Lucia Brocadelli Da Narni

For a long time mystical experience has been a predominantly female mode of relation with the sacred. The devotional practices and the christomimetic postures characterizing the piety of mystics and charismatics women include many theatrical aspects. They are part of a vibrant dialogue with cults and rituals promoted in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance by secular and ecclesiastical institutions, such as brotherhoods and religious orders. This phenomenon includes particularly interesting characteristics at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, when the «living saints» are sought after and protected by the princes of the Italian courts, setting up a relationship of mutual legitimation. This essay investigates the interweaving of these issues by analyzing the paradigmatic case of the stigmatized Lucia Brocadelli da Narni, a famous holy woman who enjoyed the patronage of the Duke of Ferrara, Ercole I d’Este.

For a long time mystical experience has been a predominantly female mode of relation with the sacred. The devotional practices and the christomimetic postures characterizing the piety of mystics and charismatics women include many theatrical aspects. They are part of a vibrant dialogue with cults and rituals promoted in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance by secular and ecclesiastical institutions, such as brotherhoods and religious orders. This phenomenon includes particularly interesting characteristics at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, when the «living saints» are sought after and protected by the princes of the Italian courts, setting up a relationship of mutual legitimation. This essay investigates the interweaving of these issues by analyzing the paradigmatic case of the stigmatized Lucia Brocadelli da Narni, a famous holy woman who enjoyed the patronage of the Duke of Ferrara, Ercole I d’Este.