- Seraphina Sforza
Seraphina Sforza (born Sveva da Montefeltro; c. 1434 -
8 September 1478 ) was an Italian noblewoman and nun, aPoor Clare after her husbandAlessandro Sforza discarded her.She was beatified by
Pope Benedict XIV in 1754, and her feast is kept on9 September byFranciscans .Life
She was born in
Urbino toGuido Antonio of Montefeltro ,Count of Urbino , and Caterina Colonna. She was brought up at Rome by her maternal uncle,Pope Martin V .In 1448 Seraphina married
Alessandro Sforza , Lord ofPesaro . Ten years afterwards her husband gave himself up to a dissolute life, and ill-treated her. He forced her to enter the convent of Poor Clares at Pesaro.In 1475 Seraphina was elected abbess of the monastery at Pesaro, where she died in 1478. Her body, exhumed some years after her death, was found incorrupt, and is preserved in
Pesaro Cathedral .
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.