Saint of the day May 25, 2025

On May 25, the Catholic Church celebrates Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, an Italian noblewoman of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries who became a Carmelite nun distinguished for her intense prayer life and devotion to frequent Holy Communion.

Born on April 2, 1566, the future “Mary Magdalene” was given the name of Caterina at the time of her birth. She was the only daughter of her parents, who both came from prominent families. Caterina was drawn to the Holy Eucharist from a young age, and she resolved to serve God as a consecrated virgin shortly after receiving her First Communion at age 10.

Late in the year 1582 she entered a strictly traditional Carmelite monastery, where Holy Communion was – unusually for the time period – administered daily. Receiving her religious habit the next year, she took the name of Mary Magdalene.

From March to May of 1584, Mary became seriously ill and was thought to be in danger of death. On May 27 of that year she made her religious vows while lying sick upon a pallet. Her recovery marked the start of an extended mystical experience, which lasted 40 days and involved extraordinary experiences taken down by her religious sisters in a set of manuscripts.

Mary served the monastery in a series of teaching and supervisory positions, while also contributing to her community through manual work. Her fellow Carmelites respected her strict sense of discipline, which was accompanied by profound charity and practical wisdom. Her experiences of suffering and temptation helped her to guide and inspire others.

Extraordinary spiritual occurrences were a frequent feature of this Carmelite nun’s life, to a much greater degree than is typical in the tradition of Catholic mysticism. Many of her experiences of God were documented by others in her community, although Mary herself disliked the attention and would seemingly have preferred for these events to remain private.

She did wish, however, to call attention to God’s love, which she saw as tragically underappreciated and unreciprocated by mankind. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi is remembered for making dramatic gestures – running through the halls of her monastery, or ringing its bells at night – while proclaiming the urgent need for all people to awaken to God’s love, and respond in kind.

Her earthly life came to an end on May 25, 1607, after an excruciating illness lasting nearly three years. Pope Clement IX canonized St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi in 1669.

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI marked the 400th anniversary of St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi’s death in a letter to the Archbishop of Florence, her birthplace. He described her as “a symbolic figure of a living love that recalls the essential mystical dimension of every Christian life.”

“May the great mystic,” the Pope wrote, “still make her voice heard in all the Church, spreading to every human creature the proclamation to love God.”

Reflection

Throughout her religious life, despite her constant ecstasies and raptures, Saint Mary Magdalene was able to fulfill all her duties with great care and productivity. She trained novices, did menial chores, and served as every other sister. The last three years of her life were filled with much physical suffering. She endured severe headaches, fevers, bodily pains, vomiting of blood, and infected gums that led to the loss of all of her teeth. Her greatest sufferings, however, were interior ones. She lived what Saint John of the Cross calls the dark night of the spirit. Many times God seemed absent and she saw only her wretchedness. But out of that interior annihilation, she willed to love, and she was unwaveringly faithful to God and to prayer for the conversion of sinners.

As we honor this great mystic, ponder her attraction to the joyful embrace of every suffering. Suffering itself is not from God. God permits us to suffer so that we can love Him in that suffering and so that our love can become pure. Ponder how well you endure your own sufferings in life. Imitate this great saint and try to embrace every suffering for the love of God, in imitation of Jesus, and like Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, you, too, will bring consolation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.