Blessed Maria Bagnesi
Blessed Maria Bagnesi (Italian: Maria Bartolomea Bagnesi; born August 15, 1514 AD in Florence, Italy; died May 27, 1577 AD in Florence, Italy) was an Italian Dominican tertiary of Florence who, though bedridden by illness for nearly her whole adult life, became a source of spiritual counsel and consolation to many. She is venerated as a Blessed of the Dominican Order. Her feast day is May 27.
Struck down by a mysterious illness in her youth, Maria Bagnesi spent some forty-five years confined to her bed, which she transformed into a place of prayer, patience, and apostolate, drawing to her people of every kind in search of comfort and direction. She was beatified in 1804.
Stored in Cargo: Blessed Maria Bagnesi
| Blessed Maria Bagnesi | |
|---|---|
| Feast Day | May 27 |
| Profession | Dominican tertiary; invalid; spiritual counselor |
| Rel. Affiliation | Catholic Church; Order of Preachers (Dominican tertiaries) |
| Patronage | The sick and bedridden; those who suffer chronic illness; Florence |
| Attributes | Dominican tertiary habit; sickbed; patience in suffering |
| Birthplace | Florence, Italy |
| Death Place | Florence, Italy |
| Cause of Death | Natural death; Dominican tertiary who bore a lifelong illness with patience; died at Florence |
| Primary Shrine | Convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli / Carmel of Florence, Italy |
Biography
Maria Bartolomea Bagnesi was born on August 15, 1514, at Florence, Italy. As a young woman she desired to enter a convent, but her father instead arranged a marriage for her. The distress this caused is said to have contributed to the onset of a grave and mysterious illness that struck her about the age of seventeen or eighteen, from which she never recovered and which left her bedridden for the rest of her long life.
Unable to enter a monastery, she became a tertiary of the Order of Saint Dominic, living her consecration in her sickbed at home. For some forty-five years she endured constant pain and helplessness, dependent on others for everything, yet she bore all with extraordinary patience, cheerfulness, and abandonment to the will of God, uniting her sufferings to the Passion of Christ.
Her sickroom became a place of pilgrimage. People of every station—rich and poor, learned and simple, laity and religious—came to her for counsel, consolation, and prayers, and she was credited with wisdom, insight, and miracles. She was a model of how a life outwardly useless in the world's eyes could bear great spiritual fruit.
Maria Bagnesi died at Florence on May 27, 1577. After her death her body was given to the Carmelite nuns of Florence, in whose care her relics later became connected with the young Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, who venerated her. Maria Bagnesi's cult was confirmed in 1804 by Pope Pius VII. Her feast is kept on May 27.
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Feast day
May 27
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