarsene la preghiera ed i consigli, ma anche per aumentare il prestigio della Signoria Estense. Essendo in stretti rapporti col Papa, egli pensa di raggiungere presto il suo scopo chiedendo l’intervento del Pontefice in suo favore e impegnandosi da parte sua a costruire in Ferrara un monastero per Suor Lucia e le sue compagne, dedicandolo a S. Caterina da Siena.
Ma i Viterbesi si oppongono risolutamente alle ingiunzioni papali e le trattative tra potenti personaggi ecclesiastici e civili durano tre anni, causando gravi sofferenze morali alla terziaria che desidera sottomettersi al comando del Pontefice, ritenendolo un’espressa volontà di Dio per lei.
Finalmente, ottenuto il consenso del Podestà, Suor Lucia parte da Viterbo, nascosta su un carro tra le ceste della biancheria perché il popolo non se ne accorga, e si dirige a Narni per una breve sosta nella casa materna, dalla quale riparte accompagnata dalla madre Gentilina e dalla quindicenne cugina Suor Orsola.
Dopo un viaggio lungo e disagiato, giunge in Ferrara il 7 maggio 1499 accolta con onori principeschi dal duca e dalla sua corte, ma lei non si esalta, “vede” davanti a sé una croce sanguigna che le preannunzia dolorose prove, la prima delle quali è la morte della cugina, appena tre giorni dopo il loro arrivo.
Il duca provvede un alloggio provvisorio alle terziarie, che presto aumentano di numero perché la fama della giovane stimmatizzata spinge donne d’ogni età a chiedere la sua direzione spirituale: anche Gentilina diventa terziaria e si stabilisce nella città estense. Nel frattempo prosegue la costruzione del monastero che viene canonicamente eretto con la Bolla papale del 29 maggio 1501. A Suor Lucia, quale fondatrice e prima priora, il Papa concede ampi privilegi perché possa esercitare il suo apostolato di carità, sia uscendo dal monastero per visitare i malati, sia ricevendo le persone che desiderano i suoi consigli in un parlatorio privato. Inoltre egli chiede alle future priore che ella venga sempre interpellata sui problemi che riguardano il monastero e nulla si faccia senza il suo parere.
Ercole I, che ritiene quest’opera come sua, la abbellisce con opere d’arte, con preziose reliquie di S. Caterina da Siena e di S. Pietro da Verona, con libri rari tolti alla biblioteca ducale e le assicura una rendita fissa. Purtroppo la sua benevolenza diventa anche ingerenza: vuole che il monastero si riempia di suore e con la sua autorità ed influenza presso il Pontefice ottiene che si trasferiscano nel monastero delle “Senesi”, come viene da tutti chiamato, suore provenienti da Viterbo, da Narni e da altri monasteri di Ferrara, abituate ad un altro stile di vita. Intanto entrano continuamente giovanissime postulanti, che spesso bussano al convento solo per volere dei genitori e quindi si adattano malvolentieri all’osservanza regolare che la giovane priora vuole stabilire.
Nascono dissensi, contrasti, mormorazioni.
Alcune cominciano ad insinuare dubbi sulla realtà delle stimmate di Suor Lucia e sul suo retto agire, si diffondono pesanti calunnie a suo riguardo, per cui viene istituito dall’Inquisizione il quinto processo sulle stimmate, che si conclude in suo pieno favore.
In questo frangente Suor Lucia mantiene la sua tranquillità d’animo, affidandosi tutta al Signore e continuando a curare spiritualmente quelle sorelle che fanno tesoro dei suoi insegnamenti.
Un ultimo provvedimento voluto dal duca provoca conseguenze ancora più gravi: egli ottiene il trasferimento, nel settembre 1503, di dieci monache del monastero domenicano di S. Caterina d’Alessandria, martire, nel monastero delle “Senesi”, pensando di dare in tal modo un aiuto a Suor Lucia. Ma i contrasti aumentano: le monache vogliono imporre il loro tipo di vita claustrale, le terziarie, invece, vogliono continuare con le caratteristiche più aperte che sono loro proprie, e la presenza della priora a cui il Papa ha riconosciuto determinati privilegi, crea invidie e discussioni.
Viene eletta una nuova priora e Suor Lucia sceglie volontariamente di rimanere nel silenzio e nell’anonimato, firma la rinuncia ai privilegi papali ed accetta la segregazione che le viene imposta. Anzi, chiede al Signore di far scomparire i segni delle stimmate nelle mani e nei piedi, mantenendone il dolore, e restando aperta solo quella del costato, che gli abiti celano allo sguardo altrui. Comprende che il disprezzo e l’annientamento umano sono indispensabili per conformarsi pienamente a Cristo Crocifisso, come lei desidera. Una cappa di silenzio che dura trentanove anni la isola da ogni contatto con l’ambiente esterno, facendo dileguare persino il ricordo della sua esistenza in quel monastero, dove è proibito anche alle suore avere contatti con lei.
Pochi attimi prima di morire, il 15 novembre 1544, grida estasiata : «Al cielo! Al cielo!» guardando radiosa un punto della stanza, mentre il suo volto si irradia di luce intensa.
Le consorelle presenti capiscono in quel momento la grandezza nascosta in quella creatura e scoprono poco dopo la ferita sanguinante del costato, a riprova dell’eroica virtù esercitata da Suor Lucia. Improvvisamente, gli abitanti di Ferrara affollano la chiesa del monastero acclamando santa quella terziaria che scegliendo l’annientamento di sé, ha indicato a tutti la via sicura del cielo.
Il suo culto fu approvato nel 1710 da Papa Clemente XI e la città di Ferrara ne
conservò il corpo fino al 1935, quando fu trasferito nel Duomo di Narni, dove
tuttora è venerato.
Fonte : www.domenicani.net
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/90818
Den salige Lucia
Broccadelli av Narni (1476-1544)
Minnedag:
15. november
Den salige Lucia
Broccadelli (Brocolelli) ble født den 13. desember 1476 i Narni i regionen
Umbria i Midt-Italia. Hun var den eldste av 11 barn av Bartolomeo Broccadelli,
skattmester i Narni kommune, og hans hustru Gentilina Cassio. Svært tidlig ble
det åpenbart for hennes fromme familie at dette barnet var utsett til noe
uvanlig i livet, for noen av hennes himmelske gaver var synlige. Da hun var fem
år gammel, fikk hun i en visjon se Jomfru Maria, og
to år etter kom Maria igjen til henne i et syn sammen med den hellige Dominikus, som ga
henne skapularet.
Tolv år gammel avla hun
private løfter om evig jomfruelighet, og selv i denne unge alderen var hun fast
bestemt på å bli dominikanerinne. Men familieforhold skulle gjøre dette
vanskelig, for Lucias far døde tidlig og etterlot henne i en onkels varetekt.
Han mente at den beste måten å anbringe en vakker niese på, ville være å få
henne giftet bort så raskt som mulig.
Onkelens anstrengelser
for å få Lucia vel gift utgjør et fargerikt kapittel i hennes liv. En gang
arrangerte han et stort familieselskap, og hans utvalgte ektemann for Lucia var
der. Han fant det best å ikke fortelle Lucia hva han pønsket på, fordi hun
hadde så merkelige ideer, så han presenterte den unge mannen for henne i hele
forsamlingens påsyn. Den unge mannen gjorde et tappert forsøk på å sette ringen
på hennes finger, men Lucia svarte med å kaste ringen i golvet, gi ham en
kraftig ørefik og storme ut av rommet.
Neste gang brukte onkelen
mer takt. Han arrangerte et ekteskap med grev Pietro de Alessio av Milano, som
ikke var en fremmed for familien. Lucia var faktisk svært glad i ham, men hun
hadde allerede bestemt seg for å bli nonne. Situasjonen ble slik en påkjenning
for henne at hun ble alvorlig syk. Under sykdommen viste Jomfru Maria seg for
henne igjen, denne gang sammen med både Dominikus og den hellige Katarina av Siena,
og sa til henne at hun skulle gå med på bryllupet, men bare som en juridisk
kontrakt. Samtidig skulle hun forklare for Pietro at hun var bundet av sitt
kyskhetsløfte og måtte holde det. Det samme råd fikk hun av sin skriftefar. Da
Lucia ble frisk igjen, forklarte hun situasjonen for Pietro, og bryllupet ble
feiret.
Nå ble Lucia husmor og
leder for en stor og travel husholdning. Hun la stor vekt på å undervise
tjenerskapet i troen, og ble snart kjent for sin gavmildhet overfor de fattige.
Pietro protesterte aldri på at hans unge hustru ga bort klær og mat, og heller
ikke på de strenge botsøvelser hun påla seg selv. Han visste at hun bar
hårskjorte under sine praktfulle klær, at hun tilbrakte det meste av natten i
bønn og at hun arbeidet for de fattige. Han bar også over med legendene som
tjenerne fortalte ham, nemlig at de hellige Katarina, Agnes, og Agnes av
Montepulciano kom for å hjelpe henne med å bake brød for de fattige.
Men da en snakkesalig tjener en dag fortalte ham at Lucia hadde besøk av en
vakker ung mann, som syntes å være en gammel venn, tok han sverdet og gikk for
å undersøke. Men han ble skamfull da han fant Lucia i kontemplasjon foran et
stort og vakkert krusifiks, og han ble ytterligere forvirret da tjeneren
fortalte ham at det var den unge mannen.
Men da Lucia etter tre
års «ekteskap» dro av sted til ødemarken for å bli eneboer, og vendte tilbake
dagen etter og sa at Dominikus hadde brakt henne hjem, var Pietros tålmodighet
slutt og han fikk sin unge hustru låst inne. Der ble hun hele fastetiden, mens
sympatiserende tjenere brakte henne mat frem til påske. Kanskje de begge nå
avgjorde at Lucia ikke kunne leve det liv Gud hadde planlagt for henne i
Pietros hus. Hun vendte hjem til sin mors hus, og ikledde seg drakten til en
dominikanertertiar (Tertius Ordo Sancti Dominici – TOSD). Hun var nå
løst fra det nominelle ekteskapet med Pietro. Hun sluttet seg først til en
kommunitet av regelbundne tertiarer i Roma.
Men etter et år ble Lucia
sendt til Viterbo, og der sluttet hun seg til en gruppe dominikanerinner av den
regelbundne tredjeordenen (tertiarer). Der ble hun i tre år. Hun gjorde sitt
beste for å skjule sine åndelige gaver, fordi de kompliserte hennes liv over
alt hvor hun var. Men den 25. februar 1496 mottok hun Jesu sårmerker
(stigmata), og hun deltok også fysisk i Kristi lidelse i den grad at hun selv
blødde. Siden dette skjedde hver onsdag og fredag, var det umulig å skjule hva
som foregikk. Hun var vanligvis i ekstase, og det førte til en stadig strøm av
nysgjerrige mennesker som kom for å spørre henne ut, undersøke henne eller bare
stirre på henne. Til og med de andre søstrene var bekymret over hennes
bønnemetoder. En gang tilkalte de biskopen, og sammen med dem så han i tolv
timer på hvordan Lucia gjennomlevde Jesu lidelseshistorie.
Biskopen nølte med å
felle noen dom og tilkalte inkvisisjonen. Hun ble undersøkt av inkvisitoren, en
fransiskansk biskop og pavens personlige lege, og alle kom som skeptikere, men
dro overbevist om at fenomenet var ekte. De henviste hennes sak direkte til
pave Alexander VI (1492-1503). Etter å ha snakket med henne, dømte han i hennes
favør og ba henne reise hjem og be for ham.
Her gjorde Pietro et
siste forsøk på å få henne til å endre sine planer og komme tilbake til ham,
men etter å ha besøkt henne, ble også han overbevist om at stigmata var ekte.
Som et resultat skal han ha bestemt seg for å bli fransiskaner, og i sine
senere år ble han en berømt predikant. Senete, som en av hennes biografer
skriver, forsøkte fransiskanerne på Mallorca å få fjernet et bilde av Lucia med
stigmata, med den begrunnelse at pave Sixtus IV (1471-84) hadde truet med
ekskommunikasjon til alle som avbildet noen andre enn den hellige Frans av Assisi med
stigmata, men ikke engang da ble realitetene i fenomenet med Lucia betvilt.
Da Lucia vendte tilbake
til Viterbo, trodde hun kanskje at hennes prøvelser nå var over, men de var så
vidt begynt. Hertug Ercole I d'Este av Ferrara hadde, i likhet med mange andre
rike adelsmenn med dårlig samvittighet, bestemt seg for å bygge et kloster. Han
var en stor beundrer av den hellige Katarina av Siena,
som hadde dødd i 1380 og var blitt helligkåret i 1461, og blant hans venner var
slike samtidige kvinner som de salige Kolumba av Rieti og Hosanna av Mantova.
Da han hørte om den berømte mystikeren i Viterbo, kunne han åpenbart ikke
motstå tanken på «sin egen» mystiker, så han krevde at hun skulle komme og bli
priorinne for det nye klosteret. Lucia hadde i en tid bedt til Gud om midler
slik at hun kunne bygge et dominikanerinnekloster av streng observans, så hun
gikk med på å reise til det nye klosteret i Ferrara. Ercole fikk pavens
tillatelse til å bygge klosteret.
Men dette utløste en to
år lang feide mellom Ferrara og Viterbo. Viterbo hadde mystikeren og ønsket
ikke å miste henne, mens hertugen av Ferrara sendte sine tropper for å hente
henne med makt, og mye blod ble spilt før hun til slutt ble brakt til Narni i
1499, smuglet ut i en kleskurv på ryggen av et muldyr. Sjokket og sorgen over
denne volden ble en ny prøvelse for Lucia. Prosjektet var dessverre mer eller
mindre dømt til å mislykkes. Lucia selv var fortsatt tidlig i tyveårene og
manglet helt de naturlige kvalitetene, for ikke å si erfaringen, som en
superior trengte. På den andre side var hertug Ercole en mann av store ideer,
og han ville at klosteret, som han hadde brukt enorme summer på å bygge og
utstyre, minst skulle ha hundre nonner. Han sendte sin svigerdatter, sønnen
Alfons' nye hustru Lucrezia Borgia, av sted for å finne postulanter
(kandidater) til det nye klosteret. Men, som annalene tørt sier: «Mange av disse
holdt ikke ut». Lucrezia Borgia var den beryktede datteren til den like
beryktede pave Alexander VI (1492-1503).
Hertugen av Ferrara likte
å vise frem det klosteret han hadde grunnlagt, og han tok med alle sine gjester
for å se på det. En gang kom han med en gruppe dansepiker som hadde underholdt
under en bankett, og krevde at Lucia skulle vise dem sine stigmata og, om
mulig, gå i ekstase. Det er ikke overraskende at slike hendelser virket
forstyrrende på det religiøse livet, og at det før eller senere måtte gjøres
noe med det. Ikke alle av Lucrezias rekrutter viste seg heller å være egnet til
klosterlivet. Noen av søstrene mente naturlig nok at alle vanskelighetene var
Lucias skyld. De henvendte seg til biskopen, og han sendte seks nonner av
dominikanernes andreordenen for å reformere klosteret. Vi vet ikke nøyaktig hva
som var forskjellen mellom andre- og tredjeordenen. Krøniken sier at
andreordensnonnene brakte med seg «krigens såkorn i foldene av sine slør» –
andreordensnonnene bar nemlig svarte slør, et privilegium som ikke var tillatt
for tredjeordenssøstrene.
Lucia ble snart avsatt og
en av de nye søstrene, Maria da Parma, ble gjort til priorinne. Hennes mål var
å innlemme klosteret i andreordenen. I 1505 døde hertugen, som hadde vært
Lucias beskytter. Den nye priorinnen behandlet henne med en grovhet som nærmet
seg det grusomme. Hun ble pålagt pønitens (bot), men for hva, nevnes ikke. Det
finnes heller ikke noen forklaring på hvorfor hun i de resterende 39 år av sitt
liv hadde forbud mot å snakke med noen andre enn sin skriftefar, som var blitt
valgt av priorinnen. Dominikanernes provinsial, som antakelig var engstelig for
ordenens prestisje, tillot ingen medlemmer av ordenen å besøke henne. Dermed
ble den «fasjonable mystikeren» en bortgjemt helgen. Hennes stigmata forsvant,
men for sent til at det kunne gjøre henne noe godt, og hevngjerrige folk sa:
«Se, hun var en bedrager hele tiden».
Det er vanskelig å forstå
at noen andre enn en helgen kan ha holdt ut et slikt liv så lenge. Lucia var
aldri utålmodig, og ingen hørte henne klage, selv når hun var syk og ikke fikk
pleie. Hennes eneste venner i disse 39 årene i eksil var de himmelske vennene.
Noen ganger besøkte den salige dominikanerinnen Katarina av
Racconigi henne – åpenbart ved bilokasjon (evnen til å være to steder
på én gang – hun døde ikke før i 1547), og hennes himmelske venner kom ofte for
å lyse opp hennes ensomme celle. Da Lucia døde den 15. november 1544 i Ferrara,
ble det hørt englerøster som sang i hennes celle og hele huset ble fylt av en
ekstraordinær vellukt. Såret i siden ble undersøkt etter hennes død, og da rant
det friskt blod ut av det. Små tøystykker med dette blodet ble sendt rundt, og
disse bevirket mange mirakler.
Da folk hørte at Lucia
var død, ble de forbauset, for de trodde at hun hadde vært død i mange år. Hun
ble gravlagt uten ærbødighet, men kunngjøringen av hennes død førte til at en
folkelig kult straks vokste frem. Det begynte å skje mirakler ved hennes grav,
noe som gjorde det nødvendig å overføre relikviene til et mer tilgjengelig
sted. Fire år etter hennes død ble hennes kiste åpnet, og hennes legeme ble
funnet i nøyaktig samme forfatning som da det ble gravlagt. De troende som
viste henne sin respekt, var forbløffet over at den blomsterduften som legemet
utsondret ble hengende fast i gjenstander som berørte relikvien. Legemet ble
først flyttet til klosterkirken, og senere i katedralen i Ferrara.
Hun ble saligkåret den 1.
mars 1710 (dokumentet (Breve) var datert den 26. mars) ved at hennes kult ble
stadfestet av pave Klemens XI (1700-21). Hennes minnedag er dødsdagen 15.
november, men 16. november nevnes også. I forbindelse med saligkåringen ble
legemet undersøkt på nytt og funnet i samme bevarte tilstand, med sårmerkene
tydelig synlige. Hennes relikvier ble i mai 1935 overført til Narni, og der
hviler de fortsatt i et glasskrin i katedralen under et alter som er viet til
henne.
Kilder: Attwater/Cumming,
Butler (XI), Benedictines, Cruz, Index99, KIR, Infocatho, santiebeati.it -
Kompilasjon og oversettelse: p. Per Einar Odden -
Opprettet: 2000-06-06 00:39 - Sist oppdatert: 2006-04-23 15:36
