Venerable Maria Lorenza Longo

Maria Llorença Requenses Llong (Italian: Maria Lorenza Longo; 1463 – 21 December 1539) was a Spanish nun and the founder of the order of the Capuchin Poor Clares. Llong founded the Ospedale degli Incurabili Santa Maria del Popolo in Naples which received numerous papal privileges from Pope Leo X and Pope Adrian VI. Her beatification was celebrated in Naples on 9 October 2021. Maria Llorença Llong was born in Lleida sometime in 1463 to nobles and she relocated to Naples in 1506 alongside her husband Juan Llong (who enjoyed the favor of Ferdinand II of Aragon) despite being paralyzed at the time. Her husband died in 1509 and left her with her three children at which point she went on a pilgrimage to Loreto where she was cured of her paralysis in what she attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Llong became a Franciscan and she founded both a house to care for prostitutes in 1526 and a hospital for ill people. Llong established the hospital of Santa Maria del Popolo in 1519. Llong wanted to go on a pilgrimage but she had a vision that revealed that she should establish a convent dedicated to Santa Maria in Gerusalemme (Our Lady in Jerusalem). Llong wanted to re-establish the original concepts of being simple and humble in addition to poorness of spirit and adherence to the austerities of Ss. Francis of Assisi and Clare of Assisi. This re-establishment followed the lead that Matteo da Bascio had set when he founded the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. The new convent was established with the help of the Capuchin friars, and the sisters became known as Capuchin Poor Clares. The nuns wore a simple Capuchin tunic knotted with a cord, a short cape, the wimple and a black veil. During Llong's lifetime the first group of sisters was sent to the Italian mainland attracting funding from a range of philanthropists.