At the time of Mother Maddalena, young women of the nobility were sheltered much more so than today. When the Bentivoglio parents died, even though the three remaining girls were in their twenties, they were placed as boarders in a Dominican convent, Santa Caterina da Siena. This was difficult for someone, such as Mother Maddalena, who had such a strong and energetic temperament. But it was there that she felt God working in her soul. Father Kleber relates the following, referring to Mother Maddalena by her baptismal name of Annetta: The ordinary observer, even a scrutinizing judge of character, knows the soul only from its outward manifestations; he sees the palace from without. The confessor, however, or spiritual director of a candid soul is witness to the vital mysterious correlation between grace and nature and to the mutual cooperation of the two; he views the palace from within. A Jesuit Father[probably] Father Rubillon—conversant with the work of grace and nature within Annetta’s generous soul, did not hesitate even at that period of her life to say of her: She is an elect soul. It was his opinion that the Lord had evidently chosen her for the carrying out of some great mission.