Battistina Vernazza (
secular name
A legal name is the name that identifies a person for legal, administrative and other official purposes. A person's legal birth name generally is the name of the person that was given for the purpose of Civil registry, registration of the birth an ...
Tommasina Vernazza) (born at
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
, 1497; died there, 1587) was an Italian
canoness regular
Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...
and mystical writer.
Life
Her father, Ettore Vernazza, was a patrician, founder of several hospitals for the sick poor in Genoa, Rome, and Naples. Her godmother was
Catherine Fieschi-Adorno, known as Catherine of Genoa. At the early age of 13, Tommasina entered the
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
of
Santa Maria delle Grazie, and became a canoness regular, taking the name of Battistina. She filled at various times the office of treasurer, novice-mistress, and prioress.
Works
She wrote, among other things, a commentary on the Pater Noster; "The Union of the soul with God"; "Of the knowledge of God"; "Of prayer"; "Of the heavenly joys and of the means of attaining them"; "Of those who have risen with Christ"; meditations, spiritual canticles, and letters to eminent men of her time.
Possevin
Antonio Possevino (Antonius Possevinus) (10 July 1533 – 26 February 1611) was a Jesuit protagonist of Counter Reformation as a papal diplomat and a Jesuit controversialist, encyclopedist and bibliographer. He was the first Jesuit to visit Mu ...
speaks of her writings as inspired. Her works were published at Venice in 3 vols. in 1588. They have been published many times since.
References
* The entry cites:
**Vernazza, ''Opere Spirituali'' (Venice, 1588; Genoa, 1785);
**Rossini, ''Lyceum Lateranense Cesenae'' (1622);
**Serra, ''Storia letteraria'' (Genoa, 1832);
**Semeria, ''Storia ecclesiastica di Genova'' (Turin, 1838);
**Ronco, ''Sonetti inediti'' (Genoa, 1819);
**Boeri, ''Una Gloria di Genova'' (1906)
**Giuditta Podestà, ''Battistina Vernazza, Mistica aristocratica nella Genova rinascimentale'',
in "Le chiavi dello scrigno", Ceislo, Olginate (Lecco) 1990.
**Giuseppe Leone (a cura di), "L'ottimismo della conchiglia. Il pensiero e l'opera di Giuditta Podestà fra comparatismo e europeismo", Franco Angeli, Milano 2011.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vernazza, Battista
1497 births
1587 deaths
16th-century Genoese people
16th-century Italian Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns
Roman Catholic mystics
15th-century Christian mystics
16th-century Christian mystics
16th-century Italian women writers