of a nun, whose name has not come down to us. On August 7, 1661, this nun wrote in her dairy: "Benedetta Carlini died at age 71 of fever and colic pains after eighteen days of illness. She died in penitence, having spent thirty-five years in prison." The words in the diary suggest that Benedetta was not imprisoned until 1626, three years after the second investigation. Perhaps the bureaucracy was simply slow. Perhaps authorities had decided not to punish her if she repents and never repeats such claims and deeds, but Benedetta would not or could not live as an ordinary obedient nun. Perhaps secular or ecclesiastical authorities once had recognized Benedetta Carlini as a threat to the established order because she remained popular among the laity and decided to shut her within the walls of the convent. The official decision about Benedetta's imprisonment has not survived. We can suppose that the conditions of Benedetta's imprisonment were harsh. Ecclesiastical authorities had adopted Constitution by St. Teresa, who stated that sins of the flesh are the gravest of nuns' faults. And the punishment for these sins must be solitary confinement for life. The guilty sister "shall in no case, even though she repent and implore mercy and pardon, be received back into the community, save if some reasonable cause supervene and on the recommendation and advice of the visitor". Other nuns, except wardens, must not speak with the punished one or send her anything under pain of suffering the same penalty. A sister in prison should have her veil and scapular taken away. She should be let out only to hear mass and to follow the other nuns to the place where they disciplined themselves with their whips. On those days, she might be allowed to eat on the floor of the refectory, near the door so that the others might step over her as they left the room. Several times a week, she should receive only bread and water for sustenance. Word of the death of Benedetta Carlini spread quickly outside the convent walls. People of Pescia did not forget her even forty years after the events that brought her notoriety and thirty-five years of strong social isolation. Perhaps the reason was that her prophetic warnings to those who refused to believe in her had finally come to pass and in 1631 the plague did indeed strike Pescia. And many