Foundation of the Capuchin Poor Clares

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Marie Longa obtains a Brief from the Pope, obliging the Capuchins to continue directing the Religious of Saint Mary of Jerusalem.

This illustrious lady was Spanish, and the wife of Jean, Regent of the Chancellery and one of the principal men in the entire Kingdom of Naples. She had become so weak in body and so afflicted in her nerves, as a result of a poison administered to her by a servant, that she could not move from one place to another without some assistance. She placed all her hope of a complete recovery in the help of the Blessed Virgin, and for this purpose had herself carried to her church at Loreto, with extraordinary devotion.

When she arrived there, at an hour when no more Masses were being said, although she urgently requested one, an unknown priest whom no one had ever seen before went up to the altar with the intention of celebrating Mass. He celebrated, with extraordinary ceremonies, the Mass that the Church prescribes for the sick; he read there the Gospel of the paralytic, and after Mass, turning toward those present, he said aloud: “Thank God for the health that he grants to Marie.”

This lady then began to tremble, and her trembling spread throughout all her limbs; it ceased, and with her whole body restored to freedom, she knelt before the altar and gave thanks there to God and to his holy Mother for such miraculous health. She then had the priest who had celebrated the Mass sought out, in order to express her gratitude to him, but he could not be found. Hence everyone believed that Jesus Christ himself had said this Mass, as the sovereign priest, in order to restore health to this illustrious sick woman.

Marie was not ungrateful to God for so great a favor; and after the death of her husband, who died shortly after such a great miracle, she devoted herself so completely to works of piety and to the advancement of spiritual things that she gave all her possessions, which were very substantial, to the needs of the poor and to the service of Jesus Christ.

Thus, in Naples, using her own income and that which she solicited from other people animated by the same devotion, she founded a Hospital for the Incurable; she established there a monastery of women of the Third Order of Saint Francis, under the Rule of Saint Clare, however, by the authority of the Pope. The Theatines, whom she had welcomed into her home and to whom she had given a house adjoining the Hospital for the Incurable, had initially taken charge of it, but had withdrawn the previous year, having changed their residence.

She then obtained, through persistent prayers, that the Capuchins, while awaiting the appointment of other directors for this monastery, would kindly take charge of it, at least for some time. This lady had bestowed so many favors upon the Order that they could not refuse her such a just expression of gratitude for so many acts of kindness.

The Capuchins therefore took charge of these religious women, and this lady, who was renouncing the world and professing the same Rule as they did, was obliged to become superior of these women, under the title of abbess, by an express command of Pope Paul III.

Inspired by the words and examples of the Capuchins who directed her monastery, she shortly afterward bound herself by a vow, together with the other religious women of her house and by common consent, to follow the first and stricter Rule of Saint Clare; and all these women took the name of Capuchin Religious.

Marie enjoyed for some time the exemplary direction of the Capuchins; but as they were considering withdrawing, fearing that the regular observance they had so well established in her monastery might be diminished by their departure, she acted through persons commissioned to approach the Pope, with such success that she obtained from him, by an Apostolic Brief, that he require the Capuchins to continue their direction — which she easily obtained from His Holiness, as can be seen in the Bull of Paul III, which may be read at the end of this work, together with all the other bulls concerning the Capuchins.

By virtue of this Bull, they remained bound to the governance of this monastery, which they still direct today with marvelous piety. Meanwhile, Marie Longa was tested by God through several serious illnesses, which brought her to the end of her life and made her highly esteemed in the eyes of God through the exercise of the most eminent acts of holiness. We shall speak of her at greater length in the year of her death, which was 1542.