Caterina Scappi

Caterina Scappi (died 20 June 1643) was a rich and well-respected benefactor of the Carmelite church in Malta. Little is known about her origins or early life, but she is known for her substantial charitable donations for women's causes. In particular, she founded the first hospital in Malta dedicated exclusively to women.

Early life Originally from Siena, Italy, from where she got her nickname "La Senese", Scappi spent a lot of her life in Malta. Scappi was an active businesswoman, from which she may have acquired some of her fortune. Her birth place, year of birth, and filiation are unknown, and she never mentioned them in any of the notarial contracts or wills she wrote. She is known to have donated money to the convent of the Repentite in 1597; this was a religious institute whose mission was to help prostitutes. In her will, she describes her motivations for founding the hospital: "As inspired by the Lord, eager to help and cure those wretched women who have fallen ill and who, bereft of everything, cannot receive treatment in their homes, driven by mercy for their misery."

In his book History of Gynaecology in Malta, Charles Savona-Ventura explains that "The advent of the Knights of St John in 1530 and the establishment of the Island as a maritime base brought prostitution to the Islands creating an ideal environment for the spread of venereal disease." In fact, Malta's high venereal disease infection rate had earned the island a grim reputation. In 1979, an anonymous author wrote: "There is no place in the whole world where venereal disease attacks faster and spreads easier than in Malta, for here it is a compound of all the poxes in the world." Scappi's hospital came to be known as the "spedale delle donne incurabili", the hospital for incurable women. This is because many of the women who came to be treated were prostitutes with venereal diseases, which were incurable at the time.