St. Catherine of Siena

Today, April 29, is the Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, mystic and Doctor of the Church.

St. Catherine is the embodiment of the virtue of speaking truth to power. Born the 23rd of 25 children in Siena, Italy, it is said that Catherine experienced her first spiritual vision at the age of six, of Jesus in glory and the Apostles, Peter, Paul, and John. She decided at the age of seven that she was going to live her life wholly for God. This often didn’t set well with her parents, who wanted her to marry. Catherine cut her hair off in defiance so she would appear less attractive to interested young men. Her parents wanted her to marry the widow of her older sister, but Catherine fasted until they gave up on the idea of her marrying anybody.

St. Catherine joined a group of women called the Mantellate, who were mostly older women who dedicated themselves to Dominican spirituality (that is, inspired by St. Dominic de Guzman, founder of the Dominicans) and in service to the poor. Catherine would often give away clothing and food to the poor without her parents permission, sometimes costing them a good bit. For a while, she kept herself separated from society, and even from her family, until she was convinced that Christ told her to leave her solitary life and enter the public world. Catherine bucked the social expectations of Catholic women in medieval Europe, rejecting both marriage and the convent to live as a pious lay woman in service to the world. When she entered public life, she would dedicate her time to serving the sick and the imprisoned in Siena and soon gathered a group of supporters around her.

Catherine, even at a very young age, earned a reputation for holiness and wisdom, and that reputation spread far and wide. She wrote hundreds of letters to important figures of the day, including princes, cardinals, and popes, advising them on important matters of the day, especially as it pertained to the Church and the Papal States. Most famously, Catherine urged Pope Gregory XI (1370-1378) to return to Rome. Since before Catherine was even born, the popes had moved the papacy to Avignon in southern France, where they lived under the thumb of the Frankish king. Catherine thought this abhorrent. The pope is the Bishop of Rome. Rome is the seat of St. Peter, the first pope. The pope must rule from Rome! In 1377, Pope Gregory did, indeed, return the papacy to the Eternal City. She was then sent on a mission by Gregory to help negotiate peace between Rome and Florence. After peace was secured, Catherine returned to Siena, but not for long. Soon after, the Western Schism developed, where rival popes ruled from Rome and Avignon. Catherine took up residence in the court of the pope in Rome and continued to use her influence to convince cardinals and bishops and princes to support Urban VI, Gregory’s successor, as the true successor of St. Peter against his rival in France.

Catherine left behind a plethora of spiritual writings, most famously her Dialogues, which recount a dialogue between God and a soul. She wrote hundreds of letters, many of which survive, and dozens of prayers. Her devotions were extreme. Her fasting was such that her spiritual advisor and confessor ordered her to eat. She claimed that her inability to eat was an illness, but her fasting was likely so extreme that her digestive system just wore out. A massive stroke paralyzed her from the waist down and she died eight days later, in Rome, on April 29, 1380. So, at least in the extremity of her devotions, she is a good example of the adage: “Admire the saints, but do not imitate them.” Still, Catherine deservedly remains exalted by the Church as one of the giants of medieval spirituality, mysticism, and literature. Along with St. Teresa of Avila, Catherine was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope St. Paul VI in 1970, the first two females so honored. St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Hildegard of Bingen have since joined them.

Why was Catherine so influential in her day? She was not wealthy, and her family was of no particular esteem. She was illiterate for much of her life, learning to read and write only later and dictating most of her writings and letters. She was young. Most of her influence was demonstrated in her late twenties and early thirties – she was only 33 when she died. Yet, she advised popes and princes. She convinced the pope to return to Rome after decades in France. She negotiated peace between cities. She spiritually guided hundreds, even thousands with her writings. She refused both the nuns habit and the bride’s veil, choosing a peculair (for the time) middle vocation of consecrated virginity as a lay woman, but in the public world, serving the ill and imprisoned. Yet she transformed the world of medieval Europe.

I think it was because of her moral and spiritual credibility. Catherine was the real deal. There was no guile in her. Her devotions were extreme, yes, but the devotion was real. Her love for Christ and His Church was real, and even palpable in the people who met her and sought her guidance, both spiritually and, rather astonishingly for one so young – and a woman! – politically. Her moral and spiritual authority lay on the foundation of her moral and spiritual credibility. None who met her doubted Catherine’s devotion to Christ and to the life of the gospel. The depths of her love for Christ and His Church was such that when she stood on the power of Christ to speak truth to power, the powerful listened – and acted!

May we have such love and devotion for Christ and His Church, if not to move the world, then to move the hearts and minds of those we love and those we meet in our day to day lives, who ought to be able to recognize in us a hope and joy rooted in our trust in Jesus and His promise of redemption.

Prayer of St. Catherine of Siena

Eternal God, eternal Trinity,
You have made the Blood of Christ so precious
through His sharing in Your Divine nature.
You are a mystery as deep as the sea;
the more I search, the more I find,
and the more I find, the more I search for You.
But I can never be satisfied;
what I receive will ever leave me desiring more.
When You fill my soul, I have an ever greater hunger,
and I grow more famished for Your light.
I desire above all to see You,
the true Light, as you really are. Amen.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Siena

knightsoftheholyeucharist.com/saint-catherine-of-siena-prayer-download