Serafina of God

The Venerable Sister Serafina of God, O.Carm., (Italian: Serafina di Dio), also known as Seraphine of Capri, (24 October 1621–17 March 1699) was the founder of seven Carmelite monasteries of nuns in southern Italy. The cause for her canonization has been formally accepted by the Holy See, which has declared her to have lived a life of heroic virtue.

She was born Prudentia Pisa in Naples, then capital of the Kingdom of Naples, on 24 October 1621 into a wealthy merchant family which moved to the island of Capri when she was still a child. She developed a great love of the Lives of the Christian martyrs. As a teenager she refused a marriage proposed by her father and was expelled from the family home for a period of several years, having to live in the equivalent of a chicken coop in the back yard, and her mother would sneak food to her when the father wasn't taking notice. From the age of 15, she would visit and minister to the sick and this ministry would continue notably during the Neapolitan plague of 1656 which took her own mother’s life.

After the death of an uncle who had been a priest from this same plague, Pisa continued his plans for a contemplative monastery for women on the island of Capri, for which she recruited several women from Naples. On 29 May 1661, in the Naples Cathedral, she and her companions took the vows of the Carmelite Order and she assumed the religious name by which she is now known.

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