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MARIA CARAFFA, SISTER OF POPE PAUL IV. - 4 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 4th of January

VENERABLE MARIA CARAFFA, SISTER OF POPE PAUL IV.

A page of one of Fortunatus Hueber's
Saints' books,
"Stammenbuch..." (1693)

Venerable Maria was a biological sister of Pope Paul IV, Caraffa. Born in Naples, she tried from an early age to please God more and more each day. She avoided an honourable marriage in her twentieth year by gaining entry into the cloister of the Dominican nuns in Naples, from which, as she said, she would only be brought out as a corpse. 

She began the novitiate and soon surpassed even the most pious of her sisters in virtue. When they wanted to make her superior, she was so shocked that in her great humility she kneeled down and begged her fellow sisters to give her some arduous, menial duties that others despised. When she was innocently slandered, she endured it with complete resignation - like her crucified bridegroom.

After some time, the slanderer indeed recanted, and Venerable Maria was only more respected for her heroic patience. It was even given to her to found a new convent of her Order, called della Sapienza, in Naples in 1531, or rather, to change it from one of Poor Clare nuns who had been there until then to a monastery of Dominican nuns. Here she introduced the rule of the saint in all its rigour, particularly as regards the cloister and poverty. 

She retained her resignation to the divine will to the end of her life. She died on January 4, 1552, aged 84. A hundred and sixteen years later her body was found as intact as if she had just died. A moisture flowed from one of her feet, which proved to be effective against various diseases, but especially against the temptations of the evil enemy. We do not know whether her canonisation, which had been initiated, was ever completed. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 4, Augsburg, 1875, p. 183)

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations






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