- Aldobrandesca
Infobox Saint
name=Saint Alda
birth_date=1249
death_date=1309
feast_day=April 26
venerated_in=Roman Catholicism
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birth_place=Siena, Italy
death_place=Italy
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beatified_by=Pope
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prayer_attrib=Saint Alda or Aldobrandesca (b.
Siena, Italy , c. 1249; d. c. 1309) is an Italian Christiansaint andnurse .She was widowed and childless after seven years of marriage. She retired to a cottage outside
Siena and devoted herself to almsgiving andasceticism . She experienced visions ofJesus performing the deeds recorded in thegospel s. Eventually, she gave away all of her possessions and used only a small gourd for a drinking cup.She gave up her
hermit age and went to live and work in ahospital in order to take care of the sick. Members of the staff regarded her as a fraud and wanted to prove her trances and ecstasies false. Therefore, while she was in a mystical ecstasy, they pricked her with sharp pins and put lit candles to her hands and feet. She did not respond in any way to these provocations, and eventually she won over the staff.While ministering to the sick, she performed several miraculous cures.
Her
feast day in theRoman Catholic Church isApril 26 .References
*Dictionary of Saints, by John Delaney
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.