Seraphina Sforza

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Seraphina Sforza (born Sveva da Montefeltro; c. 1434 - 8 September 1478) was an Italian noblewoman and nun, a Poor Clare after her husband Alessandro Sforza discarded her.

She was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in 1754, and her feast is kept on 9 September by Franciscans.

[edit] Life

she was born in Urbino to Guido Antonio of Montefeltro, Count of Urbino, and Caterina Colonna. She was brought up at Rome by her maternal uncle, Pope Martin V.

In 1448 Seraphina married Alessandro Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. Ten years afterwards 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.

This article incorporates text from the entry Blessed Seraphina Sforza in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.