The future Mother Maddalena – Annetta Bentivoglio – made a deep impression on others, even before she entered the monastery. Sister Mary Gaetano Bartolini, who knew her as a lay person wrote of Annetta:
Anna Bentivoglio was of a lofty mind and of an exceedingly deep and energetic character. Very much given to piety, she in a lonely little room (coretto) opening upon the church spent hours and hours in the presence of the Sacramental Jesus; and then the selfsame, drawn by the highest charity, used to come to keep me company and also to wait an me, I being very sick.