Benedetta Carlini

Benedetta Carlini
Personal
Born(1590-01-20)20 January 1590[1]
Vellano[1]
Died7 August 1661(1661-08-07) (aged 71)[2]
ReligionCatholic
Home townVellano[1]
PartnerBartolomea Crivelli
Parents
  • Giuliano Carlini (father)
  • Midea Carlini (mother)
Organization
OrderCongregation of the Mother of God
Senior posting
TeacherPaolo Ricordati
Ordination1619
PostAbbess (1619–1623)

Benedetta Carlini (20 January 1590[1] – 7 August 1661)[2] was an Italian Catholic nun who claimed to experience mystic visions. As abbess of the Convent of the Mother of God, at Pescia, she had a sexual relationship with one of her nuns, Sister Bartolomea. These came to the attention of the Counter-Reformation papacy, determined to subordinate potentially troublesome mystics if they showed any signs of heretical spirituality. Although they paid three to four visits to the nunnery, it was not until they interrogated Sister Bartolomea that they found that Benedetta and Bartolemea had engaged in sexual relations. Bartolomea gave testimony that Benedetta engaged in frottage with her while possessed by the spirit of a male demon known as Splenditello. Benedetta was stripped of her rank and imprisoned.

The case of Benedetta was described in the 1985 nonfiction book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy by Judith C. Brown, later fictionalized in the 2021 film Benedetta.

  1. ^ a b c d Brown 1986, p. 21.
  2. ^ a b c Brown 1986, p. 132.