Born as Alessandra Lucrezia Romola de’ Ricci in Florence, Saint Catherine de Ricci was an Italian Dominican Tertiary sister. She is believed to have had miraculous visions and corporeal encounters with Jesus, both with the infant Jesus and with the adult Jesus. She is said to have spontaneously bled with the wounds of the crucified Christ. She is venerated for her mystic visions and is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church.
She was a very prayerful person from a very young age. There she developed a lifelong devotion to the Passion of Christ. Saint Catherine de Ricci’s period of novitiate was a time of trial. She would experience ecstasies during her routine, which caused her to seem asleep during community prayer services, dropping plates and food, so much so that the community began to question her competence, if not her sanity. Eventually the other Sisters became aware of the spiritual basis for her behavior. By the age of 30 she had risen to the post of prioress.
It is claimed that de’ Ricci’s meditation on the Passion of Christ was so deep that she spontaneously bled, as if scourged. She also bore the Stigmata. During times of deep prayer, like Catherine of Siena, her patron saint, a coral ring representing her marriage to Christ appeared on her finger.
Saint Catherine de Ricci lived in the convent until her death in 1590 after a prolonged illness.
