File:Vita della Venerabil Madre Suor Maria Bagnesi, Nobile Fiorentina del Terz' Ordine di San Domenico. Scritta da un Sacerdote della Compagnia di Gesù (IA wotb 6743748).pdf

4to. VIII, 155 pp, plus engraved portrait. Contemporary velum. Sole edition. At the age of 17 Bagnesi was due to be married off by her father, but fell so dramatically ill at the news that she remained bed-ridden for the rest of her life. She was able to take her vows and receive the veil of the Third Order (non-cloistered) Dominicans in her own room, where she also received the Eucharist and heard Mass almost every day. She was said to experience visions and conversations with angels and demons alike, and visitors flocked to her room for spiritual counsel. The present work is yet another example of a descendant ostensibly seeking to promote an illustrious ancestor for sainthood; the frequency with which such biographies were written by blood relatives perhaps suggests a unifying motive probably related to social prestige. In this case, the process was finally successful some 60 years later, when her local 'cultus' was given Papal approval for beatification