St. Catherine of Siena
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Imagine the pope receiving a young woman still in her twenties who addresses him as "my sweet Christ on earth," then orders: "Get back to Rome where you belong!" Amazingly, Gregory XI complied! Yet this was but one astonishing incident in the extraordinary life of Catherine of Siena, a truly unique medieval woman. Youngest of twenty-five children, Catherine refused marriage and became a Dominican Tertiary at sixteen, cloistering herself at home in contemplative prayer, austere penances, and mystical experiences, culminating in "spiritual espousal” to Christ. Then, incarnating the Dominican ideal of "passing on to others the fruits of contemplation," Catherine left her solitude to care for the poor, nurse the sick, comfort the dying, and bury the dead. Increasingly renowned for converting souls and healing bodies, she was sought after to broker peace during civil wars and Church schisms. All this, and like Jesus, whom she called "my "Divine Spouse," she died at thirty-three! Four hundred letters and her spiritual classic The Dialogue inspired Paul VI to name her, together with Teresa of Ávila, the first women "doctors of the Church."
- Peter Scagnelli