by Hubert Wolf
29. Pignatelli was born in 1737 and entered the Society of Jesus in 1753. After his novitiate in Tarragona, he studied philosophy and theology and was ordained in 1762. In 1803 the Russian superior (the Jesuits had not been suppressed in Russia) made him provincial of Italy. When Napoleon’s troops took Parma in 1804, the Jesuits had to leave town and move to Naples. Pius VII had granted special permission for the Society of Jesus to exist within the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Over the following two years, many Jesuits who had become secular priests in 1773 returned to the order. They founded a community in Saint Pantaleon near Rome, and soon there were other settlements in Tivoli and a novitiate in Orvieto. During his final two years, Pignatelli suffered from gastric bleeding. He died in 1811, was beatified in 1933 by Pope Pius XI, and finally canonized by Pius XII in 1954. See Giuseppe Boreo, Istoria della vita del Ven. Padre Giuseppe M. Pignatelli della Compagnia di Gesù (Rome, 1856, and Monza, 1859); José Antonio Ferrer Benimeli, José Pignatelli S.J. 1737–1811. La cara humana de un santo (Bilbao, 2011); Johannes Hellings, De heilige schakel: de zelige Joseph Pignatelli S. J. (’s-Hertogenbosch, 1935); Konstantin Kempf, Joseph Pignatelli. Der neue Selige der Gesellschaft Jesu (Einsiedeln, 1933); José M. March, El restaurador de la Compañía de Jesús Beato José Pignatelli y su tiempo, 5 vols. (Barcelona, 1935); Agostino Monçon, Vita del servo di Dio P. Giuseppe M. Pignatelli della Compagnia di Gesù (Rome, 1833); Robert Nash, Saint of the Displaced. St. Joseph Pignatelli (Dublin, 1955); Sommervogel, Bibliothèque, vol. 9, p. 770. See also Qualifica del volume manoscritto sulle memorie della vita di Suor Maria Agnese di Gesù del Rmo P. Maestro Girolamo Priori Priore Generale de’ Carmelitani Calzati, Consultore del S. Offizio; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 f. Following the Firrao case, the Inquisition researched Pignatelli and went over his canonization process with a fine-tooth comb. The files are under S. Cong. ne de’Riti per la causa del Pignatelli P. Giuseppe della Comp. di Gesù 1845–1846; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 u 1.
30. This was probably the Conservatorio Borromeo, which Marconi founded and led with the support of Cardinal Vitaliano Borromeo. Cf. “Conservatorii di Roma,” in Moroni, Dizionario 27 (1848), pp. 9–42, here p. 33: “Il sacerdote d. Giuseppe Marconi … vedendo alcune fanciulle di tenera età oppresse dalla miseria e dall’infermità … caritatevolmente le riunì in un locale terreno sul colle Esquilino presso via Graziosa … e fu detta la casa delle povere fi gliuole della scuola della divina carità.” Cardinal Borromeo “acquistò le case contigue al suddetto luogo, che ridusse in forma di conservatorio, gli assegnò rendite, e lo dichiarò erede dei suoi beni liberi, meno alcuni legati. Per questo motivo il conservatorio prese il nome di Borromeo, e le alunne furono chiamate Borromee.… Il medesimo ne affi dò la cura allo stesso Giuseppe Marconi.” The Via Graziosa lies on the hill from Esquilin down into Rione Monte. It stretches from the Piazza della Suburra (on the corner between Via Urbana and Via Leonina) to Via Panisperna. Today it is part of the Via Cavour.
31. Approbation of the Rule and the ceremonial in Pius VII’s papal brief: “Nuper dilectae in Christo Filiae” of January 26, 1806; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 r 1, no folio. Cf. also Erasmo Pistolesi, Vita del sommo pontifice Pio VII, vol. 2 (Rome, 1824), p. 24.
32. See Mark 6: 35–44; Mark 8: 1–10.
33. Angela Merici was born between 1470 and 1475, became the founder and author of the Rule of the community of Saint Ursula in 1535–1536, and died in 1540. See Karl Suso Frank, “Merici, Angela,” in LThK, 3rd ed., vol. 1 (1993), p. 647. Cf. also Käthe Siebel-Royer, Die heilige Angela Merici. Gründerin des ersten weiblichen Säkularinstitutes (Graz, 1966).
34. Mary Ward was born in 1585, and founded the “Congregatio Jesu,” a women’s order for the education of girls with a Jesuit Rule, in 1609. She died in 1645. See Imolata Wetter, “Ward, Mary,” in DIP 10 (2003), pp. 583–86; on the intervention of the Inquisition, see also p. 584; Wetter, Ward; Gabriela Zarri, “Ward, Mary,” in DSI 3 (2011), p. 1707.
35. Merenda was born in 1752. A Dominican, he had been commissary of the Sanctum Officium since 1801, but was unable to perform this office between July 1814 and August 1815. He died in 1820. See Wolf (ed.), Prosopographie, pp. 991–93.
36. Vita della Serva di Dio. La M. Maria Agnese di Gesù; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 q 1.
37. Napoleon also had the entire archive of the Inquisition transported to Paris. It only returned to Rome—relatively incomplete—after 1815. Cf. Andrea Del Col, “Archivi e serie documentarie: Vaticano,” in DSI 1 (2011), pp. 89–91, here p. 90; Wolf, Einleitung, p. 38. The corresponding series in the Vatican’s secret archive are entitled “Epoca Napoleonica.” Cf. Karl August Fink, Das Vatikanische Archiv. Einführung in die Bestände und ihre Erforschung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der deutschen Geschichte (Bibliothek des Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Rom 20) (Rome, 2nd ed., 1951), pp. 87–88.
38. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Cenni storici sull’antica causa, e relative condanna della Fondatrice Sr. Maria Agnese Firrao, e di altre religiose; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.
39. A search of the ACDF, in particular the “SO Decreta” collection, yielded no results.
40. Little is known about Pietro Marchetti. The “Appendice al Ristretto informativo, Sommario no. II” speaks of the verdict the cardinals gave on him on May 15, 1816: “Insuper addiderunt, quod scribatur Episcopo Tudertino, ut sub alio praetextu removeat in sua Dioecesi sacerdotem Petrum Marchetti ab audiendis confessionibus sacramentalibus, et a quacumque directione animarum”; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 f. According to this text, he belonged to the diocese of Todi in Umbria. The “Relazione sommaria degli atti principali assunti nella causa contro le monache riformate in S. Ambrogio” refers to him as “Pietro Marchetti di Rieti Cameriere Dogmatico di Nostro Signore,” and in another place “D. Pietro Marchetti di Rieti Cameriere Segreto di Nostro Signore”; ibid., B 6 e 1. From the Notizie per l’anno, 1819, p. 141, 1820, p. 132, and 1821, p. 146, it emerges that he was one of the pope’s Camerieri Segreti Soprannumerari, which is surprising given that this was only three years after he was condemned by the Holy Office.
41. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Cenni storici sull’antica causa; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Marconi’s Saint’s Life is essentially a “Proposition,” which the Congregation for Canonization put together, often over decades and usually long after the death of a “servant of God,” to justify the proposed saint’s fama sanctitatis with evidence of their virtues and miracles, documenting these in as much detail as possible. Cf. Gotor, Chiesa; Samerski, Himmel, pp. 81–83.
42. Cf. Adelisa Malena, “Quietismo,” in DSI 3 (2011), pp. 1288–94; Anthony Meredith, “Quietismus,” in TRE 28 (1997), pp. 41–45; Modica, Dottrina; Petrocchi, Quietismo; Schwedt, Quietisten, pp. 579–605. On the combination of Quietism and Satanism, cf. Orlandi, Fede.
43. Louis Cognet, “Quietismus,” in LThK, 2nd ed., vol. 8 (1963), pp. 939–41, here p. 939.
44. Cf. “Conservatorii di Roma,” in Moroni, Dizionario 17 (1842), pp. 9–42, here p. 40.
45. The Venerabile Arcispedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia was the largest hospital in Rome, with 645 beds and around thirty medical staff. The hospital for internal medicine was situated under the Bridge of Angels on the Vatican side, and was housed in several large buildings. Cf. L. Tutschek, “Aerztliche Mittheilungen aus Rom,” in Aerztliches Intelligenz-Blatt, no. 12, March 19, 1865, p. 163.
46. Cf. Wolf, Einleitung, pp. 21 and 46–64.
47. Notificazione di affetata santità, February 14, 1816; ACDF SO St. St. B7 a (printed copy). There is a copy of the bando in the Biblioteca Casanatense, Per. Est. 18/115, no. 82. Subsequent quotations also taken from this text.
48. Santa Maria del Rifugio, called Sant’Onofrio, is in Trastevere, on the street of the same name, Salita di S. Onofrio. Cf. Armellini, Chiese, p. 493. The institution “goes back to 1703, and owes its origins to the devout priest Alexander Bussi.… Set up on broader foundations than other refuges, the conservatorium took in girls of 13–20, if they were or
phans with no other means of support. The general custom of taking girls at a younger age is of course very praiseworthy; it is also very helpful that there is a place such as that we are presently visiting, to keep the older members out of danger. They number about 50, and are raised to be pious, hard-working and accustomed to the work done here. They buy their uniforms themselves from the wages they receive for their labor, which consists of making household linen, embroidery and ornaments for priests.” Cf. Jean Joseph Gaume, Rom in seinen drei Gestalten, order das alte, das neue und das unterirdische Rom, vol. 2 (Regensburg, 1848), pp. 284–85.
49. Cf. Andreas Heinz, “Der Rosenkranz. Das immerwährende Jesus-Gebet des Westens,” in Liturgisches Jahrbuch 55 (2005), 4, pp. 235–47.
50. Assembly of the consultors of the Holy Office, January 22, 1816; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 a.
51. On Molinos and Molinosism, see Gotor, Chiesa, pp. 115–20; Heppe, Geschichte, pp. 110–35 and 272–82; Adelisa Malena, “Molinos, Miguel de,” in DSI 2 (2011), p. 1059; Modica, Dottrina, pp. 17–42 and 117–36 (“Santità finta e atti sessuali illeciti”); Romeo, Inquisizione, pp. 87–94 (also on the role of confessors in cases of female false saints); Schwedt, Quietisten, pp. 579–605.
52. Cf. Jacobson Schutte, Saints, pp. 201–21.
53. Cf. Hans-Wolf Jäger, “Mönchskritik und Klostersatire in der deutschen Spätaufklärung,” in Harm Klueting et al. (eds.), Katholische Auf klärung—Auf klärung im katholischen Deutschland (Studien zum achtzehnten Jahrhundert 15) (Hamburg, 1993), pp. 192–207; Franz Quarthal, “Aufklärung und Säkularisation,” in Nicole Priesching and Wolfgang Zimmermann (eds.), Württembergisches Klosterbuch. Klöster, Stifte und Ordensgemeinschaften von den Anfängen bis in die Gegenwart (Ostfildern, 2003), pp. 125–38.
54. Sommario del Ristretto contro il P. Leziroli, no. I: Cenni storici delle vicende di Sr. Maria Agnese Firrao, e del Monastero di S. Ambrogio estratti dagli Annali manoscritti, che comprendono la Storia dell’Istituto dall’anno 1804 fino a tutto il 1857 divisi in 26 fascicoli e pagine 628 in foglio; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 e. The women named as Firrao’s accomplices, Sisters Maria Maddalena Ragazzoni, Teresa Maddalena della Vergine del Dolori, Maria Crocifissa Pantanelli, and Agnese Celeste Rabuer, were sent to various other convents. See Copia dell’antico piccolo ristretto per il Rmo P. Priori; ebd., B 6 e 1; Vita della Serva di Dio. La M. Maria Agnese di Gesù; ibid., B 6 q 1.
55. The convent in Rione Castro Pretorio, built in the seventeenth century, and the church of Santa Maria della Concezione ai Monti next to it, no longer exist. They were pulled down in order to lengthen the Via Cavour. See Armellini, Chiese, p. 404; Ottorino Montenovesi, “Il monastero della Concezione ai Monti,” in Archivi d’Italia e rassegna internazionale degli archivi: periodico della Bibliothèque des annales institutorum 26 (1959), pp. 313–41.
56. Relazione informativa con Sommario, Cenni storici sull’antica causa; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 c. Interestingly, Agnese Firrao seems to have defended herself vehemently against the charge of Molinosism. Cf. Copia dell’antico piccolo ristretto per il P. Priori; ibid., B 6 e 1.
57. Sommario del Ristretto contro il P. Leziroli, no. I: Cenni storici; ACDF SO St. St. B7 e. Agnese Firrao had a strong following in England. The Franciscan Peter Bernadine Collingridge conducted a lively correspondence with her, and visited her in Rome several times, together with Bishop John Milner. A copy of Marconi’s saint’s life even found its way into the Clifton diocesan archive. The only surviving portrait of Firrao may also have been commissioned by one of her English devotees. Collingridge reports a man called Charles Butler entreating him to get a “miniature of Sister Agnes.” Cf. John Berchmans Dockery, Collingridge. A Franciscan Contribution to Catholic Emancipation (Newport, 1954), pp. 285–87; Bernard Ward, The Eve of Catholic Emancipation. Being the History of the English Catholics During the First Thirty Years of the Nineteenth Century, vol. 2: 1812–1820 (London, 1911), pp. 113–16.
58. For example, The Orthodox Journal and Catholic Monthly Intelligencer, no. 40, September 1816, p. 370; Gazzetta di Milano, no. 56, February 25, 1816, p. 216; Österreichischer Beobachter, no. 62, March 2, 1816, p. 339; Baireuther Zeitung, no. 58, March 7, 1816, p. 214; Lemberger Zeitung, no. 31, March 11, 1816, p. 141; Real-Zeitung, no. 21, March 12, 1816, p. 88; Journal de la Province de Limbourg, no. 75, March 28, 1816, p. 1.
59. She died in 1824. See Clemens Emling and Anna Katharina Emmerick, Mystikerin der Nächstenliebe (Kevelaer, 2011); Anna von Krane, Anna Katharina Emmerick. Leben und Wirken der Seherin von Dülmen (Leipzig, 2008); Weiß, Seherinnen, pp. 48–56.
60. Cf. Winfried Hümpfener (ed.), Tagebuch des Dr. med. Franz Wilhelm Wesener über die Augustinerin Anna Katharina Emmerick unter Beifügung anderer auf sie bezüglicher Briefe und Akten (Würzburg, 1926), p. 198.
61. Cf. Peter Groth, “Die stigmatisierte Nonne Anna Katharina Emmerick—Eine Krankengeschichte im Zeitalter der Romantik—zwischen preußischer Staatsraison und ‘katholischer Erneuerung,’ ” p. 110, online: http://www.in-output.de/AKE/akekrank2.html (5/17/2012).
62. Journal de la Province de Limbourg, no. 75, March 28, 1816, p. 1.
63. This was probably the wife of the Marchese Luigi Costaguti, who was a member of the pope’s noble guard. Cf. Notizie per l’anno 1828, p. 216; “Vessillifero di Santa Romana Chiesa,” in Moroni, Dizionario 94 (1859), pp. 98–130, here p. 109.
64. This was probably Baroness Piccolomini’s first lady-in-waiting. Cf. Diario di Roma, no. 71, 1828, p. 4. A Faustina Ricci appears among Rome’s “Signore della carità” (ladies of charity), responsible for the fourth prefecture of Santa Maria in Trastevere. Cf. Piano dell’istituto generale della carità e sua appendice (Rome, 1816), p. 48. For a Faustina Paracciani from Montepulciano, who married a Ricci and went to Rome, see Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Fondo Raccolta Ceramelli Papiani, Fasz. 6748 (Famiglia Ricci), online: http://www.archiviodistato.firenze.it/ceramellipapiani2/index.php?page=Famiglia&id=6339 (7/10/2012).
65. Mattei was born in 1744. He became archbishop of Ferrara in 1777, and cardinal in petto in 1779 (an appointment made public in 1782). He became prefect of the Congregation of Ceremonies in 1815, prefect of the Congregation for the Fabric of Saint Peter, and died in 1820. See Wolf (ed.), Prosopographie, pp. 963–67.
66. Vita della Serva di Dio. La M. Maria Agnese di Gesù; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 q 1.
67. Charles Emanuel was born in 1751 and married Marie Clotilde of France in 1775. He became king of Sardinia and duke of Savoy in 1796, before abdicating in 1802. He left the throne of Sardinia to his brother Victor Emanuel I, but kept the Duchy of Savoy. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1815 and died in 1819. See Giuseppe Locorotondo, “Carlo Emanuele IV di Savoia, re di Sardegna,” in DBI 20 (1977), online: http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/carloemanuele-iv-di-savoia-re-di-sardegna_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ (7/5/2012).
68. Marie Clotilde of France was born in 1759 and died in 1802. See Luigi Bottiglia, Erbauliche Lebensgeschichte der Dienerin Gottes Marie Clotilde von Frankreich, Königin von Sardinien. Translated from the French, 3 vols. (Augsburg, 1819); Pietro Cavedoni, “Biografia della Venerabile Maria Clotilde di Borbone, Regina di Sardegna,” in Continuazione delle Memorie di religione, di morale e di letteratura, vol. 2 (Modena, 1833), pp. 93–159; “Maria Clotilde di Francia,” in Moroni, Dizionario 42 (1847), pp. 316–18.
69. Sommario del Ristretto contro il P. Leziroli, no. I: Cenni storici; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 e.
70. Almost all the Jesuits who had been connected with Firrao were dead by 1816. Francesco Antonio Spaziani, the ceremonial master supra numerum of the papal chapel (Notizie per l’anno 1784, p. 34, to 1792, p. 162) and lecturer in moral theology in the Propaganda Fide College (ibid., 1786, p. 37, to 1801, p. 146), died in 1810. Marconi and Pignatelli died in 1811, and José Doz in 1813. When Pignatelli saw his end was near, he passed the role of Firrao’s spiritual guide onto the Jesuit father Agustín Monzon. Cf. Sommario del Ristretto contro il P. Leziroli, no. I: Cenni storici; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 e.
71. Lorenzo Lit
ta was born in 1756 and became titular bishop of Thebes in 1793. The same year, he also became nuncio to Poland, and in 1797 apostolic delegate and ambassador to Saint Petersburg. He was made a cardinal in 1801, and was prefect of the Congregation of the Index from 1803 to 1816. He was cardinal vicar in Rome from 1818 until his death in 1820. See Wolf (ed.), Prosopographie, pp. 873–77.
72. Vita della Serva di Dio. La M. Maria Agnese di Gesù; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 q 1.
73. Sommario del Ristretto contro il P. Leziroli, no. I: Cenni storici; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 e.
74. Della Genga became titular Bishop of Tyrus in 1794, and nuncio to Cologne the same year. In 1814 he became extraordinary nuncio in Paris. He was made a cardinal in 1816, and became cardinal vicar in Rome in 1820. He was elected pope in 1823, and died in 1829. See Notizie per l’anno 1820, p. 25; Wolf (ed.), Prosopographie, pp. 464–66.
75. Della Genga was Protector of the Collegio Umbro-Fuccioli in 1822. The convent of Regulated Third Order nuns under Firrao’s reform had been housed in the Collegio Fuccioli in Borgo Sant’Agata before Firrao was convicted in 1816. Cf. Notizie per l’anno 1822, p. 27. Pius VII’s brief of January 24, 1806, set out his responsibilites; Regola della Riforma delle Monache del Terz’Ordine di S. Francesco, Cap.XII. Del Protettore e Visitatore; ACDF SO St. St. B 6 r 1.
76. Ristretto con Sommario dei Costituti sostenuti dall’inquisita Abbadessa Sr. Maria Veronica Milza; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 d.
77. Appendice al Ristretto informativo: Sr. Maria Luisa riferisce della Relazione e premura, che aveva Leone XII per il monastero di S. Ambrogio; ACDF SO St. St. B 7 f.