After a short time outside the monastery, at the age of thirteen she entered the Convent of St Vincent in Prato, Tuscany, a cloistered community of the Third Order of St. Dominic.

She corresponded with three men who later became popes: Marcello Cervini degli Spannocchi, Ippolito Aldobrandini, and Alessandro Ottaviano de' Medici.

It is claimed that de' Ricci's meditation on the Passion of Christ was so deep that she spontaneously bled, as if scourged and bore the stigmata.

During times of deep prayer, like Catherine of Siena, her patron saint, a ring-shaped stigm, representing her marriage to Christ, appeared on her finger.

It is reported that de' Ricci wore an iron chain around her neck and engaged in extreme fasting and other forms of penance and sacrifice, especially for souls in purgatory.

One of the miracles that was documented for her canonization was her appearance many hundreds of miles away from where she was physically located in a vision to Philip Neri, a resident of Rome, with whom she had maintained a long-term correspondence.