Magdalene is an “ecstatic saint.” She desired a “hidden life,” but her mystical experiences or religious ecstasies lasted for years.
Religious ecstasy, according to Wikipedia, is an altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual consciousness.
The mystics of the Catholic Church consider the “sacraments and mysteries of faith as a point of appui [support or prop] in ecstasies, according to Evelyn Underhill in Mysticism, Part VIII Ecstasy and Rapture.
While others saints are in a state of euphoria during ecstasies, Magdalene felt embarrassed. Once when told by “Jesus to walk barefoot as part of her penance, she simply cut the soles of her shoes so no one would see her different,” according to Saints and Angels Catholic.Org.
Unique profession of vows
Magdalene is the only daughter of Camillo di Geri de Pazzi and Maria Buondelmonti, one of the most distinguished and richest families in Renaissance Florence, Italy.
Born on April 2, 1566, she was christened Caterina, but was called Lucrezia in honor of her paternal grandmother.
At a young age, she was inclined to pray in solitude. She learned how to meditate on the passion of Christ at 9, had her first communion and took a vow of virginity, a month after.
At 14, she was sent to the monastery of nuns, Order of Malta, but later was recalled for marriage to a nobleman. When she informed her father about her vow of chastity, she was allowed to enter a monastic life.
In 1583 she entered the Carmelite Monastery of Saint Mary of the Angels in Florence, Italy. She became “critically and mystically ill” that her profession of vows on May 27, 1584, was held in a private ceremony while laying on a cot in the chapel. At the end of the rites, she fell into ecstasy that continued for two hours, Placido Fabrini said in The Life and Work of Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi.
The spiritual experience lasted for 40 days of ecstasies and joy, mixed with agonies, which lasted for two hours after the holy communion. Saints and Angels Catholic.Org narrated that Jesus hid Magdalene’s heart and “hid it in His own” and told her He “would not return it until it is wholly pure and filled with pure love.”
As a religious, Magdalene did her daily assignments with great love. She cooked, washed clothes and cared for the sick and the aged with devotion.
When she was mistress of the novices, she did not hesitate to correct them bluntly to grow in spirituality. She practiced the most difficult penance—pretending to like what she didn’t.
With a strong common sense and ability to read minds, she was loved for her “intense charity” which balanced her strict code of conduct.
In 1585 her ecstasies became frequent that a nun recorded: “We can hardly find a free moment to speak to her, as she is constantly in a state of elevation of mind,” said in the Carmelites.info.museum.
Lion’s den
In The Probation, Magdalene wrote of interior purification—“her spouse, the Word, takes away the sentiment of grace”—when she was 19 years old.
Like Daniel, who was left in a lion’s den amid unimaginable trials and temptations, she ought to overcome through prayers and penance the ordeals from June 16, 1585, Trinity Sunday to June 10, 1590, Feast of The Pentecost.
Jesus, in a feed forward of what she would experience, said: “I will take away not the grace but the feeling of grace. Though I would seem to leave you, I will be closer to you,” according to Saints and Angels, Catholic.org.
Within these five years, the joy she felt in God’s presence was gone. She described her heart as a “pitch-black room” with a thin light that made the darkness so distinct.
“Severely tested against chastity,” she also had doubts about her vocation and was tempted to leave the monastery and commit suicide.
Although the Council of Trent was concluded in 1563 during the reign of Pope Pius IV, the church was still struggling to fully implement the “doctrinal statements” due to internal and external challenges (Joachim Smet O. Carm, The Carmelites. Post Tridentino Period 1550-1600).
From July 25 to September 4, 1856, she wrote on the urgent need for the renewal of the church and religious.”
At the cusp of death
In 1904 Magdalene suffered from violent headaches, fever, coughing spells and was paralyzed. Her nerves were so sensitive that they could not be touched without agonizing pain.
“To suffer and not to die,” was attributed for her endurance, resignation and expression of total surrender to the will of God.
The Anointing of the Sick was administered on her on May 13, 1607. On May 25 she died with the words Benedictus Deus (Blessed Be God) on her lips. She was 41.
Following her death, 41 miracles happened to people who visited her grave. A year after, her incorrupt body was transferred to the cloister. She was beatified in 1626 by Pope Urban VIII and canonized on April 28, 1669, by Pope Clement IX. Her feast day is May 25.
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Corazon Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.