Today we celebrate the memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene De’ Pazzi.
In Florence, Catherine de’ Pazzi was born in 1566 into an aristocratic family. The typical course of events would have been for her to marry into wealth and live well, but Catherine decided to go her way. She started meditating at nine years old under the guidance of the family confessor. At the young age of 10, Catherine received her first Communion, and a month later, vowing to remain virginal. At age 16, Catherine joined a Carmelite monastery in Florence where she could partake in daily Communion.
When Catherine became seriously ill, she had already adopted the name Mary Magdalene and had been a novice for a year. Her superiors let her declare her vows in a secret ceremony while seated on a cot in the chapel since they believed her death was imminent. Immediately after, Mary Magdalene had an ecstasy that lasted for almost two hours. The experience repeated after Communion for the following 40 mornings. These ecstasies were profound encounters with God and held extraordinary revelations of his truths.
Her confessor requested Mary Magdalene to narrate her experiences to sister secretaries as a precaution against fraud and to preserve the revelations. The ecstasies from May 1584 through Pentecost week the year after are documented in the first three books. Preparations for a difficult five-year trial took place during the previous week. The fifth volume is a compilation of letters about reform and rebirth, whereas the fourth book details that trial. In another book titled Admonitions, she includes quotations from her contributions to the creation of women’s religion.
When it came to this saint, the extraordinary was commonplace. She anticipated future occurrences by reading people’s thoughts. Mary Magdalene healed many sick people throughout her lifetime and appeared to other people in far-off areas.
It would be simple to focus on the ecstasies and suggest that Mary Magdalene only experienced these feelings on a spiritual level which is false. It appears that God allowed her to feel this particular closeness to prepare her for the five years of emptiness that followed, during which she encountered spiritual dryness. Catherine fell into figurative darkness and could only see the terrible things about herself and the world around her. She endured severe bodily suffering and aggressive temptations. At the time of her death in 1607 and canonization in 1669, Mary Magdalene De’ Pazzi was 41 years old. May 25 is the day of her liturgical feast.
Source: franciscanmedia.org