An Italian Franciscan tertiary of Naples known for extreme penance, mystical prayer, and care for the poor, who died in 1791 at 76.

Saint Mary Frances of the Five Wounds (1715-1791), born Anna Maria Gallo, was a lay member of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Naples, Italy. Though she lived in her family home rather than a convent, she practiced an intense life of prayer, penance, and charitable service to the poor, and was reported to have received the stigmata. She died in Naples at age 76.

Quick Facts

• Died: October 7, 1791, Napoli, Italy (age 76)
• Feast Day: October 6
• Venerated as: Religious of the Third Order of St. Francis; mystic

Who Was Saint Mary Frances of the Five Wounds?

Mary Frances of the Five Wounds, born Anna Maria Gallo in Naples, joined the Third Order of Saint Francis as a young woman, choosing a form of consecrated life lived within her own family home rather than in a formal convent, combining intense personal asceticism with a public reputation for holiness that drew many to seek her counsel.

Historical Setting

Eighteenth-century Naples was a major Catholic city with a strong tradition of lay religious devotion and third-order membership, in which laypeople, especially women unable or unwilling to enter formal convents, could pursue a vowed religious life of prayer and penance while remaining active in family and civic life.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Mary Frances of the Five Wounds

Mary Frances is remembered for a life combining severe personal penance, focused on devotion to the wounds of Christ, with active charity toward the poor of Naples, and for the widespread popular veneration she received during her own lifetime as reports of her holiness and spiritual gifts spread through the city.

Canonization and Feast Day

Mary Frances of the Five Wounds was beatified in 1843 and canonized in 1867 by Pope Pius IX. Her feast is kept on October 6.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Her choice to live an intensely consecrated life without ever entering a convent shows that formal religious enclosure is not the only path to deep holiness, and offers encouragement to laypeople today who seek a serious life of prayer and penance while remaining in ordinary family circumstances.

A Prayer to Saint Mary Frances of the Five Wounds

Saint Mary Frances of the Five Wounds, who united deep penance with tender care for the poor, help lay Catholics today to pursue holiness within their own homes and families. Draw us closer to the wounds of Christ and to the suffering of our neighbors. Amen.

Sources

• Vatican.va
• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia
• Butler’s Lives of the Saints