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Negri, Virginia-Angelica-Paula-Antonia

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an Italian nun, was born in 1508 at Milan. She early left the world to enter the new monastery of the Angelicas of St. Paul, to the foundation of which she had contributed, and became teacher of the novices. Full of zeal for the propagation of her faith, she travelled over Vicenza, Udine, Padua, Verona, Brescia, preaching everywhere repentance and purity of life. The sick and the poor also became the object of her care, and several hospitals owe their foundation to her. Among the number of conversions that she made, we mention that of Alphonse, marquis of Guaste, governor of the Milanese, whom she comforted by religious counsels on his death-bed. Many of her converts entered the congregation of the Clercs of St. Paul. Calumny did not spare her; and her enemies, seeking to prove her a visionary, found the means to immure her in the convent of the Clarissas. John of Salazar. an Italian prelate, then archbishop of Luciano, was named to examine her conduct, and recognised the falsity of the accusations. A woman of superior mind, she wrote well. She was well versed in Latin. She died at Milan April 4, 1555. We have of her works, Lettere spirituali della devotae ieligiosa Angelica Paula Antonia de Negri (Venice, 1547, 4to; Milan, 1563, 8vo). Another edition, published at Rome (1576, 12mo), is preceded by the life of Virginia Negri by J.B. Fontana de Conti. The spiritual letters, to the number of seventy-two, are divided into three parts, and for unction and piety offer some resemblance to those of Saint Catharine of Sienna. There is also attributed to Negri, Esercizio particolare d'una serva del Signore (Brescia, 1577, 12mo). See Biblioth. mediol. scriptorum, 2:993; Arisi, Cremona litterata; Augustinus, Ab Ecclesia, Teatro delle done letterate, page 271.