Maria Maddalena

Description

Maria Maddalena Martinengo (5 October 1687 – 27 July 1737), born Margherita Martinengo, was an Italian Roman Catholic professed nun of the order of the Capuchin Poor Clare nuns.

Martinengo devoted her life as a professed religious to the performance of small but humble chores in her time as a Poor Clare nun and was noted for her life of spiritual discernment and devotion to God above all else.

Pope Leo XIII beatified Martinengo on 3 June 1900.

Margherita Martinengo was born on 5 October 1687 in Brescia into a noble household in the Martinengo Ducal Palace to Francesco Leopoldo Martinengo and Margherita Secchi d’Aragona; her brothers were Nestore and Gianfrancesco. Her paternal uncle was Giambattista. Her mother died five months after her birth in 1688. She was baptized straight after her birth since there was fear that she might die. The baptism ceremonies for her were celebrated on 21 August 1691 at the baptism of her half-sister Cecilia born to the second marriage of her father to Elena Palazzi.

As a child she was perceived to be an intelligent girl and received a structured and comprehensive education based on the civic and religious studies. At the age of six she was entrusted to the Ursulines for additional education. Her teacher Isabella Marazzi instructed her in proper devotional practices to God and Marazzi was a formative role in Martinengo’s religious education. Martinengo was an avid reader and made full use of the Latin literature that her father owned.

On one occasion during her childhood she was in a carriage that six horses ran and she fell out. She would have been crushed and run over from other carriages had there not been what she described as an invisible touch that seemed to save her life.