Benedetta Carlini

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Benedetta Carlini (* 1590 in Vellano (district of Pescia ), † 1661 in Pescia) was an Italian Roman Catholic nun , abbess and mystic who was convicted and imprisoned for a lesbian relationship. The American historian Judith Brown published a book about the case in 1986, the files of which she had rediscovered after 350 years.

biography

Benedetta Carlini, the only daughter of a wealthy villager, was prepared for a life in the monastery from birth. She learned to read and write and at the age of nine was brought from her native Apennine village to Pescia, to the Theatine monastery. At the age of almost 30 she was elected abbess.

Benedetta had a series of visions in which Jesus tore her heart out of her breast and replaced it with his own heart pierced by three arrows. She also had the marks of the crucified Jesus on her hands, feet and forehead. She celebrated her wedding splendidly with Jesus, who spoke to her fellow sisters through her mouth.

A church investigation led to the confirmation of Benedettas. Three years later, a new papal nuncio in Florence initiated another investigation into the case. Sister Bartolomea, who lived with Benedetta in the same cell , confessed that Benedetta had repeatedly sexually molested her while Benedetta was possessed by the demon Splenditello.

Benedetta Carlini was convicted and imprisoned. She died in Pescia in 1661 after 35 years in prison. It was not until the 1980s that Stanford University historian Judith Brown discovered the trial files in the Florence archives.

literature

  • Judith Brown: Immodest Acts: The Life of A Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy , New York, Oxford University Press, 1986, ISBN 0-19-503675-1
  • E. Ann Matter, "Discourses of Desire: Sexuality and Christian Women's Visionary Narratives," in Journal of Homosexuality , 18/89 (1989-1990), pages 119-132
  • Brian Levack: The Devil Within: Exorcism and Possession in the Christian West , New Haven, Yale University Press, 2013, ISBN 0300114729

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on Benedetta Carlini in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .
  2. ↑ a b c Frederika Randall: Divine Visions, Diabolical Obsessions . The New York Times , January 19, 1986 (English)
  3. ↑ a b Tender angel . Der Spiegel , November 14, 1988
personal data
SURNAME Carlini, Benedetta
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian Roman Catholic nun, abbess and mystic
DATE OF BIRTH 1590
PLACE OF BIRTH Apennines
DATE OF DEATH 1661
Place of death Pescia