4th Week of Easter, St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin, Doctor of the Church

Readings — Acts 12:24-13:5; Ps. 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Jn. 12:44-50.

Some Notes on St. Catherine of Siena (Caterina Di Jacopo Di Benincasa (1347-1380). She was born in Siena, Republic of Siena. She was the second youngest child in a family of 24 children. She had a twin sister who died after a few months.

Her parents belonged to the lower class of tradesmen. From her earliest childhood, Catherine began to see visions and to practice extreme austerities. At the age of seven, she consecrated her virginity to Christ

At 16, her parents wanted her to marry the husband of her sister who had died. She cut her long hair in protest and in order to discourage suitors. She joined the “Mantellate,” a group of devout women, and renewed the life of the anchorites of the desert in a little room in her father’s house.

She had three years of celestial visitations and familiar conversations with Christ, during which Christ visited her and invited her to drink the blood gushing out of his pierced side. Around 1366, she underwent the mystical experience of “spiritual espousal.” Rejoining her family, she began tending the sick, serving the poor, and working for the conversion of sinners.

Though suffering terrible physical pains, living for long periods on practically no food save the Blessed Sacrament, she was ever radiantly happy and full of practical wisdom and spiritual insight. But she was subjected to continual persecution by friars and religious sisters. She gathered disciples around her, both men and women, united to her by bonds of mystical love.

In 1370, she received a series of special manifestations of divine mysteries, which culminated in a mystical death in which she had a vision of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven and heard a divine command to leave her cell and enter public life. She began to write letters to princes of Italy and was consulted by papal legates about Church affairs. She set herself to stay the fury of civil war and of political factions.

She implored Pope Gregory XI to leave Avignon, reform the clergy, and the administration of the papal states. In 1377, in spite of the opposition of the French King and almost all of the Sacred College, Pope Gregory returned to Rome, thus ending the Avignon Papacy that began in 1307.

It was around this time that she miraculously learned to write, though she still relied on secretaries for her correspondence. She escaped an attempt on her life when she became involved in the divisive Florentine internal politics. When peace was restored, she returned to Siena and passed a few months of comparative quiet, dictating her “Dialogue,” the book of her meditations and revelations.

With Pope Gregory, she tried but failed to raise Christian forces in a crusade against the Muslims. In 1374, Raymund of Capua became her confessor, guide, and confidant. While at Pisa, on the 4th Sunday of Lent, 1375, she received the Stigmata, although at her special prayer the marks did not appear outwardly while she lived.

After the death of Pope Gregory, factionalism among the Cardinals resulted in the election of two popes, one residing in Rome and the other in Avignon. She enthusiastically supported the Roman Pope Urban VI, who summoned her to Rome.

She spent the remaining time of her life serving the destitute and afflicted in Rome, working strenuously to reform the Church, and gathering support for Pope Urban. But her health rapidly weakened. She besought the Lord to let her bear her sufferings for the unity and renewal of the Church and for all sin.

After an agony of three months, she died in 1380. Practically from her deathbed, she accomplished her last political work, the reconciliation of Pope Urban VI with the Roman Republic. With her last words, “Father, into your hands I commend my soul and my spirit,” she passed away at age 33, after a massive stroke eight days earlier.

In I461, Pope Pius II canonized her. Her works, written in the Tuscan vernacular, rank among the classics of the Italian language. Her writings include the Dialogue or Treatise on Divine Providence, which was a series of colloquies between the eternal Father and the human soul; on Catherine herself; a series of Prayers, and a collection of nearly 400 letters.

Raymund of Capua wrote her biography which played a large role in her canonization.

She is a co-Patron of Rome and of Europe. She is also co-Patron of Italy together with St. Francis of Assisi. On 4 October 1970, Pope Paul VI declared St. Catherine a Doctor of the Church, the second woman after St. Teresa of Avila (27 September 1970) to be given the title.

Prayer: O God, who set St. Catherine of Siena on fire with divine love in her contemplation of the Lord’s Passion and her service of your Church, grant, through her intercession, that your people, participating in the mystery of Christ, may ever exult in the revelation of his glory, through Christ our Lord. Amen.