Caterina Sordini

On April 20, 1802, at the age of 32, Sister Maria Maddalena dell'Incarnazione was elected abbess of the monastery of Ischia di Castro. She immediately set about reforming the regular life of the community, insisting on poverty and penance. It was during her abbacy that the miracle of the multiplication of flour occurred in June 1802: while the monastery was going through a period of extreme famine, she ordered the sisters to knead the little flour remaining with faith; the dough grew miraculously, allowing the entire community to be fed for more than two weeks. Her reputation for holiness grew, attracting illustrious visitors such as King Charles Emmanuel IV of Savoy in 1803.

With the support of her spiritual director, Father Giovanni Baldeschi, and the local bishop, she drafted the constitutions of a new institute entirely dedicated to perpetual Eucharistic adoration. On May 31, 1807, she left Ischia di Castro for Rome. On July 8 of the same year, she settled with a few companions in the former convent of Saints Joachim and Anne, near the Quirinal, thus officially founding the Order of the Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament.

The existence of the young foundation was quickly tested by history. In 1808, during the French occupation of Rome by Napoleonic troops, the convent was confiscated and the order was suppressed. Mother Maria Maddalena was exiled to Tuscany, in Porto Santo Stefano. Far from being discouraged, she gathered there a new group of young women eager to share her life of prayer.

After the fall of Napoleon and the return from exile of Pope Pius VII, she returned to Rome on March 19, 1814, with her companions and established herself at the church of Sant'Anna al Quirinale. On February 13, 1818, Pope Pius VII solemnly approved the institute and its constitutions. The official habit of the nuns was then defined: a white tunic (symbol of purity), a black veil, and a red scapular (symbol of the Passion and the love of Christ) on which a monstrance is embroidered.

Mother Maria Maddalena dell'Incarnazione spent the final years of her life in Rome, governing her community with wisdom and dedicating herself to intense contemplative prayer. She was graced with numerous mystical gifts, spiritual and physical healings attributed to her prayers, as well as prophecies (notably, she had announced in advance the deportation and subsequent triumphant return of Pope Pius VII). Sentient of her approaching end, she predicted her own death a few months before it occurred. She passed away in holiness in Rome on November 29, 1824, at the age of 54. Initially buried at Sant'Anna al Quirinale, her remains were transferred in 1839 to the church of Santa Maria Maddalena at Monte Cavallo, and now rest in the chapel dedicated to her at the monastery of the Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament in Rome, where her relics are venerated by the faithful. The informative process for her beatification opened in Rome in 1845. After a meticulous examination of her writings and her life, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues on April 24, 2001, thus conferring upon her the title of Venerable.

The path to her beatification reached a decisive stage on December 17, 2007, when Pope Benedict XVI officially approved a miracle attributed to her intercession. This miracle concerns the scientifically inexplicable healing of a sick person.

The beatification ceremony was celebrated on May 3, 2008, at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome. The solemn mass was presided over by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, representing Pope Benedict XVI.

Her liturgical memorial is set for November 29, the day of her birth into Heaven.

The spirituality of Blessed Maria Maddalena dell'Incarnazione is entirely Eucharistic and reparatory. She conceived perpetual adoration not as a simple isolated exercise of piety, but as an ecclesial mission of continual intercession for the salvation of the world and the support of the Church. For her, the Eucharist was the supreme remedy for the crises of society and the loss of spiritual bearings of her time. She loved to repeat this prayer which summarizes her entire spiritual impulse: "May Jesus be known, loved, adored, and thanked at every moment in the Most Holy and Divine Sacrament!". Today, the Order of the Adorers of the Most Holy Sacrament (often called Sacramentines in Italy) faithfully perpetuates her charism. The institute has more than 90 contemplative monasteries spread throughout the world, notably in Europe, America, Africa, and Asia, maintaining day and night an uninterrupted chain of prayer before the exposed Blessed Sacrament.