24/05/2023
25 May
ST. MARY MAGDALENE DE PAZZI
VIRGIN AND PATRONESS OF THE CARMELITE THIRD ORDER
Feast
One of the great spiritual figures of the Order and of Catholic reform. Born in Florence in 1566, with the name Catherine, she was given a deeply Christian education. She entered the Carmelite convent of Saint Mary of the Angels and lived a life immersed in prayer and mortification, favoured by God with graces and extraordinary visions. Her "manuscripts", i.e. the reports of the Saint's words during her ecstasies, taken down by her fellow sisters and revised and corrected by Magdalene herself, disseminated and translated into various languages, earned her a reputation as one of the great mystics of the Church. She participated intensely in the life of the Church and urgently felt the need for reform, causing her to write to cardinals, bishops and persons in positions of responsibility. She was regarded by her fellow sisters as a guide to perfection. She died on 25 May 1607.
Cult
Veneration of the Saint began in Florence immediately after her death. It then spread elsewhere, while the canonical processes for her beatification took place in 1611 in Florence and in 1612 in Lucca and Parma. Following the successful outcome of their examination in Rome, Sister Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi was beatified by Urban VIII on 8 June 1626, and canonised by Clement IX on 28 April 1669; the following year her liturgical celebration was included in the Roman calendar with the rank of semi-double and with proper readings. In 1727, at the request of the Carmelites of Saint Mary of Graces in Bologna, Queen Mary Clementina Sobieski wrote to Pope Benedict XIII requesting that the office of the Saint be elevated from semi-double to double in the Roman calendar; this was granted the following year, on 28 January 1728, for all of Italy and the adjacent islands. With the reform following Vatican II, the Saint's celebration remained in the Roman calendar as an optional memorial.
The Carmelites were authorised to celebrate this liturgical feast as early as 1627, after her beatification. The celebration was of double major rank of the second class, with proper texts.
Following the Saint's canonisation, on 17 July 1676 the Congregation of Rites granted all religious of the Order permission to recite the office of the Saint every month on unimpeded days, with the exception of Advent, Lent and Vigils.
As regards the OCD, it is not known exactly when her liturgical feast began to be celebrated; probably after her beatification or the revision of the Proper in 1629, as it is already found in this Proper with double minor rank and texts from the common of virgins. In 1670 the OCD was granted an indult for a proper office with the rank of second class with an octave (which was removed in 1907); in 1913 the rank returned to the rank of double minor.
Currently the celebration is ranked as a feast in the O.Carm. proper, while in the Proper of the Discalced Carmelites it is ranked as a memorial.
Let us pray
Father,
you love those who give themselves completely to your service, and you filled Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi with heavenly gifts and the fire of your love.
As we honor her today may we follow her example of purity and charity.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
