Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi

Daughter of one of the great families of Florence, Caterina de' Pazzi entered the Carmel of Santa Maria degli Angeli at sixteen. Her raptures were so frequent that the community took to following her, pen in hand, transcribing what she said as she said it: an almost unique case of a mystic recorded live. She also passed through five years of total aridity and temptation which she called the lions' den, in allusion to Daniel, and whose account is set down in the manuscript of the Probatione. Worn out by illness, she died at forty-one and was canonised in 1669.