Seraphina Sforza (1434 – 8 September 1478), born Sveva da Montefeltro, was an Italian noblewoman and nun, a

Poor Clare The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare ( la, Ordo sanctae Clarae) – originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and later the Clarisses, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis ...

after her husband

Alessandro Sforza Alessandro Sforza (21 October 1409 – 3 April 1473) was an Italian condottiero and lord of Pesaro, the first of the Pesaro line of the Sforza family. Biography He was born in Cotignola in 1409, an illegitimate son of the famous condotti ...

discarded her. She was beatified by

Pope Benedict XIV Pope Benedict XIV ( la, Benedictus XIV; it, Benedetto XIV; 31 March 1675 – 3 May 1758), born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 17 August 1740 to his death in May 1758.Antipope ...

in 1754, and her feast is kept on 9 September by

Franciscans , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

Life

She was born in

Urbino Urbino ( ; ; Romagnol: ''Urbìn'') is a walled city in the Marche region of Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of ...

to Guido Antonio of Montefeltro,

Count of Urbino The Duchy of Urbino was an independent duchy in early modern central Italy, corresponding to the northern half of the modern region of Marche. It was directly annexed by the Papal States in 1625. It was bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the east ...

, and Caterina Colonna in the first half of 1434. Her father having died in 1438, and her mother in 1443, she was cared for in Urbino first by her elder brother

Oddantonio da Montefeltro Oddantonio da Montefeltro (1428 – 22 July 1444) was the first duke of Urbino in Italy. Oddantonio succeeded his father Guidantonio as count of Urbino. He was the half-brother of Federico da Montefeltro. The testamentary division of the county b ...

, who had succeeded their father as Count, and then by her half-brother

Federico da Montefeltro Federico da Montefeltro, also known as Federico III da Montefeltro KG (7 June 1422 – 10 September 1482), was one of the most successful mercenary captains (''condottieri'') of the Italian Renaissance, and lord of Urbino from 1444 (as Duke fr ...

, who succeeded Oddantonio after his assassination in 1444. In March 1446, aged around 12, she moved to Rome where she stayed for more than a year, under the protection of her maternal uncle Cardinal

Prospero Colonna (cardinal) Prospero Colonna (c. 1410–1463) was a cardinal-nephew of Pope Martin V (Odo Colonna), whose election ended the Western Schism. Colonna was excommunicated for a period due to his rebellion against Martin V's successor, Pope Eugene IV, becoming one ...

. In 1448 Seraphina married

, Lord of

Pesaro Pesaro () is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Marche, capital of the Province of Pesaro e Urbino, on the Adriatic Sea. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the Marche, ...

. Some time after, her husband left to support his brother

Francesco I Sforza Francesco I Sforza (; 23 July 1401 – 8 March 1466) was an Italian condottiero who founded the Sforza dynasty in the duchy of Milan, ruling as its (fourth) duke from 1450 until his death. In the 1420s, he participated in the War of L' ...

as Duke of Milan. During his six-year absence, Seraphina was entrusted with governing Pesaro.Habig, Marion. "Blessed Seraphina Sforza", ''The Franciscan Book of Saints'', Franciscan Herald press, Chicago, Illinois, 1959
/ref> Upon his return, her husband gave himself up to a dissolute life, and ill-treated her. He forced her to enter the convent of Poor Clares at Pesaro. In 1475 Seraphina was elected abbess of the monastery at Pesaro, where she died in 1478. Her body, exhumed some years after her death, was found incorrupt, and is preserved in

Pesaro Cathedral Pesaro Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Pesaro; Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Pesaro, Marche, Italy, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. It is the archiepiscopal seat of the Archdiocese of Pesaro. Gal ...

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sforza, Serafina 1434 births 1478 deaths Serafina People from Urbino Italian beatified people 15th-century venerated Christians 15th-century Italian Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns Montefeltro family Venerated Catholics Beatifications by Pope Benedict XIV