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Agnes of Montepulciano

Dominican nun, wonderworker and saint

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ2720655 ↗
Source-derived summary

Agnes of Montepulciano, OP (28 January 1268 – 20 April 1317) was a Dominican prioress in medieval Tuscany who was known as a miracle worker during her lifetime. She is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church.

Life

Agnes was born in 1268 into the noble Segni family in Gracciano, a frazione of Montepulciano, then part of the Papal States. At the age of nine, she convinced her parents to allow her to enter a Franciscan monastery of women in the city known as the "Sisters of the Sack", after the rough religious habit they wore. They lived a simple contemplative life. She received the permission of the pope to be accepted into this life at such a young age, which was normally against Church law.

In 1281, the lord of the castle of Proceno, a fief of Orvieto, invited the nuns of Montepulciano to send some of their sisters to Proceno to found a new monastery. Agnes was among the nuns sent to found this new community. At the age of fourteen she was appointed bursar.

In 1288 Agnes, despite her youth at only 20 years of age, was noted for her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and deep life of prayer, and was elected as the prioress of the community.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Agnes of Montepulciano” is dominican nun, wonderworker and saint. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Agnes, Montepulciano and Dominican, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1268, 1317, 1281, 1288—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1268-01-28. For this dossier, Agnes, Montepulciano and Dominican is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “dominican nun, wonderworker and saint” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2720655. VIAF identifies the subject as 8839170. The Library of Congress control number is n85296952. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1268, 1317, 1281 and 1288.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Agnes of Montepulciano”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Agnes of Montepulciano primary sources, Agnes of Montepulciano archive and Agnes research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Agnes of Montepulciano” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.