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Blessed Maria Lorenza Longo was born in Lérida (Spain) in 1463. Married to Joan Lonc, a jurist in the chancellery of Ferdinand the Catholic, she moved with him to Naples in 1506. Paralyzed following poisoning, she was healed in Loreto in 1510. Widowed, she devoted herself to the sick and in 1519, together with Ettore Vernazza, she founded with her assets the hospital of Santa Maria del Popolo, known as the Hospital of the Incurables, for syphilis sufferers and women in difficulty. In 1535, on the advice of St. Cajetan of Thiene, she founded the monastery of Santa Maria in Gerusalemme, adopting the first rule of St. Clare of Assisi and the constitutions of St. Colette, receiving papal approval and the spiritual care of the Capuchins in 1538. She died at the age of 76, in October 1539. She was beatified in Naples by Pope Francis on Oct. 9, 2021. |
Prayer
Almighty and eternal God, who, in blessed Maria Lorenza gave the Church a shining example of contemplation and loving kindness, grant that we too may follow Christ, poor and crucified, to come with her into the glory of your kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Amen.