Agnes Segni – the saint’s first name – was born around the year 1268, in Gracciano (Italy), into a noble family. From a very young age she was in contact with religious life, thanks to the fact that her parents entrusted her education to the nuns of the Montepulciano monastery, located very close to her Gracciano. Inés began her training with them when she was nine years old.
The nuns of Montepulciano were known for their austerity and for their particular habits, made with the rustic fabric with which sacks are made to store grains or seeds. They called the convent the ‘monastery of the sack’ and its nuns, ‘the saquinas’.
In that monastery Inés began to stand out for her generosity, her capacity for sacrifice and her intense life of prayer. She remained there for about five years until she was fifteen, when she was sent with Sister Margaret, her novitiate teacher, to erect a Dominican monastery in Proceno, a village in the diocese of Acquapendente. Three years later, she would be named abbess of that place. Due to her youth, special authorization from Pope Nicholas IV was necessary for her to carry out her duties.