XX. "The sweet smell of thy ointments above all aromatical spices."

Canticle of Canticles, v, 10

The angel of death had spread his wings over the body of Sister Theresa Margaret who, as one in deep and tranquil sleep, lay lifeless, her face turned towards the crucifix that had been her comfort in her last agony. Her blessed soul had been taken to the realm of that love that had been the mainspring of her life.

For a while rather a gloomy silence pervaded the Monastery. The religious gazed at each other in mute grief, as if struck dumb by the lightning-like rapidity of the blow that had taken the Saint from them. Only a few hours ago they had seen that angelic nun going her humble way in their cloisters, attending her beloved sick, speaking, when necessary, in her low, clear voice. The younger Sisters, in tears, asked each other wonderingly if it could be true that they would never have Sister Theresa Margaret with them again, and the sick, in mild consternation, had the fear that no other infirmarian could quite fill her place.

According to Carmelite regulations, there must be incessant prayer for the departed between the death and the funeral rites. The nuns, therefore, took turns devoutly in fulfilling their pious duty. Good Mother Anna Maria, grieved to the very soul, had her watch-hour beside the corpse of her beloved disciple and, as in life she had often protected that dear one's body from the harsh mortification to which the Saint would willingly have subjected it, so now, in death she would have prevented it, if possible, from going the way of all flesh ... to corruption. The gangrenous condition of the intestines, the direct cause of her death, naturally presaged early dissolution. In fact, the Saint's form became rigid almost immediately after death, her face and neck livid, and the abdomen fearfully swollen. The religious charged with preparing the corpse for the grave had good reason to fear that its condition would prevent its being exposed to view at the public funeral the next day, so got ready a box to receive it.

As the day was drawing to its close the community, according to the Constitutions, must gather in the choir to recite the Office of the Dead. The body remained for the time being in the cell where Sister Theresa Margaret had breathed her last. At the tolling of the bell the religious, in silence and in tears, mindful of the majesty and solemnity of death, which is a harsh master even when it takes to Heaven the perfume of a holocaust of love, filed sadly into the choir. The grave and devout chorus of voices resounded in that holy place, but, strange to relate, from their lips there came forth not the majestic words with which the Church asks for peace and rest for her dead, but those with which she exalts the glory of her virgins ... "Regem Virginum Dominum, venite adoremus" ... "King and Lord of Virgins, Come, Let Us Adore Him" ... was it a mere mistake, or was it a prelude, set in motion by the Holy Ghost, of the wonders with which He was about to honor His humble servant? We restrict ourselves to the telling of the bare fact, leaving the causes to Him Who, as He knows how to draw praise from the mouths of little children, so loves to make use of everything to glorify His elect.

Late at night a small group of nuns[1] accompanied the body of the Saint in its transfer from the cell to the grill opening into the chapel. The swelling of the body had increased so much that it was necessary to place pillows underneath the head and shoulders, that the face might be seen by those outside the grate. Perhaps the Lord, to grant the wish of His humble handmaid, had not willed to spare her at once the loathsomeness of the grave, so permitted death to exercise his customary destructive forte upon that virginal body, but now, by the might of His hand, He was going to stay the laws of nature and surround His Servant with glory!

There was a great crowd in attendance at the funeral rites. At their close, it was next to impossible to make the people leave the grill behind which Sister Theresa Margaret lay in state. The outside servants of the Monastery had to clear the church and lock the doors. On leaving the church, the crowd stormed the speakrooms, clamoring for relics of the young "Saint."

While the fame of her sanctity was spreading rapidly through Florence, the Lord was glorifying His beloved Servant before the very eyes of her Sisters. When her body was being carried below ground to be buried underneath the Monastery, it was discovered that the lividly purplish hue of her face, hands, and feet had changed to a faint rose-like color, which gave her a more angelic beauty than she had when alive. The nuns decided to put off the burial for a while. The ninth of March, that is, two days after her death, the religious went to her uncovered tomb again, and were astounded to see that the lifeless and pallid color of her hands and feet had now changed to the glow of living flesh; her cheeks, now rosy, gave a heavenly look to her face ... she seemed, truly, to be alive, just quietly sleeping. The Father Provincial and Doctor Antonio Romiti, the Monastery surgeon, marveled at the beauty of her countenance ... even the eyelids were dewy and in color, even her lips seemed fresh and naturally red. They returned to see the corpse two days later, when their astonishment reached its peak on discovering that the face was even more beautiful and that the body had regained its former size and shape without exuding a drop of moisture. Her limbs had become so pliable and so easily moved as to give the impression of being animated. It was at this time that a new and most delightful odor, not to be compared with any earthly fragrance, clearly revealed what had been brought about in these precious remains ... God had glorified them by the gift of incorruption.

Meanwhile, the people never ceased running to the Monastery ... everyone asked for relics, everyone wished to know something about her life and virtues! When it was known that the young nun had not yet been buried and that her body had from God the gift of incorruption, the people's fervor became boundless. Men and women of every class and description, not only Florentines but inhabitants of the neighboring towns and cities, hastened in an endless stream to the Monastery; to satisfy the devotion and eagerness of all comers, the nuns were forced to cut in tiny pieces some of the Servant of God's clothing for distribution. The flowers which, according to custom, had been strewn over the corpse, were among the first things to be distributed, and of these God made use to glorify His servant.

The Monastery carpenter and bricklayer had entered the cloister together to do some necessary work. The carpenter picked up from among the flowers scattered over the Saint's habit a double violet. When he went home he touched with the violet the face of a woman who stayed with his family; immediately all trace of a disfiguring skin disease disappeared! The Monastery farmer touched with one of these same flowers the arm of his own son, who was grievously afflicted with inflammation of the points; at once, the inflammation disappeared, and, with it, all evidence of the disease. When the Archbishop of Florence, Monsignor Incontri, heard of the marvels, he gave orders that the body should remain unburied until word should be received from him.

Meanwhile, on the fourteenth and fifteenth of the month, Doctor Romiti returned again to see the corpse, and each time found it in the same condition, beautiful and pliable, as if it still lived. Finally, on the twenty-second, that is, fifteen days after the Saint's death, the Archbishop himself came to marvel at what God had deigned to work in this virginal body. Accompanying him were Canon Pasquali, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese, and various other priests of the Florentine curia, also Doctor Romiti and three other surgeons.

When they came to the side of the corpse they found it just as it had been described to them, except that the eyes had become a little sunken, and a small amount of moisture had appeared beneath the nostrils. The Archbishop was so deeply touched that he wept. He then ordered one of the nuns to move the Saint's arm; with the greatest ease, the Sister lifted the arm outside the coffin and then put it back into its former position. The nuns were now about to close the coffin finally, when the Archbishop suggested that the moisture under the nostrils be removed with a handkerchief[2] ... another marvel! ... the cloth and the moisture, as if to give further testimony of the innocence of the soul that had once dwelt in that uncontaminated body, sent forth so sweet an odor that the Archbishop could not keep from weeping. Smelling the little piece of cloth, he exclaimed, "Virgineo fragrat odore ... fragrance of virginity,"[3] It was a stirring moment. All wept with joy. The marvelous state of incorruption and the sweet fragrance arising from the body made the best sort of funeral oration, a eulogy that Heaven itself had preached in honor of its little Saint.

After the face had been covered with this same piece of cloth, there was placed in the coffin a hollow leaden tube containing the name of Sister Theresa Margaret of the Heart of Jesus (Redi) together with a short account of the observations made in regard to the body;[4] then the coffin was closed and placed within another box; finally the precious remains were buried in a vault in the wall, there to await the day of triumph.

God did not cease to glorify His beloved Servant after her body had been entombed, for whoever possessed an object that had been used by her could perceive the mysterious and fragrant odor. One such possessor smelled this sweet perfume on at least three occasions when she was washing clothes formerly worn by the Saint.

This phenomenon occurred not only in Florence, but also, and quite frequently, in her native city, Arezzo. Her mother was the first to experience it. That was but just, for it was her mother that had reared the Saint from her earliest years in perfection of Christian life and virtues. She must have been a happy woman to hear, twenty days after her little Anna's death, that the body was incorrupt and that God was already working wonders through her intercession! She then remembered that she had cut off a lock of Anna Maria's hair, before she entered Carmel, and had put it away as a keepsake. After a short search she found the hair in a small box which, when opened, set free "a delicate, fragrant, extraordinary odor that filled the room, to the wonder of all who smelled it." Much more thrilled were both her parents when, on opening a package containing a piece of her tunic and the bronze crucifix which the Saint had held so closely pressed to her lips when she was dying, a package which the nuns sent to Arezzo for memory's sake, they smelled the very same odor with which God was glorifying their beloved daughter arising from these personal belongings which had so recently touched her body! They had done everything in their power to have Anna Maria grow up good and virtuous! She had become their chief consolation on earth, and then made them suffer so much when she left them to enter the convent! Now God was lightening their deep-seated grief by rewarding them a hundred-fold even in this life! Annina had flown to the Church of the Blest! From Heaven she was even now gazing down upon her parents! In Heaven she was even now praying for them, praying that they might come quickly to her and be enveloped with her in the Heart of Jesus! What glory for parents to be witnesses, while still on earth, of the prodigies God was working in and through a beloved child! Already Sister Theresa Margaret's name was known in all Italy, already had crossed the Alps to the north and the sea to the south, east, and west; already Europe's chief cities were blessing that name; and from all sides already came the plea for relics!

The Sovereign Pontiff, Clement XIV., asked for an account of the Servant of God's life. This Friar Ildephonse wrote and presented to the Pope through Monsignor Mancinforte, then Nuncio to Florence. In this "relation" the friar attested to the fact that up to the time of writing, that is, "three or four years after her death already could be enumerated more than sixty remarkable favors, for the most part prodigious, granted by God at Sister Theresa Margaret's intercession, citing also the authentic attestadons existing." Together with the relation the Pope was presented with a likeness of the Servant of God. He became so devoted to her that he always brought the conversation around to the Saint and what he had read about her, whenever he talked with the Father General of the Order. He expressed a desire that matters might so shape themselves that her Cause for Beatification could be initiated during his pontificate; but the moment destined in the divine decrees for the formal glorification of this holy nun by the Church had not yet arrived. Many generations were to pass before the aureolas of Beatitude and Sanctity were to gild her brow. Nevertheless Theresa Margaret Redi has always been considered a saint ... the esteem in which the public has always held her is evident from the constant flow of offerings to the Monastery that began the day after her death and still continues![5] The first to venerate Sister Theresa Margaret were naturally her own Sisters; often they visited her tomb, many hours did they spend, as even today their spiritual descendants do, in joyfully recalling the angelic woman and her virtues, and frequent meditations have they made on the shining example of fidelity to the Rule and abandonment to Divine Love bequeathed to them by one of their own!

After the nuns the townspeople ranked second in devotedness to the memory of Sister Theresa Margaret. They visited the church in groups and crowds, seeming to delight in praying for a while within the holy precincts that so recently had witnessed the passing of a living saint. Churchmen did not hesitate to show their esteem for this young nun. Often Monsignor Ginori, Bishop of Fiesole, and Monsignor Incontri, Archbishop of Florence, could be seen on their knees at the iron gateway to the crypt, praying silently but fervently, recommending themselves and their dioceses to the intercession of the Servant of God ... certain were they of her glory!

To keep alive devotion to His beloved Servant God continued to grant favors and to work miracles through her. Sister Theresa Margaret, who, in life, was a saint through the practice of the virtues, after death became illustrious through the glory of miracles. Before that modest grave, marvels never ceased. One of these marvels was her apparition, in company with Saint Theresa, herself, and Blessed Maria of the Incarnation, to two nuns who had been healed instantaneously through her intercession of physically incurable diseases.[6] However, in spite of apparitions, in spite of miracles worked, in spite of favors granted, the political upheavals in our land for a hundred years after the Saint's death and the varying fortunes of the Monastery itself retarded the Cause of Beatification.

[1] The peculiar and extraordinary circumstances surrounding the death of the Saint, circumstances that upset the Monastery a great deal, forced the nuns to deviate somewhat from the ceremonial imposed by the Rule for burials.

[2] Relic in Monastery.

[3] Can. Proc.

[4] ... The inscription contained within the leaden tube reads as follows ... "Here lies buried the body of Sister Theresa Margaret of the Heart of Jesus, who in the world was called Lady Anna Maria, daughter of Sir Knight Ignatius Redi, a noble of Arezzo. She made her profession according to the rule in this Monastery, March 12, 1766. After a brief illness of eighteen hours' duration following a violent attack of stomach trouble, she rendered her soul to her Heavenly Spouse, on March 7, 1770, at three o'clock in the afternoon, aged twenty-two years, seven months, and nineteen days. From the day of her death to the twenty-second day of that same month, her body remained uncorrupted, and her face preserved its usual natural coloring. To assure himself of these facts the Ordinary, in company with physicians and surgeons, proceeded to this same monastery and found said body intact, the face of normal, natural coloring, no evil odor arising from the remains. When the investigation had been finished, the Ordinary commanded that the body be placed in a coffin and entombed. With the Ordinary's own seal was the coffin sealed, and then, according to custom, the body was entombed in the monastery wall. Done on the 22nd day of March, 1770.

[5] Can. Proc.

[6] Can. Proc.

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