The ecstasy [the Saint] had on the 17th of September of the same year, 1587, was very wonderful and effective.
Being fiercely attacked in the virtue of chastity, as was related, and forbidden by her confessor and her mother prioress from again throwing herself among thorns, or doing any other injury to her body, she, by way of compensation, gave herself up to prayer with redoubled fervor, imploring above all the assistance of the Queen of virgins.
On the same day, it happened that, having withdrawn to a remote chamber, by prayers of a most suppliant devotion and by most touching tears, she turned to the most pure Mother of God, that she might obtain for her such a victory over the impure temptations, that her virginity would not be stained in the least thereby.
Having just made the request, the Blessed Virgin appeared to her in the form of a noble and tender mother, and, consoling her, told her to be calm, as in all such temptations she had never offended God; nay, by her courageous fight with the impure spirit, she had come out completely victorious, and, as a reward therefore, the Blessed Virgin put on her a pure white veil, and told her, moreover, that in the future she would not again have to suffer the temptations or suggestions of impurity.
At this moment, Mary Magdalen interiorly felt as if all appetite of carnal concupiscence was being reduced, and that all the disordered fire of sensuality had been extinguished in an ineffable manner.
In fact, during all her life, this angelic soul was not again molested by a desire of the flesh, nor even by any imagination or the least thought contrary to holy purity.
The Rev. Father Placido Fabrini
Chapter XIV (excerpts)
Note: Father Fabrini’s biography is based on the 1611 biography of St. Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi, which was written by her spiritual director, Fr. Vincenzio Puccini.
Fabrini, P. & De’ Pazzi, M.M. 1900, The life of St. Mary Magdalen De-Pazzi: Florentine noble, sacred Carmelite virgin, translated from the Italian by Isoleri A., [publisher not identified] Philadelphia.
Featured image: This detail of a portrait of Saint Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi receiving the white veil from the Virgin Mary was painted by Bernard de Bailliu (Flemish, 1641–1694) and another unidentified artist; it is an oil paint illumination of an engraving attached to a panel (17th or 18th c.). The work is part of the collection in the Museo del Convento de Santa Teresa, Arequipa, Peru. Photo: Franz Grupp / PESSCA 2921B Image credit: Ojeda, A 2005–2023, Project for the Engraved Sources of Spanish Colonial Art (PESSCA), PESSCA, viewed 25 April 2019, https://colonialart.org/.
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