Anna Vittoria Dolara
Suor or Sister Anna Vittoria Dolara (1754–1827) was an Italian Dominican nun in Rome; she is known for her piety, poetry, and painting. Biography. She was a nun in the monastery of Santa Maria Maddalena (later Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli in Quirinale during the Napoleonic occupation of Rome. When the French forces captured Pope Pius VI and closed the monasteries, Suor Anna continued her charity work, and wrote a poem in ottava rima, lamenting the situation in the city. The poem subsequently published in 1818 as "Il Pianto delle Sacre Vergini Romane nella funesta Democrazia di Roma , composizione di Suor Anna Vittoria Domenicana in Santa Maria Maddalena, fra gli Arcadi Florinda Carisia". It included stanzas loosely translated as: We are oppressed, and we leave nearby,/ Between starvation and sorrow, the afflicted discards;/ The holy edifice collapses, and the ruins/ Hold vigil with our dear grief;/ From whose penury we see no end,/Nor from our crying expect any fulfillment;/ Unless you, appeased at last, God of living,/ Sweet mercy, our pain can feel. Passes the dove, and there is secure,/ Moaning softly within her nest;/ Back to their pens, the flock returns from pasture/ Without fear of treacherous  betrayals./ We also entering these elected walls/ Believe we grasp firmly security;/ But instead face ambush, oh heaven! from the alliance/ Of the rapacious vulture and greedy wolf. She was given the name Florinda Carisia among painters, and called later to paint the portrait of Popes Pius VII, and Leo XII, a copy of Guido Reni's the portrait of Beatrice Cenci, portraits of fellow Dominican nuns; and a portrait of the Queen of Etruria.