Ippolita di Melegnano

Who they were

A Franciscan tertiary nun of the fifteenth-sixteenth century, Ippolita da Melegnano is known only from scattered and fragmentary sources; even her birthplace is uncertain, though tradition links her to Melegnano, south of Milan. She lived under the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis at the monastery of Santa Chiara, also called San Vittore, in Mortara, documented from 1480 until its suppression in 1805.

She is remembered together with two companions of the same community, Blessed Cecilia Attendoli da Cotignola and Blessed Elisabetta da Melegnano, the three being pictured together in a fresco at the Sanctuary of Sant'Antonio in Mortara. According to tradition Ippolita died on 18 July 1530; the three nuns were first buried in the monastery's atrium, and in 1701 their bones, described as incorrupt and fragrant, were found and venerated, though the relics were later lost.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: she has been honoured as blessed since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Franciscan tertiary nun of the monastery of Mortara, venerated locally as blessed since the sixteenth century; her relics were found incorrupt in 1701.

The cause