Description
St Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi was known to have worn little clothing and to have whipped herself with a crown of thorns. Sometimes she would wear only a single garment but she would tear this off in order to roll herself on thorns, or give herself another savage beating.
Pazzi wore a crown of thorns and a corset onto which she had attached piercing nails. She also walked barefoot through the snow, dripped hot wax onto her body, and licked the wounds of the diseased, including those afflicted with leprosy.
At about age 37, emaciated and racked with coughing and pain, she took to her bed until she died four years later. Her painful gums were so badly infected that her teeth fell out, one by one. Her body was covered with putrefying bed sores, but when the sisters offered to move her she warned them off for fear that by touching her body they might experience sexual desires.