Signed with a Cross, in Her own Hand: Suor Orsola agrees to enter the convent.

[Nuns] / [Manuscript]. Sit Nomen Domini Benedictum. Io Suor Orsola Figlia di Giovanni Sedazzi, e della fù Geltrude Dozzi, prometto a Dio, ed all’ Immaculata sempre Vergine Maria, al Padre nostro S. Bernardo Abate, e à tutti li Santi della Corte del Cielo, nelle mani dell’Emo Sig: Cardinale Andrea Giovanetti, Arcivescovo di Bologna, a per esso nelle mani del Molto Reverendo Sig: D: Giocondo Mengoli Confessore moderno, deputato dal Reverendissimo Monsignore Annibale Beccadelli Vicario, soto il felice governo della Reverendissima Madre Donna Maria Geltrude Tondelli Abbadessa di questo sacro Monastero di S. Orsola Vergine e Martire nostra Protetrice, di vivere sotto à quest’ Abito, secondo la Regola del nostro Padre S. Benedetto, e dell’ Ordine nostro Cisterciense… S.l. [Bologna], [1781]. [29.9 x 22.4 cm], [1] f. manuscript in red and black. Backed with burlap, marginal chipping and mends, quite toned, some staining, a few losses of a letter or two in the text, but neatly written and legible.

Manuscript document certifying the entry of a certain Suor Orsola into the Cistercian convent of Sant’Orsola in Bologna on 26 August 1781. Suor Orsola signed the document (“in my own hand”) by writing the sign of the Cross. Documents of this sort rarely survive today.

Suor Orsola, as the text tells us, was the daughter of Giovanni Sedazzi and the late Geltrude Dozzi. The abbess of the convent was Madre Donna Maria Geltrude Tondelli, while Giocondo Mengoli was the Confessor and Annibale Beccadelli the vicar (they all served under Cardinal Andrea Giovanetti, Archbishop di Bologna.

By signing Sor Orsola promised to live according to the “Rule of our Father St. Benedict and of our Cistercian Order” and to observe “Obedience, Chastity, Poverty, and Cloistering.”