The 12 Letters of St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi
     
    Introduction to the Letters
   
  In the span of 40 days, between July 25 and September 4, 1586, Sr. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi dictated 12 letters which have survived to this day. Each is a passionate appeal for the urgent renewal of the Church and of religious life in the Church. Each was dictated while the saint was in ecstasy.

List of the Letters, Date, and Intended Recipient

 

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  Only the 9th letter is known to have been read by the intended party. Written to her friend, fellow ecstatic, and future saint Catherine de' Ricci , Mary Magdalen received a response with words of caution. On the topic of reform, Ricci advised the Carmelite nun to consult her spiritual director. That letter is still preserved in the archives of the monastery of St. Mary of the Angels.

The content of most of the other eleven letters probably came to be known.  by their intended recipients because they had connections to the monastery.

It is fairly certain that the letter to Pope Sixtus and the letter to the Cardinals of the Roman Curia never left the enclosure of the monastery and remained unknown to their recipients.

The letters were only published in an unabridged form for the first time in 1884, almost 300 years after they were dictated.

   

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The 12 letters share a series of common themes:

  • Assures the reader that the message is from God. She realizes she is only the instrument (often stressing her total unworthiness for the task)
     
  • States that she is forced to make known this task of renewing the Church which needs to be brought about by the ministers and principal members of the Church.
     
  • This is not only the task of the individuals being addressed but groups (of religious) are to help.
     
  • Theme of redemption by the blood of the slain Lamb.
     
  • Reassures the reader that these are not human words/her words but from God
     
  • She states the problem clearly and strongly offers a clear solution.
     
  • Stresses the need for example from the reader
     
  • Each letter closes with the notation that the letter is written in the Monastery of St. Mary of the Angels and its location in relation to St. Fredian's and a date.
   

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Born in 1566, Catherine de' Pazzi was destined to live during one of the more difficult periods in the history of the Catholic Church. Entering the enclosed Carmelite monastery of St. Mary of the Angels in Florence, Italy in 1583, she took the name Mary Magdalen.

The Florentine monastery was frequently a gathering place for women of the court of Florence-- among them the future wife of Henry IV of France. Others more familiar with the lives of the common people passed through as well, giving the saint the opportunity to remain very familiar with the problems of daily life outside the monastery.

Recipient of mystical experiences accompanied by extermal phenomena for some of her religious life, Mary Magdalene lived and suffered with uncommon depth the joys and harshness of the contemplative life.

   

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    She was very aware of the evils that afflicted religious and church life of her time and became an ever stronger advocate for renewal with the Catholic Church. She preferred "renewal" to "reform" which brings with it a sense of contentious denouncement, of protest, and of struggle with the official church. Rather, Mary Magdalen was more interested in a renewal that focused on "conversion" of the heart. This was a common theme of the Church of the day, always being called to re-birth and the self-renewal, to change the interior ways, stained and contaminated by the world in which it existed.

Letters of St. Maria de'Pazzi

   

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    Sr. Mary Magdalen was also influential in bringing about a greater austerity in the lives of the sisters, changes which were incorporated in the monastery's constitutions of 1610.
   

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    from:
The Carmelites: The Post Tridentine Period 1550-1600 (vol III)
by Joachim Smet, O. Carm.


La rinnovazione della Chiesa
Lettere dettate in estasi

Cittą Nuova - Edizioni O.C.D.
© 1986
ISBN  88-311-4804-4

 

   
Other On-Line Resources:   - The Index of Carmelite Topics on the Web
- The Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi Window at the Boxmeer (Netherlands) Carmelite Monastery

-
IV Centenary of the Death of Maria Magdalena de' Pazzi
-
The Works of St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi (in Italian)