Autobiography of an Aspiring Saint

Cecilia Ferrazzi (1609-1684) was without doubt a woman who did not fall into the obscure vaults of history. Her story is found like so many belonging to 17th century Italy, etched in the soil of the land with all of its superstition, religious devotion, and mania of the era. At first glance her vitae would sound familiar to students of the cases of other Medieval and Renaissance holy women, such as Margery Kempe "the Madwoman of God" and the Venetian Inquisition. It was spoken of in her own time that she was blessed with the stigmata and visions of the Holy Mother, and was asked by many for her prayers on behalf of their souls; that she was considered on the path of righteousness (for a woman of that time) who, refusing to marry, dedicated herself solely to God and His path for her. To others though, such as Chiara Bacchis, who denounced her to the Inquisition and brought about the hearings against in her 1664, it seemed the Devil was the only voice in her mind and that she willingly consorted with him as he led her through acts of deprivation. One such instance would be in the suspected poisoning of Ippolita Maffei, a woman who "flattered and petted her so much" that she "began to pray, saying the Rosary of the Most Holy Mother and begged her to free me from this flattery." Ferrazzi experienced a rapture that very night during her prayer, with the Virgin coming to her and promising that this woman would so be removed and within four hours the woman had "miraculously died from a convulsive fever." With the suspicion of murder upon her, her story has now deviated from the path of our traditional heroine of the holy word, though there were still aspects of her life that would reflect those other more famous kindred women of her time. She ran a home for "girls in danger" those who were in peril by moral deficit or circumstance of becoming prostitutes or falling into disgrace with a man. Chiara Bacchis, the very woman that denounced to the Inquisition, was indeed her rival in such establishment. It would be pure conjecture to say if this accusation from her rival was forged from the mirthful embers of the fires of ambition in women, who had no other resource than that of a good name to make a living from, or indeed if Ferrazzi had poisoned the young and vital woman who had distressed her so as to appeal to the Holy Mother for her aid. The volume is well presented by Anne Jacobson Schutte, a Professor of History at the University of Virginia. She transcribed it from the original Italian that the documents were archived in and in her introduction provided the person unacquainted with Venice of the 17th century a roadmap of cultural understanding for that era. In the introduction we are given background and relevant facts that are needed to lay the scene of Ferrazzi's life. From the emphasis on the need for chastity in unmarried women to the disdain of the so-called "women of tears" for God, that made their bread and fame in the exploitation