Augustine and Maria Maddalena

Description

Agostino Novello (1240 – 19 May 1309), also known as Augustine of Tarano, but born Matteo da Termini, was an Italian religious figure. He was born in the first half of the 13th century, at Termini Imerese, the village in Sicily from which he derived his surname. As that village was near Palermo, he is sometimes called Palermitano. The Augustinians believe he was probably born at Tarano (near Rieti and not far north of Rome, Italy). On entering religion he changed his name to Agostino, and later was given the additional name of Novello.

Matteo’s parents, of a noble family originally from Catalonia in Spain, educated him most carefully and had him instructed in all the then known sciences. At the University of Bologna, he earned a doctorate in civil and canon law, and became a professor of law. He worked in the chancery of the Kingdom of Sicily at the court of King Manfred of Sicily.

In this capacity Matteo accompanied the King in the war against Charles I of Anjou, who disputed Manfred’s right to the crown of Sicily. In the battle at Benevento, in which Manfred was killed and his army routed, Matteo was wounded and thought to be dead, and so was left on the battlefield among the corpses of other soldiers. Regaining consciousness, Matteo was able to reach his home; however, disillusioned with the world and with the evanescence of all earthly glory, he determined thenceforth to forsake all worldly honors and dignities.

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.