A School of Holiness: Caterina Vigri (1413–1463) and the Nuns of Corpus Domini in Bologna

Abstract

This article examines the spiritual, intellectual, and institutional legacy of Caterina Vigri (1413–1463) and the formation of a “school of holiness” within the Poor Clare monastery of Corpus Domini in Bologna. Through the analysis of key texts produced within the monastic milieu—including the Libro devoto (later known as The Seven Spiritual Weapons), the Ordinazioni, the epistolary Formulario, and the Book of Visions and Revelations by Valeria Campanazzi—the study explores how Vigri’s teachings were transmitted, received, and reworked across generations of nuns. Particular attention is devoted to the centrality of obedience as the defining principle of monastic life, which marks a significant shift from earlier Franciscan emphases on poverty. The article highlights the pedagogical dimension of these writings, their grounding in Sacred Scripture, and their role in shaping a collective religious identity within an Observant context. At the same time, it situates Vigri’s spiritual program within broader developments in late medieval and early modern Christianity, including the institutional consolidation of religious life and the circulation of diverse spiritual influences. By tracing both continuity and transformation within the Corpus Domini community, the study demonstrates the existence of a sustained intellectual and devotional tradition that extended well beyond the founder’s lifetime. The “school of Caterina” thus emerges as a dynamic space of female religious authority, literary production, and theological formation.

1. Caterina Vigri: From Ferrara to Bologna

Of Bolognese origin, Caterina Vigri spent much of her life in Ferrara, where her father served in a legal capacity at the court of Niccolò III d’Este. At a young age, she became a lady-in-waiting to Margherita d’Este, living at court and completing her education under the guidance of highly qualified teachers. Following Margherita’s marriage and the death of her father, Caterina resolved to embrace the religious life, joining a group of devout women who lived a form of common life inspired by the Augustinian rule, even without taking vows.

After several years, turning toward a more rigorous spiritual experience, she contributed to the foundation of the Observant Poor Clares monastery of Corpus Domini in Ferrara. In this context, in her role as mistress of novices, she composed a work that was to enjoy significant success, The Seven Spiritual Weapons, and promoted a formative model that integrated the exercise of the arts—particularly poetry, music, and singing (Spanò 1971; Spanò Martinelli 1979; Bartoli 2003; Peverada 2013; Arthur 2018)—into religious discipline.

This educational approach was subsequently transferred to Bologna, where in 1456 Caterina was called by Giovanni Bentivoglio, lord of the city, to found a new Poor Clares monastery. The Bolognese Corpus Domini arose from the meeting between Caterina, a group of nuns from Ferrara, and numerous local postulants. The teaching of Vigri, together with that of her companion Illuminata Bembo and other learned and devout religious women, gave rise to a veritable “school of holiness.” This designation is confirmed both by the recognition of the title of blessed attributed to some of the first companions—Illuminata Bembo, Giovanna Lambertini, and Paola Mezzavacca—and by the continuity of a written production of a mystical and spiritual nature that continued uninterrupted until the mid-16th century.

The analysis of the principal texts of Caterina and Illuminata will make it possible to verify to what extent the sisters of Corpus Domini received and reworked the teachings of the foundresses. To this end, several writings attributable to the so-called “workshop” of the monastery will be examined: the Ordinazioni, the first commentary on Clare’s rule developed within the cloister; some letters from the Formulario, partly written in the Ferrara monastery and subsequently developed in Bologna; and, finally, the Book of Visions and Revelations by Valeria Campanazzi (1518–1577).

The Libro devoto of Caterina Vigri, designated only from the seventeenth century onward with the title The Seven Spiritual Weapons, was composed around 1430 and subsequently reworked (Vigri 2000; Degl’Innocenti et al. 2018; Serventi 2012). The saint’s principal work, it is addressed to the mothers and sisters of Corpus Domini in Ferrara, but above all to the novices who, once they have entered religious life, fear losing all merit because of the exposure of the will to the temptations that threaten monastic obedience. From this perspective, the monastery is not conceived as a refuge, but rather as the place where a struggle necessary for the acquisition of virtues takes place, with Christ as the exemplary model.

The work is structured in ten chapters of varying length, taking the form of an open structure, far removed from the usual geometries of treatise writing. It stands at the crossroads between doctrinal exposition, autobiography and spiritual testament, as well as a didactic text constructed through advice and exempla. A brief prologue introduces the motivations for writing, identified in divine inspiration and in the desire to benefit the sisters, thus contributing to the design of Providence. This is followed by the presentation of the seven spiritual weapons necessary to sustain the battle that the soul is called to fight on its journey toward the heavenly homeland: diligence, distrust of oneself, full trust in divine assistance, remembrance of Christ’s Passion, meditation on death, consideration of the heavenly reward, and continual memory of Sacred Scripture. Each weapon is assigned an explanatory chapter, generally concluding with an exhortation. Particular emphasis is placed on the treatment of the final weapon, which constitutes the central proposal of the work: Scripture is in fact defined as a “most faithful mother,” the primary source of counsel both in inner trials and in the difficulties of communal life.

Taken as a whole, the treatise reveals a marked didactic intention, as can be inferred from Vigri’s intention to write the book for those who have recently embraced the religious life (Vigri 2000, p. 4), and is characterized by the presence of passages in verse and in rhymed prose, which point to the vitality of the Franciscan ascetic remove model promoted by the Observance. Other works attributed or attributable to Caterina remained unpublished in the Bolognese monastery of Corpus Domini (Serventi 2000); these attest how the example of the saint exerted a significant influence within the urban monastic environment, fostering the development of a widespread literary activity within the community.

In this context, the figure of Caterina Vigri takes shape as a paradigmatic expression of Renaissance culture and learning. Trained in a courtly milieu, she contributed to the foundation and diffusion of Observant Poor Clares monasteries that can be understood as true appendages of the courts of north–central Italy, intended to receive princesses and ladies belonging to the principal aristocratic and patrician families (Zarri 2000, pp. 74–75 and elsewhere; Serventi 2025).

It was precisely this culturally elevated environment that favored the rapid manuscript circulation of Caterina’s works and contributed to the emergence of new forms of writing, including biographical writing. Within this framework is situated the work of Illuminata Bembo, a Venetian noblewoman and companion of Caterina already in the Ferrara monastery, who, upon the abbess’s death, composed a letter addressed to the sisters of the various Poor Clares monasteries to announce the news. This text, progressively expanded to include the life and memory of the religious woman, developed into a more extensive composition in which elements of didactic treatise writing and biographical narration are interwoven (Bembo 2000, 2022, 2024). The primary aim of the work is the preservation and transmission of the saint’s “sayings,” that is, her teaching, often expressed in poetic form (Graziosi 2011); at the same time, the collection contributes to outlining a biographical profile of the abbess, intended to place Caterina Vigri among the eminent figures of female culture in the Renaissance.

Literary criticism has widely discussed the sources and the spiritual inspiration of the doctrine and teaching of Caterina Vigri. To an initial hypothesis of connection, although indirect, with the Devotio moderna (Alberigo 1963–1965)—a lay and ascetic movement that developed in the Low Countries in the 14th and 15th centuries—was followed by a more firmly established relocation transformation of Caterina’s spirituality within the framework of the Franciscan tradition. This does not, however, exclude the presence in her writings of heterogeneous influences, traceable both to the production of the Friars Minor, as in the case of Ugo Panziera, and to texts belonging to the Devotio moderna, such as The Imitation of Christ, as well as to Rhineland mysticism, as attested by the Horologium sapientiae of Heinrich Seuse. From this perspective, the surviving library of the monastery also emerges as a significant formative instrument, including liturgical books, devotional texts, patristic works, Latin grammars, illuminated manuscripts and miscellanies of various kinds (Spanò Martinelli 1986).

Within the monastery of Corpus Domini, liturgical life constituted the core of the formation of pupils and novices, involving active participation in the Liturgy of the Hours, choral singing, the understanding of the psalms, and meditation on the Passion. Alongside this spiritual dimension, there was also a practical and artistic training that included activities such as illumination, painting and embroidery (Degl’Innocenti et al. 2018, pp. 70–71; Biancani 2005).

According to Caterina Vigri, what characterizes religious life is obedience. She affirms this in her Libro devoto, addressed to novices:

Scriverò alcuni amaistramminti per conforto de quelle persone le quale sono intrate a questa nobilissima bataglia de essa obidientia

I will write some instructions for the comfort of those persons who have entered into this most noble battle of obedience

(Vigri 2000, p. 4).

This statement already clearly expresses Vigri’s intention in writing her book: to teach novices how to live harmoniously in community and how to overcome the temptations of the devil that divert them from the spiritual life. Her didactic intent is expressed even more clearly in the following passage:

Orra, directissime sorele, queste cosse ò scripto principalemente per tute quelle mie carissime novice le qualle novamente sono intratte nel canpo della bataglia spirtuale e che debano sucedere per l’avenire, acciò che abano materia de stare sempre in timore, non confidandosse mai de ssi stesse, cioè del proprio sé seno, considerando quante gratie aveva recevuto da Dio la sopra dicta relizioxa.

Now, most dear sisters, I have written these things primarily for all my beloved novices who have newly entered the field of spiritual battle, and for those who will come in the future, so that they may have reason to remain ever in fear, never trusting in themselves—that is, in their own wisdom—considering how many graces the aforementioned nun had received from God

(Vigri 2000, p. 49)

As also attested by Illuminata Bembo, and as will likewise emerge from the writings examined in the present analysis, the defining element of religious life is precisely obedience. In this sense, Caterina Vigri departs from the teaching of the first rule of Clare of Assisi, which placed poverty at the summit of monastic vows.

It is precisely the emphasis placed by Vigri on the dimension of original lay character and on the centrality of obedience that enables Claudio Leonardi to reposition the saint within the Italian religious tradition, interpreting her spiritual itinerary as a reflection of the transformations of Christianity in her time (Leonardi [1988] 2011, pp. [643]–[646]). Her initial adherence to a female community without monastic vows in fact places Caterina within the line of lay mystical experiences that developed between the 13th and 14th centuries, such as those of Angela of Foligno or Clare of Montefalco. Her subsequent choice of religious profession, together with the valorization of obedience as the primary virtue, instead reflects the turn toward a more markedly institutional direction that characterized the Roman Church in the aftermath of the crisis of the Avignon exile and the schism. In this context, Caterina’s spiritual experience proves to be closely connected to the broader religious renewal promoted by the movements of the Observance, which contributed significantly to the reaffirmation of papal authority and to the reconstruction of an ecclesiastical discipline of a hierarchical and centralized type.

The negative experience of the first community in Ferrara that Catherine had joined—which split and eventually dissolved due to disagreements between its two leading members—also contributed to the choice of obedience as the primary virtue of monastic life (Peverada 2013; Graziosi 2011, pp. 18–19). The priority of obedience over the other vows is also evident in many passages of Catherine’s Devout Book, including the following:

E pertanto, dillectissime sorele, la spoxa che a Christo suo spoxo se vole conzunzere, convene a lui conformarse sotoponendose a ogni tormento corporale e mentale; intendendo però de non volere fare alcuna cossa particolare senza licencia della sua mazore, imperciò che la virtude de la vera ubidientia va innanci a tutte le altre e essa è quella che al cielo conduce i suoi operaturi.

And therefore, most beloved sisters, the bride who wishes to unite herself with Christ her spouse must conform herself to him by submitting to every physical and mental trial; yet she must resolve not to do anything in particular without the permission of her superior, for the virtue of true obedience takes precedence over all others, and it is this virtue that leads its practitioners to heaven.

However, in addition to the Book of Devotion, other texts help convey to the novices and professed sisters of the Corpus Domini the priority of obedience.

2. The Book of Ordinations

The text that best reflects the insertion of Vigri’s doctrine and experience within the cultural developments of the Church and of the Observant movement in the 15th century is the writing first designated as Avvertimenti and later called Ordinazioni (Bartoli 2009).1 It is the first commentary on Clare’s Rule produced within a cloister: the text is in fact attributed to Caterina but is probably the result of a collective work originating from communal life under the guidance of the abbess. The dating of the manuscript can be placed within a time span between 1458 and 1459, years in which Caterina was still alive and governed the monastery of Corpus Domini in Bologna.

The Ordinazioni are situated within the spirituality of Clare’s first Rule, but they also show a clear knowledge of the Rule of Urban IV (Bartolomei Romagnoli 2026), as can be seen, for example, in the regulations concerning the dormitories. The first Rule, in fact, does not mention this aspect, whereas the Leoni (2016, p. 531 for ch. 10) take up in detail chapter 5 of the second Rule, the Urbanian one, which prescribed the use of a common dormitory and established that the abbess’s bed should be placed in such a position as to allow her to see all the other beds. However, Leoni (2016, p. 534 for ch.13) also make explicit reference to cells intended for the nuns’ personal prayer. It is possible that the solution of a dormitory divided into cells by means of mats more faithfully reflects the reality of the Bolognese and Ferrarese monasteries.2

Knowledge of the Rule and of the Ordinazioni constitutes the first step toward a conscious and voluntary entry into monastic life. The normative text in fact opens with the prescription that the abbess must be vigilant and diligent in ensuring that the Rule and the ordinances of the monastery are read and observed (Leoni 2016, p. 523). While referring to Clare’s Rule, the text, as noted, presents a reversal in the order of the vows, emphasizing the responsibility of the abbess in guaranteeing the observance of religious life in obedience, poverty, chastity, and perpetual enclosure, together with the other precepts of the Rule:

L’abbadessa e madre sia vigilante e provida che da lei e da tutte le sorelle soe figliole spirituale a lei commisse se observi la regola promissa de la beata Clara, madre nostra… vivendo in obedientia, senza proprio e in castità e perpetua clausura e generalmente gli altri commandamenti de essa regola. E a ciò che la ignorantia non sia ad alcuna casione (cagione) remove de peccare, l’abbadessa fatiam ogni sexta feria e sabbato lezere le infrascripte ordinatione.

The abbess and mother should be vigilant and provident that both she and all her sisters, her spiritual daughters entrusted to her, the promised Rule of the blessed Clare, our mother, be observed… living in obedience, without possessions, and in chastity and perpetual enclosure, and generally the other commandments of that Rule. And so that ignorance may not become a cause of sin for anyone, the abbess should ensure that every Friday and Saturday the aforementioned ordinances are read.

(Leoni 2016, p. 523).

The central role attributed to normative knowledge is confirmed by the following chapter, dedicated to the procedures for receiving candidates into the order. Before their admission, it is established that the postulants must be informed of the hardships of the Rule they will be called to observe. The principal requirements for entry into the monastery are a minimum age of sixteen years and a basic level of literacy (competenter litterata), in addition to examination by the abbess and the confessor and the consent of the majority of the chapter of professed sisters.

The age requirement appears particularly significant, as it departs from the then-widespread practice of admitting young girls at an early age under the pretext of education, and anticipates by about a century what would later be established by the Council of Trent, which fixed the minimum age for religious profession at sixteen.3 This provision appears to respond to the need to counter the phenomenon of forced monachization, which was on the rise between the Renaissance and the early modern period. The sixteenth year was in fact considered the moment at which a person could express a conscious consent to fundamental choices concerning her life.

After receiving the habit, the novice was entrusted to a mistress, tasked with instructing her diligently in the regular observances and in the ordinances; at the end of the probationary year, she was admitted to the profession with the consent of the vicar father and the majority of the sisters. In the same chapter, the Ordinazioni offer a particularly dense synthesis of the spirituality and discipline of monastic life:

Li quali commandamenti sono questo cioè obbedientia, povertà, castità, clausura, dire l’offitio divino, dezunare ogni tempo, possendo confessarse XII volte l’anno, comunicarse VII, tegnire silentio, non parlare alo locutororio o grata senza licentia e cum le compagnie assignate, né mandare littere fuora, né mandare fuora del monasterio né recevere alcune cosse senza licentia, dormire in suso la paglia e vestite, non appropriarse alcuna cossa e obedire ala soa abbadessa.

These commandments are the following, that is, obedience, poverty, chastity, enclosure, reciting the divine office, fasting at all times, being able to confess twelve times a year, to receive communion seven times, to keep silence, not to speak at the parlor or the grille without permission and with the assigned companions, nor to send letters outside, nor to send anything out of the monastery nor to receive anything without permission, to sleep on straw and clothed, not to appropriate anything, and to obey her abbess.

(Leoni 2016, p. 524).

In the following chapters, the Ordinazioni further define the modes of participation in the divine office and liturgical celebrations (Leoni 2016, p. 525, ch. 3), access to the refectory and the discipline concerning fasting and abstinence (Leoni 2016, p. 526, ch. 4), as well as the frequency of confession and communion (Leoni 2016, p. 527, ch. 5). Particular importance is finally given to the chapter on faults, which is to be held every Friday (Leoni 2016, p. 5278, ch. 6). This practice constitutes one of the cornerstones of the communal order, as a privileged moment for consolidating cohesion and fostering reconciliation among the sisters, who are called to live in harmony and charity.

The very title of the chapter clarifies the object of the discussion: the “fault of public defects” (Leoni 2016, p. 528). It is not a matter of confessing individual sins, but rather of making manifest transgressions of orders or misconduct toward the sisters that may have generated disorder or discontent within the community in order to receive from the abbess the appropriate correction and the corresponding punishment. The declaration of public defects begins with the abbess herself and proceeds with each sister according to the established order:

E cussì tutte l’una doppo l’altra se rendano in colpa cum brevità de parole e recevano la penitentia. Similmente poi fazia la vicaria cum tute le sorelle dala soa parte. La quale cossa finita, inzenochiandose tute inseme, dicano: “Confiteor Deo” et cetera. … Allora la madre o vero vicaria li dia la benedictione. E nesuna sia che presuma andare la sira a dormire senza la benedictione dela madre o vicaria.

And thus all of them, one after the other, should acknowledge their fault with brevity of words and receive the penance. Likewise, the vicaria then did the same with all the sisters on her side. When this is finished, all kneeling together, they say: ‘Confiteor Deo’, etc.… Then the mother or the vicaria gives them the blessing. And no one should presume to go in the evening to sleep without the blessing of the mother or the vicaria.

(Leoni 2016, p. 528).

In addition to the Friday chapter, this practice was also repeated on Monday and Wednesday by the sisters who sat in choir on the abbess’s side, and on Tuesday and Thursday by those who sat on the vicaria’s side. Only on Saturday and Sunday were the sisters exempted. The aim was to safeguard more effectively the purity of conscience and the holiness of life. It is in fact through fraternal love, charity, and mutual harmony that the nuns are recognized as true disciples of Christ and daughters of God.

The subsequent sections of the Ordinazioni are devoted to the regulation of other fundamental moments of communal life: the observance of silence (Leoni 2016, p. 529, ch. 7) and the modes of work and the sisters’ activities (Leoni 2016, p. 530, ch. 8). As regards silence, it is prescribed in every part of the monastery from Compline until Sext—that is, until about nine in the morning—, and must also be observed in the church, in the dormitory, and in the refectory. Particularly severe are the penances for those who transgress this rule during meals: whoever breaks silence must declare her fault and eat her meal on the ground at the first sitting; if she persists, she is deprived of dish, wine, or other food at that same meal.

As for work, the Ordinazioni first establish that it must be of common utility and that the sisters must avoid “vain labors.” Those who do not possess working skills are required to learn them according to the instructions of the abbess. Particular importance is also attributed to the manner of execution: work must be carried out in silence, or accompanied by reading or singing, always in accordance with the directions of the abbess or the vicaria.

The following chapters regulate further aspects of convent life: the care of the sick (Leoni 2016, p. 531, ch. 9), the modes of rest (Leoni 2016, p. 531, ch. 10), the outings of the servigiali—that is, the lay sisters assigned to more demanding tasks or to alms-collecting (Leoni 2016, p. 532, ch. 11), the conduct of the professed sisters on the occasion of visits to the monastery (Leoni 2016, p. 533, ch. 12), as well as the manner and timing of prayers of suffrage for deceased benefactors and for the sisters (Leoni 2016, p. 534, ch. 13).

The concluding chapter (Leoni 2016, p. 535, ch. 14) is devoted to the authority of the abbess and the confessor. Since, as already noted, Caterina Vigri conceives religious life essentially as the observance of obedience and submission to superiors, the Ordinazioni define with precision the prerogatives and limits of governing authorities. The abbess may mitigate or intensify penances, but she does not have the power to imprison any sister, nor to depose the vicaria, nor to deprive a nun of the black veil. These decisions instead pertain to the confessor, who makes them after consulting the abbess and the discrete, that is, the monastery’s counselors. The deposition of the vicaria or the abbess, as well as the possible acceptance of their resignation, is however reserved to the vicar of the Province.

3. Copies of Spiritual Letters

The central role of obedience in Caterina Vigri’s concept of monastic life also emerges with particular clarity from another text, long known but only recently published, composed within the monastery (Pellegrini 2022). It consists of a set of nineteen letters, listed in the Archive of Blessed Catherine under the title Copies of Spiritual Letters, structured as a chancery formulary, prepared for the activity of the secretary, a professional figure that became established in courts between the 15th and 16th centuries. I did not dwell on the importance of letters as a privileged means of communication in the final centuries of the Middle Ages and the early modern period. I will simply point out that women also frequently resorted to this instrument, whether for private and business communications or for spiritual reasons (Vari 1999; Prosperi 1994). What can thus far be considered an exception is the use of a Letter Formulary in a nunnery.

The epistolary collection reflects the possible networks of relationships necessary or permitted for an Observant monastery of the 15th century. It is nevertheless observed that letters of courtesy or convention, addressed to superiors or benefactors, are not particularly numerous, whereas the spiritual character of the writings clearly predominates. Of particular relevance for the present analysis are the models of letters intended for specific categories of recipients: young women who intend to enter the monastery, novices who have already taken the habit, and religious who have made their profession. The formulary is completed by a model of a letter that a young professed nun might send to her parents to invite them to rejoice in the new condition of life she has undertaken.4

The formulary is preserved in a 15th-century codex kept in the Archiepiscopal Archive of Bologna, among the papers of the former monastery of Corpus Domini. Written by several hands, the manuscript contains two letters attributable to Vigri herself (Serventi 2000, pp. 169–72). Its composition began in Ferrara, continued in Bologna, and was completed a few years after Caterina’s death, between 1464 and 1467. The final redaction is attributed, with good arguments, to the saint’s vicaria and secretary, Giovanna Lambertini (Pellegrini 2022, pp. 63–64).

In Letter V, addressed to a young woman intending to enter the monastery, religious life is presented as a battle aimed at overcoming temptations coming both from the devil and from human beings. The devil, in particular, intensifies his assaults at the moment of decision, resorting to various stratagems to hinder the fulfillment of the resolution. The religious state is described as sublime and excellent, superior to every other condition. The young woman is therefore exhorted to accept the “chalice of salvation,” identified with holy obedience, without allowing herself to be turned aside:

Diciamo adoncha insieme col propheta: Calicem salutaris accipiam et cetera (Sal 15,4). Pigliate, pigliate carissima virilmente el calice de la salute, cioè la sancta obedentia, e da questa non vi ritraga adrieto veruna cosa, inperò che a questo ce invita el nostro Salvatore quando dice: Qui vult venire post me et cetera (Mt 16,24; Lc 9,23) e anche dice: qui non accipit crucem suam et sequitur me, non est me dignus

(Mt 10,38).

…Let us then say together with the prophet: “Calicem salutaris accipiam,” etc. (Ps. 15:4). Take, take, dearest, with courage the chalice of salvation, that is, holy obedience, and let nothing draw you back from it, for to this our Savior invites us when he says: “Qui vult venire post me,” etc. (Mt 16:24; Lk 9:23), and he also says: “he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Mt 10:38).

(Pellegrini 2022, p. 98).

Epistle VII is addressed to a young woman who has just laid aside secular clothing, thus taking the first step toward religious profession. Toward her, the joy of the community is expressed, since “the pilgrim soul has been made worthy of the imperial and divine espousal” (Pellegrini 2022, p. 106). The addressee is exhorted to give thanks for the benefits received, to face temptations, and to trust in God, who grants victory to those who respond to his call.

Letter VIII, by contrast, is addressed to a young woman who has just entered religious life, that is, to a recent professed nun. Her condition is described through images of arrival and elevation: she has reached the harbor of salvation and has contracted a noble and honorable bond. The enemy will continue to tempt her in many ways, since virginity makes one like the angels, poverty lifts the soul from earthly realities and raises it to heaven, and, through profession and the stripping of the will, the soul comes to be fully united with God.

Figliola, questo fa lo nimico, perché lui intende essere tanto el bene de la professione che li pare fare tropo grande perdita cum l’anima, inperciò che per la professione della virginitade l’anima è facta compagna delli angeli, e per la professione della povertade è sublevada l’anima da la tera e collocada nel cielo. Per la professione e spogliamento della propria voluntade l’anima si veste di Dio e diventa una cosa con lui.

Daughter, this is what the enemy does, because he understands how great is the good of profession, and it seems to him too great a loss of the soul; therefore, through the profession of virginity the soul is made a companion of the angels, and through the profession of poverty the soul is raised from the earth and placed in heaven. Through profession and the stripping of one’s own will, the soul is clothed with God and becomes one with Him.

(Pellegrini 2022, pp. 108–9).

In this passage as well, obedience assumes a preeminent role: if virginity makes the soul similar to the angels and poverty raises it to heaven, it is nevertheless only through obedience that the soul attains union with God.

In the three letters addressed to young women to encourage them to enter the monastery, religious profession is presented, according to a well-established topos, as a marriage that elevates the status of the girl—presumably of noble origin—to an even higher condition. The monastic state is identified with “holy obedience,” a virtue that represents at once the response to Christ’s call and the renunciation of one’s own will, with a view to full submission to God and to superiors. In this perspective, religious life is also configured as a state of perfection, a guarantee of salvation.

The identity of monastic life, in the texts considered, is not however defined through the triad of vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience—mentioned only in passing—but rather through the response to the sequela Christi and the consequent obedience to superiors, understood as the path that preserves from error and leads to the harbor of salvation.

In this vision, essentially grounded in biblical references, there is little room for an explicitly Franciscan characterization of monastic life. Nevertheless, as already noted, the sense of belonging of Caterina Vigri and her sisters to an Observant monastery of the Franciscan order clearly emerges in Letter X, addressed to the relatives and friends of the newly professed nun. In this missive—which constitutes the model by which the new religious invites her parents to give thanks to God for the benefits granted to their daughter—the nun describes the monastery as a “noble paradise,” in which “li divini precepti e la nobile regula della sacrata Vergine, vera discipula del seraphico Francesco e spoxa de Christo, e in nulla si preterisse (trasgredisce)” remove (the divine precepts and the noble Rule of the sacred virgin, true disciple of the seraphic Francis and bride of Christ, are observed, and in nothing is it transgressed) (Pellegrini 2022, p. 113).

Within the convent, the letter continues, concord, prudence, and chastity reign, and an “elevated contemplation” is practiced. The monastery is represented as a noble college, characterized by the presence of excellent teachers and learned disciples:

E quivi regna alte contemplatione, le quale rendono tanto gaudio alle bone mente de vera patientia nel suave claustro e nobile collegio, excelente maistre e docte discipule cum carità sancta. Ma sopratuto se ama Dio nostro Signore nel cui amore se ripossano secure infino che allui piacerà translatare a l’alta gloria sua. Sì adunqua vere locus iste sanctus est.

And there reigns a lofty contemplation, which brings such joy to the good minds of true patience in the gentle cloister and noble college, with excellent teachers and learned disciples in holy charity. But above all, our Lord God is loved, in whose love they rest secure until it pleases Him to transfer them to His high glory. Thus indeed, this place is holy (“vere locus iste sanctus est”).

(Pellegrini 2022, p. 113).

It is significant to observe how the monastic identity that emerges from the letters of the Formulario of Corpus Domini fully corresponds to that of an Observant monastery, while at the same time being clearly rooted in the concrete experience of the Bolognese community. The reference to the presence of excellent teachers and learned disciples, as well as to lofty contemplation, seems to point directly to the role played by Caterina Vigri as a teacher and to her teaching, which placed Sacred Scripture at its center and also made use of the epistolary form as a privileged mode of instruction.

With the texts mentioned so far, we are still moving within the first years following the abbess’s death, when the saint’s companions were still alive and governing the monastery. But did this “sacred college” maintain in the following decades the spiritual fervor and the cultural and literary creativity that had characterized Caterina’s teaching? Some texts composed within the convent—one anonymous, a second written by two nuns, and a third penned by a professed nun writing in the first person—attest to the cultural and spiritual vitality of the convent. We shall mention only a well-known collection of poems which was soon printed and became a bestseller of the 16th century. Published initially under the title Devotissime compositioni rhythmice e parlamenti d’amore, it was printed many times in various places throughout the Cinquecento (Graziosi 2004), also under the title Thesauro spirituale, and perhaps later flowed into catechetical collections because of the straightforward simplicity of its verses (Zardin 2001; Graziosi 2005; Copello 2022).

On a more strictly spiritual level, one must note a singular text, still unpublished, entitled Spiritual Journey in Walking through the Monastery of Corpus Domini, a 16th-century paper manuscript.5 The text was composed in 1542 by Sister Dorotea Paleotti and Sister Bianca Maria Scappi. It is a devotional exercise, which can also be found in Dutch and German monasteries (Rudy 2011; Beebe 2014), centered on meditation on the life and death of the Lord to be practiced in an itinerant manner. The different places of the monastery thus take on the topography of the Holy Land, recalling in the repetition of daily experience the various stages of Christ’s human life. To the images of the monastery as the heavenly Jerusalem, already present in the tradition, there is added in the Bolognese Corpus Domini the image of the earthly Jerusalem, as if to emphasize the presence among the sisters of Christ in the flesh, the same Christ also venerated in the Eucharist. Several decades after Caterina’s death, while her cult became increasingly rooted within the Order and in the urban context—it should be recalled that in 1524 a proper liturgy was granted and in 1594 her name was inscribed in the Roman Martyrology—the monastery of Corpus Domini remained faithful to that observance and that devotion which had been the principal legacy of the Poor Clare saint.

4. Book of Visions and Revelations by Sister Valeria Campanazzi

In the same years in which Sister Dorotea and Sister Bianca were composing their “journey,” another religious woman was preparing to undertake a more ambitious work in the field of spiritual writing. Sister Valeria Campanazzi embraced the religious life in 1518, presumably at the age of sixteen, as prescribed by the Ordinazioni, and died in 1577, after fifty-nine years of profession, at the age of seventy-five.6 Antonio Masini recalls her by stating that “she had many visions and wrote a book of her revelations and of divine love, which is preserved among her nuns, and she died not without a reputation for holiness” (Masini 1666, p. 200).

Transmitted to us through the autograph manuscript and two 17th-century copies,7 Campanazzi’s book was composed about a century after that of Caterina, which undoubtedly represented for the nun an exemplary model. The long interval between the two works makes it possible to grasp, on the one hand, the continuity of the founder’s spiritual teaching—and thus the existence of a true “school”—and, on the other, to identify possible elements of differentiation.

Just as the Libro devoto of Caterina Vigri contains significant autobiographical elements, so too in the Book of Revelations of Valeria Campanazzi numerous passages refer to her inner state and to monastic life. However, the aspect that most clearly allows for a comparison between the two texts is their pedagogical orientation: the desire to write for the benefit of the sisters and the awareness of doing so on one’s own initiative, with the explicit intention of being read.

If Caterina Vigri felt herself tempted and oppressed by the devil and laid the foundations of her spiritual itinerary on spiritual battles and their overcoming, Valeria, by contrast, began from a state of profound crisis: she would have wished to die and go to hell, convinced that she would suffer less than in this life. She dissolved in tears and feared being seen by the sisters; she then devoted herself to prayer, and the Lord heard her, and she resolved to strip herself of every attachment, renewing her life as if she had then entered religion. She began to divest herself of all her most cherished possessions, so that the nuns were astonished; then God, who rewards most abundantly, began to open the treasure of his most abundant graces and showed her “a light of truth,” sending her a vision.

She saw the Holy Spirit presenting to her many passages of the Gospel together with their explanation. Valeria tried to drive away that thought, not knowing where it came from; but the more she drove it away, the more it persisted. And the meaning of many passages of the Gospel was shown to her with such clarity that she was astonished and said to herself: “what is this unusual thing, my Lord?”8 Among the various Gospel passages, some remained impressed in her memory, such as the one that speaks of how difficult it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 19:23), and also the one that says: let your speech be yes or no (Mt. 5:37). On this passage, Campanazzi dwelt at length with many comments and reproaches, suggesting that, despite the silence required by the Ordinazioni, sins of the tongue must have been numerous within the community; yet James also warned against this sin: one who thinks himself religious but does not restrain his tongue, his religion is vain (Jas. 1:26–27):

Certo bisognarà rendere ragione de tutte le parolle, le discordie, murmuratio[ni], scandalli e dani del prosimo e li cativi pensienri e insunma tutti li malli fruti ch[e] serano germinate da questa malla radice.

Certainly one will have to give an account of all words, discord, murmurings, scandals, and harm done to one’s neighbor, and of evil thoughts, and in sum of all the bad fruits that will have sprung from this evil root.9

After these revelations concerning sins of the tongue, the Spirit enlightened her regarding divine justice, making her understand that this “Spirit” was nothing other than a true knowledge of God. Having reached this point, Valeria felt herself elevated to such a height that she desired to engage with all the “learned” in Sacred Scripture who had appeared to her in the vision. The reflections that follow—also interpretable as a possible sign of proto-feminist sensitivity—further reveal how the Poor Clares of Corpus Domini possessed some notion of mystical theology, in particular mediated by the Gersonian tradition, translated into the vernacular and disseminated in the early decades of the 16th century through the work of the regular canon Pietro da Lucca (Pietro da Lucca 1514). Mystical theology itself is perhaps at the basis of the accentuation of the visionary and prophetic experiences of numerous women in the fifteenth century, considered by some to have been sent by God to make up for the failure of the councils of Constance and Basel (Kneupper 2021).

In this context, it is in fact affirmed that mysticism constitutes a knowledge of the heart rather than of the intellect, accessible also to simple and uneducated women:

E m’era in que-|-sto fatto il lume ch[e] la siencia de qu[e]lli era tanto diferente ala siencia de Dio, quanto è dal stolto al savio. Me pareva che quelli fusseno simille alli fanciulli balbucienti ch[e] dicano quello ch[e] odeno e vedeno, e non sano quello ch[e] dicano. Nota ch[e] io non disprecio la Sacra Scritura, ma ben dico ch[e] altro è il lume de Dio, altro è il lume de la Scritura, senza alcuna comparatione. E se il sapiente de la Scritura cercase in verità il lume de Dio, o quanta sapientia relucerebe in quello con manco fatica e con magiore fruto in sé e in altri.

And in this I was given the light that their knowledge was as different from the knowledge of God as the foolish is from the wise. It seemed to me that they were like babbling children who say what they hear and see, and do not know what they are saying. Note that I do not despise Sacred Scripture, but I do say that one thing is the light of God and another the light of Scripture, without any comparison. And if the learned man of Scripture were truly to seek the light of God, oh how much wisdom would shine in him, with less effort and with greater fruit in himself and in others.10

After this first vision, Valeria Campanazzi begins a long enumeration of further extraordinary experiences. Among these, particular attention deserves a vision that clearly exemplifies its peculiarity: that of Christ who, unlike what occurs in the mystical tradition—where he appears in heaven or in the places of the Holy Land—here manifests himself in the city of Bologna, and more precisely in its main square, with precise topographical indications—a nearby street and the steps of the basilica of San Petronio—. Bologna as a transfigured space, almost an earthly paradise, or as a place charged with nostalgia for family and the home of origin? The frequency of the visions causes Valeria not a few anxieties, to the point of leading her to question their origin, wondering whether they were the fruit of imagination or came from God. To this end, she turned to the confessor and to a learned preacher, from whom she received reassurance.

Her soul felt drawn to sweet embraces with the Crucified, and, like Catherine of Siena and other mystics of the early 16th century, she describes the strongly symbolic gesture of “sucking” Christ’s wounds, with the ardent desire to penetrate them and to draw out the heart, in order to unite it with her own in a single reality (Serventi 2023). This experience is accompanied by an intense desire to obtain the grace of humility: Valeria prays to the Virgin Mary to grant her that same humility and imagines herself able to be nourished at her breast. Just as, by sucking the blood of Christ, one obtains the grace of love, so too, by sucking the milk of Mary, one obtains that of humility.

Graces and visions follow one another frequently, always within the context of prayer. Valeria also observes that many sisters justify their difficulty in dedicating themselves to prayer by the burden of offices and daily labors, claiming the impossibility of reconciling the two dimensions. Campanazzi contests this position and concludes with an explicit praise of obedience. She herself admits that she accepted the office of rotara precisely out of obedience:

E beata quella, la quale sarà tenuta esercitata dall’obbedienza e che metterà la sua vita volontariamente sotto la volontà del prelato e della prelata, poiché quel tempo sarà tutto meritorio per la vita eterna. Essendo dunque io fatta rotara, inclinai il capo all’obbedienza, non pensando ad alcun’altra cosa se non a voler obbedire e guardarmi da tutte quelle cose che potevano dispiacere a Dio.

And blessed is she who will be kept engaged through obedience and who will place her life voluntarily under the will of the prelate and the prioress, since that time will be entirely meritorious for eternal life. Having therefore been made rotara, I bowed my head to obedience, thinking of nothing else but wishing to obey and to guard myself from all those things that could displease God.11

It is not possible here to dwell on the numerous subsequent visions; it is sufficient to observe that they occur constantly during meditation and prayer, often while Valeria is in church reciting the divine office or in the refectory, where, during meals, passages from the Gospels or apostolic letters are read. Particularly significant is the frequent reference to the Pauline letters, which the nun knew so deeply that she identified herself with the Apostle: on one occasion, while reading Saint Paul, she states that she felt inwardly transformed, so much so “that I seemed to myself to have become another Paul.”12. Evidently, meditating on the apostle’s words produces in the mystic such an intense desire for conversion that it identifies with the experience of Paul being thrown from his horse.

In this case as well, one might hypothesize that the assiduous reading of the Pauline letters was, at least in part, encouraged by the historical context, marked by the beginning of Lutheran preaching and the consequent need to interpret the more controversial passages—especially those of the Letter to the Romans—in a traditional sense. What appears certain, however, is that Campanazzi bears witness to the continuity of Caterina’s teaching with regard to the centrality of Sacred Scripture, identified as the seventh “weapon” of her spiritual itinerary.

A final observation concerns the typology of the visions which, as has been said, manifest themselves during prayer—and therefore also in the course of the Mass—and lend themselves to explaining sacramental reality, in particular confession and communion. Precisely this character, together with the frequent affirmation that these illuminations are communicated for the benefit of the sisters, suggests that Campanazzi’s Book of Revelations was conceived as a formative instrument for younger religious, in a manner analogous to Vigri’s work, although lacking the same systematic structure and the same spiritual force.

In conclusion, one cannot fail to recall the passage with which Valeria closes her narrative, once again marked by polemic against the “learned” of Scripture and by the assertion of the knowledge granted by God to enlightened women:

Diranno i sapienti: queste donne hanno tante visioni, e non le vogliono credere; così se ne fanno beffe. Non si meraviglino di questo, poiché esse non hanno libri, né comodità di studio, né maestri. Perciò Dio si fa per loro libro e maestro. O felice scuola quella che ha Dio per maestro! Non vi è bisogno di volgere tante carte né di tanto tempo nello studio, ma, guardando al maestro, si apprende perfettamente ogni scienza—non quella sapienza terrena, ma quella che appare stoltezza agli uomini—. Non dice forse Paolo: «Siamo per Cristo fatti spettacolo agli uomini, in derisione, in obbrobrio, in fatiche, in molte tribolazioni»? Per il regno dei cieli, dunque, questa è la vera scienza, quella che insegna Cristo Gesù, per mezzo della quale si consegue il regno dei cieli. Per Cristo Gesù, Signore nostro. Amen.

The learned will say: these women have so many visions, and they do not wish to believe them; thus they mock them. Let them not be surprised at this, since they have no books, nor the means for study, nor teachers. Therefore, God makes Himself for them both book and teacher. O happy is that school which has God as its teacher! There is no need to turn so many pages nor to spend so much time in study, but, by looking to the teacher, one learns perfectly every science—not that earthly wisdom, but that which appears folly to men—. Does not Paul say: ‘We are made a spectacle for Christ before men, in derision, in disgrace, in labors, in many tribulations’? For the kingdom of heaven, then, this is the true knowledge, that which Christ Jesus teaches, by means of which the kingdom of heaven is attained. Through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.13

The “school of Caterina” does not come to an end with the companions who had accompanied her in the foundation of the Bolognese monastery but continues for more than a century, remaining faithful to the “weapon” of Sacred Scripture and seeking cohesion among the sisters through humility and obedience to superiors.