St.
Catherine of Sienna
The
twenty-third child of Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa, Catherine of Siena
would certainly be the most famous. She was a strikingly pleasant and
outgoing child, imaginative and idealistic in her devotion. She was
strongly independent. and her independence was her hallmark throughout
her life. In a time and a culture where marriage was prized. Catherine
set her heart on Christ and vowed herself to Him at seven years of age.
She grew up very close to San Domenico, a center of Dominican learning
and preaching, and she spent a great deal of time in the Church. When
she expressed a desire to enter the Dominican Order, she was told that
she would marry. To make herself less appealing, she cut off her hair.
Her father soon relented and allowed her live as she pleased.
For two years Catherine lived an
intense life of prayer and meditation- Around the same time she joined
the Mantellate, women who were affiliated with the Order of St. Dominic
and wore the habit but lived in their own homes, serving the needs of
the poor and sick under the direction of a prioress and ultimately under
the direction of the friars. She eventually broke with her extreme
solitude and began in ernest the work of caring for the city's
marginalized. She served as nurse in homes and hospitals, looked out for
the destitute, and buried the dead. Yet she still found time for silence
and contemplation.
Catherine's public influence
reached great heights because of her evident holiness. She began to
gather around herself sons and daughters from whom she learned and whom
she taught. She became involved in the controversy that split the church
not only in half but into thirds. Because of Catherine's influence Pope
Gregory XI was persuaded to return to Rome.
She was instrumental in promoting
peace between Rome and Florence, one of it's city-state. On March 27 of
the same year Gregory died and was succeeded by Pope Urban VI. Many
factions opposed his election and the talk of schism was prevalent.
Catherine wrote letters to all who were involved, arguing for loyalty
and unity. Although she desired to go to Rome to promote the ideas she
felt would alleviate the problems, she did not because of the reputation
she acquired as the "woman who was too much on the road." Only if the
Pope sent explicit orders would she go. Urban summoned her and she set
out for Rome with her "family" of followers. This was to be the last
journey Catherine was to make. She spent the last two years of her life
in Rome, in prayer and pleading on behalf of the cause of Urban the VI
and the unity of the Church. She offered herself as a victim for the
Church in it's agony.
In the last year of her life
Catherine could no longer eat or even swallow water. She wrote a few
more letter, but most of her time was spent in prayer and the offering
of herself. Till late February she still dragged herself the mile to St.
Peter's each morning for Mass and spent the day there in prayer until
vespers. On February 26th she lost the use of her legs and was confined
to bed. Born in 1347 Catherine died on April 29th in 1380. She was
Thirty-three years old.
While Saint Catherine's letters
are a better window to her personality, she is best remembered for her
work which is called The Dialogue. She called it simply "my book", it is
her bequest of all her teachings to her followers. Raymond, her
spiritual director, wrote about her and this work:
"So about two years before her
death, such a clarity of Truth was revealed to her from heaven that
Catherine was constrained to spread it abroad by means of writing,
asking secretaries to stand ready to take down whatever came from
her mouth as soon as they noticed that she had gone into ecstasy.
Thus in a short time was composed a book that contains a dialogue
between a soul who asks the Lord four questions, and the Lord
himself who replies to the soul, enlightening her with many useful
truths."
Catherine's life is a concrete
example of the Dominican vocation of prayerful action, for it could be
said that she was almost never removed from the state of prayer-and yet
she accomplished, in her brief life more than many who live long lives!
