Mother Marie Marguerite Balland (1612-1707), founder of the Monastery of the Visitation in Modena (1669) and spiritual director of Maria Beatrice d’Este, Queen of England
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15167/1824-7482/pbfrm2025.1.2566Keywords:
Marie Marguerite Balland, order of the Visitation, 17th century, women's writing, hagiography, (auto)biography, spiritual directionAbstract
Mother Marie Marguerite Balland (1612–1707), founder of the Monastery of the Visitation in Modena (1669) and spiritual director of Maria Beatrice d’Este, Queen of England, was a leading figure in the female landscape of the Counter-Reformation era. This article reconstructs the significance of this nun and her relationship with the House of Este through writings that concern her—several pages from the Années Saintes, some letters, and, most notably, the two biographies dedicated to her, one in French and the other in Italian. These works are based on “le di lei memorie manoscritte”, texts very likely hidden within the archives of the Visitandine monastery in Modena—a rich and extensive repository of documents that remains largely unexplored.
References
AN., La vie de la venerable mere Marie Marguerite Balland, religieuse du monastère de la Visitation de Sainte-Marie, de Chambéry, née dans la même ville le septéime [sic] du mois d'octobre de l'année 1612 morte dans le monastere de la Visitation de Modene, le quiniême du mois d'octobre de l'année 1707, chez Antoine Capponi, Modène. Avec permission des supérieurs.
BARELLI L., Vita della venerabil serva di Dio la Madre suor Maria Margherita Balland...scritta dal P.D. Francesco Luigi Barelli da Nizza Barnabita, per Giulio Borzaghi, Bologna 1718.
DE CHAUGY F.-M., Mémoires sur la vie et les vertus de sainte Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot de Chantal, fondatrice de l’Ordre de la Visitation […], [1642], Plon, Paris 1893.
Année sainte de la Visitation, t. I, Janvier, Imprimerie de Charles Burdet, Annecy 1867.
Année sainte de la Visitation, t. IV, Avril, Imprimerie de Charles Burdet, Annecy 1868.
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