Born in Florence in 1566, Maria Maddalena de'Pazzi joined the Carmelite convent Santa Maria degli Angeli in August of 1582, when she was sixteen. She took the veil the following year and soon after that began having visions. During these raptures, she conversed with Christ, whom she generally refers to as the Word. Maria Maddalena believed that the Word wanted her to summon His being through her voice. Her visions, therefore have a distinctly oral character, and the convent sisters who transcribed them, carefully attempted to reproduce the mystic's oral style. The manuscripts containing the mystic's visions were edited in seven volumes form 1960 to 1966. Available here for the first time in English are a selection of de' Pazzi's most powerful and disturbing visions.
