Lucy of Narni - A Spiritual Marriage

A Spiritual Marriage

In 1491 Lucy became Pietro's legal wife and the mistress of his household, which included a number of servants and a busy social calendar. Despite her busy social schedule as a Countess, Lucy made great efforts to instruct the servants in the Catholic faith and soon became well known locally for her charity to the poor.

Pietro observed Lucy's behavior, and occasional quirks, quite indulgently. He never objected when she gave away clothing and food. Nor when she performed austere penances, which included regularly wearing a hair shirt under her garments and spending most of the night in prayer and helping the poor. He also seemed to have taken in stride the story he was told by the servants that Lucy was often visited in the evenings by Saint Catherine, Saint Agnes, and Saint Agnes of Montepulciano, who helped her make bread for the poor.

However, when one of the servants came up to him one day and told him that Lucy was privately entertaining a handsome young man she appeared to be quite familiar with, he did react. He took up his sword and went to see who this person was. When he arrived, he found Lucy contemplating a large crucifix. The servant told him that the man he had seen Lucy with looked like the figure on the crucifix.

Later Lucy left one night for a local Franciscan friary, only to find it closed. She returned home the following morning, stating that she had been led back by two saints. That was enough for Pietro. He had her locked away for the bulk of one Lenten season. She was visited only by servants who brought her food. When Easter arrived, however, she managed to escape from Pietro back to her mother's house and, on 8 May 1494, became a Dominican tertiary. Pietro expressed his disapproval of this in a rather dramatic form--by burning down the monastery of the prior who had given her the habit of the Order.