The Life of St. Frances of Rome, and Others

In Short

Georgiana Fullerton gathers detailed biographical portraits of early and early-modern holy women—principally St. Frances of Rome, alongside figures such as Lucia da Narni and Dominica da Paradiso—to depict the interior life of extraordinary sanctity. The narrative traces their childhoods, severe ascetical penances, public charities, demonic trials, and mystical ecstasies across centuries of Catholic history. It endured as a nineteenth-century devotional work by translating ancient records and eyewitness accounts into a accessible narrative. It defends modern and historic miracles against contemporary skepticism while offering a dramatic look at total self-surrender to God.

The Story

The book traces the spiritual arcs of several remarkable Christian women, focusing primarily on the fifteenth-century noblewoman Frances of Rome. Born to a devout Roman family, Frances visits the sacred city's stations and basilicas as a child, absorbing a deep reverence for the martyrs and relics of the past. Though longing for a life of quiet seclusion, obedience leads her into a aristocratic marriage with Lorenzo Ponziano. Alongside her sister-in-law Vannozza, she manages household affairs while secretly wearing coarse wool beneath her luxurious gowns, giving her wealth to the poor, and subjecting her body to rigorous fasts and disciplines.

As political turmoil, plague, and war devastate Rome, Frances suffers severe personal tragedies. Her home is damaged, her husband is gravely wounded, and her beloved young son Evangelista dies of the pestilence after foretelling his own death and vision of angels. Through these trials, Frances experiences terrifying visible assaults from demonic forces, counterbalanced by heavenly visions, mystical raptures, and the constant, visible presence of a protective angel. Following her husband's death and years of spiritual guidance under various confessors, she establishes the Oblates of Tor di Specchi, a religious congregation for women living in community without strict cloistered vows. Despite initial opposition from local clergy and noble families, the order receives papal approval from Eugenius IV. Frances finishes her life inside the convent, her body weakened by extraordinary penances, before dying in radiant sanctity.

The narrative extends this spiritual trajectory through additional biographies of mystical women. Lucia da Narni exhibits childhood piety, experiencing a mystical vision where she receives a ring from Christ and the habit from St. Dominic. Later in life, as a Dominican tertiary, she endures thirty-eight years of isolation, abandonment, and false accusations within her own community, keeping her faith until dying quietly at an advanced age, after which miraculous signs reveal her holiness to the public. Dominica da Paradiso, a humble peasant child, spends whole nights in prayer preparing for her first communion. In response to her deep sense of inadequacy, God grant her a transformed, miraculous physical nature through severe bodily illness, enabling her to speak with supernatural eloquence and guide others. Finally, the account touches upon later solitaries who abandon all worldly ties for lives of total obscurity, such as a hermit living in mountain rock cells whose ultimate fate and burial site remain completely unknown to the world.

How It Unfolds

A childhood in holy spaces Young Frances travels through the streets and ancient shrines of Rome with her mother, learning the devotion of the stations and repeating sermons at home with joyful fervor.

Secret penances under silks Bound by marriage to live as a noblewoman, Frances wears a coarse wool garment hidden beneath her splendid aristocratic dresses while privately practicing severe fasts and distributing her wealth to the destitute.

Grief in a broken city Invading armies, famine, and plague sweep through Rome, leaving the Ponziano palace in ruins and taking the life of Frances's young son Evangelista, who dies peacefully after foreseeing his heavenly reward.

Visions of the underworld During a prolonged illness, an angel conducts Frances through a terrifying, detailed trance-vision of hell, leaving a permanent mark on her soul that drives her to warn others against reckless complacency.

Establishing the congregation Overbalancing domestic trials and the contempt of her fashionable daughter-in-law, Frances gathers devout women to form the Oblates of Tor di Specchi, eventually securing official approval from Pope Eugenius IV despite local opposition.

The mystic espousals of Lucy As a child searching for painted angels in a ruined wing of her uncle's house, Lucy da Narni experiences a vision of Christ, receiving a ring, a scapular from St. Dominic, and a call to lifelong devotion.

Abandoned in the final hour After decades of severe mistreatment and suspicion from her own community, Lucy dies in solitude on a miserable bed, only for miraculous perfumes and healings to immediately manifest after her death.

A peasant girl's transformation Dominica da Paradiso spends nights awake in nervous preparation for her first communion, eventually receiving a renewed spiritual heart and supernatural senses following a prolonged, purging illness.

Vanishing into final obscurity A female solitary builds a chapel between two hollow rocks in the forest, spending her days in trances and manual labor before departing for a Rome pilgrimage, disappearing forever from human record.

The People

• Frances of Rome: A noblewoman turned mystic and foundress. She wants only to serve God through total self-abnegation and charity, yet is constrained by worldly position and family duty. She transforms from a reluctant young bride into a commanding spiritual mother who endures demonic harassment and family loss with unbroken patience.
• Vannozza: Frances's sister-in-law and closest early companion. She desires a life of quiet holiness alongside her relative. She stands as a steady, quiet ally in all secret mortifications and charitable works until her death.
• Evangelista: Frances's young son. He desires only "to be with God" and lives in constant awareness of the angelic realm. He accepts his early death from the plague with joyful resignation, comforting his weeping mother with predictions of his heavenly home.
• Don Giovanni Mattiotti: Frances's second confessor and eventual biographer. He wants to guide his spiritual charge faithfully, but his timid, suspicious, and irresolute nature makes him hesitate to support her bold undertakings. Over time, witness to her extraordinary sanctity overcomes his doubts.
• Mobilia: The fashionable, noble bride of Frances's surviving son, Baptista. She wants social prestige, pleasure, and freedom from her strict upbringing. Unaccustomed to her mother-in-law's ascetic habits, she openly mocks Frances in public before eventually being moved by her humility.
• Lucia da Narni: A mystical Dominican tertiary. She desires complete union with her Divine Spouse, but faces intense malice, slander, and physical abandonment from those around her. She ends her life stripped of human comfort, dying in perfect, silent forgiveness.
• Dominica da Paradiso: A timid peasant girl who feels completely inadequate for the spiritual leadership thrust upon her. Through severe sickness and mystical visions, her heart is transformed, making her an eloquent guide to others.

In Its Own Voice

"Fastings and abstinence are the first elements in this ascetic course."

A key opening passage frames the extreme bodily mortifications of the saints as an essential discipline required to master physical nature.

"The physical nature must be subdued by the vigorous repetition of those many painful processes by which the animal portion of our being is rendered the slave of the spiritual..."

The text explains how intense physical suffering frees the mind from earthly distractions to focus entirely on God.

"Mother mine, I have often told you that God would not leave me with you long; that He will have me dwell with His angels."

Young Evangelista comforts his mother from his deathbed, viewing his fatal illness not as a tragedy, but as a welcome summons to heaven.

What It's Really About

At its core, the book explores the total subjugation of the physical body to the spiritual will. It presents extreme penance—fasting, sleeplessness, and bodily suffering—not as senseless self-destruction, but as the necessary path to achieve mastery over original sin and gain intimacy with the unseen world. Beneath the biographical details lies an unyielding defense of Catholic mystical tradition against modern rationalism. The text argues that divine intervention, angelic guidance, and miraculous phenomena are active, historical realities rather than delusions or metaphorical tales. It examines how true holiness thrives under severe worldly opposition, demonstrating that genuine sanctity is forged through trial, quiet obedience, and complete detachment from earthly recognition.

Why Read It Today

This volume appeals to readers interested in historical hagiography, late-medieval Catholic mysticism, and the lived realities of early-modern religious women. Reading it feels like entering an intense, unyielding world of medieval devotion, where the boundaries between the physical earth and the supernatural realm remain constantly permeable.

The prose offers an unflinching, unvarnished look at historical asceticism, which contemporary readers may find challenging or startling. The detailed descriptions of extreme bodily mortification—such as severe starvation, self-inflicted pain, and prolonged isolation—can feel alien or disturbing to modern sensibilities. Furthermore, the narrative's uncritical acceptance of miraculous events and its sharp polemical tone against skeptical or Protestant viewpoints reflect nineteenth-century Catholic apologetics. Yet, if one approaches it with an appreciation for its historical context, what remains is a vivid portrait of singular endurance. The absolute conviction of these women, their profound willingness to suffer for their faith, and their quiet resilience in the face of plague, war, and social hostility leave a lasting impression of spiritual strength.