Asceticism and meditation

Catalina Artifoni - 1335

Jacopo, Venturino and Catalina Artifoni De Apibus belonged to a prestigious family from the town of Almenno. Jacopo was a man of letters and personal friend of Francesco Petrarca, who was a guest of honour at the family’s Bergamo residence in Borgo Foco (present day Via Borfuro). His brother Venturino was a gifted preacher capable of electrifying crowds with his charismatic style, who led a procession of thousands of penitents to Rome, drawing the ire of the Pope. In 1335, Venturino returned to Bergamo and founded the female monastic community of the Santa Marta monastery in the meadow outside Borgo Foco. The members of the community, which included Venturino’s sister Catalina among its members, took vows of enclosure, poverty, asceticism, meditation, humility and obedience.