Seraphina Sforza, Bl.

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SERAPHINA SFORZA, BL.

Abbess; b. Sueva Montefeltro, Urbino, Italy, 1434;d. Pesaro, Sept. 8, 1478. After being orphaned quite young, she was reared in Rome by her uncle, Prince Colonna. She married Alexander Sforza, Duke of Pesaro, at 16. After a short time this marriage was made unhappy, first by her husband's long absence on military campaigns, and then by his involvement with a mistress. When he expelled Sueva from his house in 1457, she was sheltered by the poor clares. She later entered this convent at Pesaro and became abbess in 1475 after her husband's death. Her cult was approved in 1754.

Feast: Sept. 9.

Bibliography: b. feliciangeli, Sulla monacazione di Sueva Montefeltro-Sforza (Pistoia 1903). f. van ortroy, Analecta Bollandiana 24 (1905) 311313. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York, 1956) 3:517518.

[n. g. wolf]