Caterina Scappi was a rich and well-respected benefactor of the Carmelite church in Malta.
10 Facts About Caterina Scappi
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Originally from Siena, Italy, from where she got her nickname "La Senese", Scappi spent a lot of her life in Malta.
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Caterina Scappi was considerably wealthy, but did not live a life of luxury, rather donating a lot of her money to charitable causes.
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Caterina Scappi is known to have donated money to the convent of the Repentite in 1597; this was a religious institute whose mission was to help prostitutes.
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Caterina Scappi is thought to have treated women in her private home, but in 1625, using her resources, she endowed the ospedaletto, known as La Casetta, the first hospital dedicated exclusively to women.
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Caterina Scappi specified that should something happen to the Santa Maria della Pieta house, her fortune should be used to buy another house to serve as a women's hospital.
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Caterina Scappi's will contains further donations: she established free refuges for women, and donated furniture, money, clothes, and dowries.
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Caterina Scappi owned a slave, Giuliana, whom she freed upon her death.
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Caterina Scappi was buried in the church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Valletta.
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Caterina Scappi was initially buried in a corner of a chapel, but in 1791 her body was exhumed in order to be reburied in a more prominent area of the church.