Catherine of Siena

Catherine of Siena
St. Catherine of Siena. Detail of a work by Domenico Beccafumi, c. 1515
Virgin and Doctor of Church
Born	1347-03-25 in Siena, Italy
Died	1380-04-29 in Rome, Italy
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Canonized	1461 by Pope Pius II
Feast	April 29
Attributes	Dominican habit, lily, book, crucifix, heart, crown of thorns, stigmata, ring, dove
Patronage	against fire, bodily ills, diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, Europe, firefighters, illness, Italy, miscarriages, nurses, people ridiculed for their piety, sexual temptation, sick people, sickness, Siena Italy, television

Saint Catherine of Siena (March 25, 1347 - April 29, 1380) was a Dominican Tertiary (lay affiliate) of the Dominican Order. She experienced a 'Mystical Marriage' with Jesus around 1366 after which she began to attend the poor. She had visions which caused her to leave a secluded life and serve in the world. She wrote many letters to popes and men and women of influence for peace between the republics, for reforms of the clergy and the papal states, and for the return of the pope to Rome from Avignon. Pope Urban VI summoned her to Rome where she lived until her death in 1380.

Biography

Catherine Benincasa was born in 1347, just four years after Julian of Norwich. She was the 23rd child out of 25 (her twin sister, the 24th, died at birth); her parents were Giacomo di Benincasa, a cloth-dyer, and his wife, Lapa Piagenti, daughter of a local poet. Their large, three storied home was situated next to the dyeworks.

A native of Siena, Catherine received no formal education. At the age of six she had a vision of Christ wearing the papal tiara, at seven she consecrated her virginity to Christ despite her family's opposition; in her eighteenth year she took the habit of the Dominican Tertiaries. The church and cloister of Saint Dominic were up the hill from her family home. Her brother-in-law's brother who lived at the house joined the Dominicans when she was very young. He, Tomaso della Fonte, became her first confessor. Wars raged everywhere, between nations, city states even within the papacy itself, followed by the plague. These were extreme times requiring extreme devotion to God in order to survive.

Her frustrated parents tried to marry her against her wishes, to which she cut off all her hair infuriating her parents to make her the servant of the house responsible for all the chores. She was showered with insults and humiliation. She fell into ecstasy while turning the spit one day and rolled in the ashes yet revived unharmed. But she rejoiced at being able to serve her family, as if they were the "Holy family" of God .

Again frustrated with her unwillingness to accept marriage, they did not allow her a refuge for prayer. She turned inward and created her own sanctuary in her mind, "a secret cell...an inner cell which no one could take away from her" (Life 43). More and more she felt the protective covering of Christ, "clothed in Christ's flesh." This 'covering' kept her warm even in winter.

She even allowed herself to be scalded at the baths when she slipped away from her mother. The battle ended when her father, upon entering her room, saw a white dove above Catherine while she prayed. He realized her commission was sincere and allowed her to have her own room and the freedom to offer alms to the poor, much to the chagrin of her siblings who locked their doors to avoid the loss of their valuables. He forbade anyone to interfere with her vocation.

Ascetic tradition

Catherine now wore a habit and white veil which showed her to be a mantellata, a daughter of Saint Dominic. She chose to become a tertiary, a member of the Sisters of Penance, mostly widows, who lived in their own homes. Catherine caught chicken pox which left welcomed scars on her face, allowing her beauty to no longer inspire the idea of marriage in others, and lived at her own home rather than in a convent. She practiced acts of single-minded mortification, wearing a tight metal chain around her waist and carried on vigils and fasting. Her zealous use of "the discipline", a leather thong used in the monastic tradition, caused much pain. This intense practice, a prioress would probably not have permitted. She is especially famous for fasting by living for long periods of time on nothing but the Blessed Sacrament. As she turned sincerely inward, her contemplative life opened up to visions so powerful and real. God guided her that visions from God were at first fearful but left the receiver with "greater knowledge of truth in the soul." Whereby, demonic visions are at first sweet, but pain and nausea follow. (Life 73)

Catherine shares that when a seeker looks inwardly long enough, any illusions about oneself will be dispelled. In that deep silence our deepest and truest self can speak to us. Thus Apostle Paul said, "Not I, not I...but Christ liveth in me."

She prayed in her room for over three years and discovered that the foundation for knowing God came from, "Know that you are she who is not and I am He who is." She wanted to conform herself to Christ in suffering and regard all "bitter things as sweet," her biographer and confessor, Raymond of Capua wrote.

Mystical visions and acetic life

In about 1366, Catherine experienced what she described in her letters as a 'Mystical Marriage' with Jesus, after which she began to tend the sick and serve the poor. She writes that she received an invisible betrothal ring from Jesus, which is the gift of seeing into souls. In 1370 she received a series of visions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, in a near death experience. She told Raymond that she saw, "Everything in the other world that is to us invisible." But, upon awaking, she said, "and now I am thrust back again into the prison of the body."

After this deep experience she heard a command to leave her withdrawn life and enter the public life of the world, "Daughter, conceive and give birth! Give birth to a race of men that shall hate sin and love Me with a great and burning love." She first served her growing family which she hadn't seen much in the three years of her self-exile seeking communion with God. She served them and loved them and sat with her father as he died. She also buried six nieces and nephews who died of the plague.

She received many men and women seeking her advice. She became the counselor and spiritual teacher to those who suffered. Miracles and exorcisms were attributed to her interventions.

Catherine's contemporaries did not consider her behavior neurotic, in fact, they believed completely in the non-corporeal world and supernatural occurrences. Many sought, and some found, the inner promptings of God which led them to the religious life.

At about twenty-five years of age she ceased eating much and even when she prayed to eat normally she usually threw up her food. She also slept little and thus her weight halved and her physical strength wained. Yet spiritually she became stronger and stronger. In a letter to Raymond, concerning her inability to eat food, she wrote: "This is how we learn to enjoy eating souls. Souls are a food so sweet and mild that they make us fat, till we can enjoy no other food."

Service and political peace efforts

Catherine dedicated her life to helping the ill and the poor, where she took care of them in hospitals or homes. She rounded up a group of followers, both women and men, and traveled with them along Northern Italy where they asked for a reform of the clergy, the launch of a new crusade and advised people that repentance and renewal could be done through "the total love for God." Catherine also dedicated her life to the study of religious texts.

She began to write letters to men and women in authority, especially begging for peace between the republics and principalities of Italy and for the return of the papacy from Avignon to Rome. She carried on a long correspondence with Pope Gregory XI, also asking him to reform the clergy and the administration of the Papal States. In her letters to the Pope, she often referred to him affectionately as "Papa" or "Daddy" ("Babbo" in Italian).

In June of 1376 Catherine went to Avignon herself as ambassador of Florence to make peace between the Papal States, but was unsuccessful. She impressed the Pope so much, however, that he returned his administration to Rome in January of 1377.

During the Western Schism of 1378 she was an adherent of Pope Urban VI, who summoned her to Rome, and stayed at Pope Urban VI's court and tried to convince nobles and cardinals of his legitimacy. She lived in Rome until her death in 1380. The problems of the Western Schism would trouble her until the end of her life.

Catherine died of a stroke in the spring of 1380 in Rome. She died at the age of thirty-three, the same age at which Jesus Christ died. The people of Siena wished to have her body. There is a myth that explains how Catherine's head was able to get to Siena. The people of Siena knew they could not get her whole body past Roman guards and decided to take only her head which they placed in a bag. They were still stopped by guards and they prayed to Catherine to help them because they knew Catherine would rather be in Siena. When they opened the bag to show the guards it no longer held her head, but was full of rose petals. Once they got back to Siena they reopened the bag and her head reappeared. Because of this myth, Catherine is often seen holding a rose.

Theology and teachings

Her Dialogue, which she wrote near the end of her life, is rich and complex in its expression of religious life. It is the summation of everything she had learned and experienced in her spiritual life. It is a difficult read because of its directness and intensity. In it are four petitions: the first for Catherine herself, the second for the reform of the church, the third for the welfare of the world and peace, and the fourth is for divine providence for everything.

She also wrote about her visions and life experiences with God in her more than 300 letters, published under the title: Letters of Catherine Benincasa. For these and other reasons, she was declared a "Doctor of the Church" by the Catholic church in 1970.

Catherine experienced a torment of temptations during her mystical period, some even sexual in nature that alarmed her deeply. She prayed and struggled with these 'demons' for days and yet they didn't leave her. She wondered where God was and why he didn't dispel them. Jesus seemed to have vanished. She lost her strength in the struggle but in the last moment she remembered to accept "the bitter as sweet," and embrace the suffering these horrific experiences gave her. She found the magic solution, when the demons said they would persecute her into hell, she laughed and even said she might find them entertaining! Like Julian of Norwich she learned to laugh at the devil, and he was gone.

She asked Jesus where he had been and he replied that he had been in her heart the whole time. She wondered why then had these horrible images been in her mind, he replied that had he not been there she would have found the visions pleasurable. She taught that God is closer to us when we think he is farthest away. She told her friend and biographer, Raymond, that the problem was that these things had been in her mind, she finally realized that she was not her mind.

Popularity

Catherine's popularity grew so much that where ever she went crowds followed her or joined her. Many people came out of the hills to be with her. After being examined early on for authenticity, in a papal bull, the papacy required that several priests travel with her to handle the spontaneous confessions that came from the people near her. During her stay at the castle in Rocca d'Orcia, four more priests had to join her because of the huge throngs of people. Raymond described his own and two other's exhaustion as they heard confessions far into the night not even being able to eat dinner.

Legacy

File:Statue of Catherine of siena (benincasa).jpg

Statue of Catherine of Siena, just outside Siena, Italy.

Catherine's letters are considered one of the great works of early Tuscan literature. More than 300 letters have survived. Her major work is the Dialogue of Divine Providence.

Pope Pius II canonized Catherine in 1461. Her feast day is April 29 in the new Roman calendar and April 30 in the traditional Roman calendar. Pope Paul VI bestowed on her in 1970 the title of Doctor of the Church - making her the first woman, along with Saint Teresa of Ávila, ever to receive this honor. In 1999 Pope John Paul II made her one of Europe's patron saints. Saint Catherine is also the patroness of the historically Catholic American sorority, Theta Phi Alpha.

Catherine's body is currently interred in Rome, in the basilica Santa Maria sopra Minerva near the Pantheon. Her head and right thumb are in Siena, and her foot in Venice. St.Catherine is the patron saint of fire prevention and of Italy. She is a doctor of the church because she challenged great people like the popes (which was an achievement at the time) and many people with high authority toward goodness and peace.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Cavallini, Giuliana. Catherine of Siena. Outstanding Christian thinkers. London: Geoffrey Chapman 1998. ISBN 9780225667677
• Catherine, and Suzanne Noffke. The Letters of St. Catherine of Siena, Binghamton, N.Y.: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton 1988. ISBN 9780866980364
• Curtayne, Alice. Saint Catherine of Siena, Rockford Il.: Tan Books and Publ., 1929/1980. ASIN B0006XVUPK
• Flinders, Carol Lee. Enduring Grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics, HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN 0062502840
• Jorgensen, Johannes, Ingeborg Lund, trans. Saint Catherine of Siena, London: Longmans, Green, 1939. ASIN B0006AO9F6
• Luongo, F. Thomas. The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press 2006. ISBN 9780801443954
• Nofke, Suzanne, O.P., trans. and Giuliana Cavallini. Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue, N.Y.: Paulist Press, 1980. ISBN 978-0809122332
• Raymond of Capua, George Lamb, trans. The Life of St. Catherine of Siena, Chicago, Il.: P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 1960/2003. ISBN 978-0895557612

External Links

Retrieved July 7, 2007.

• Works by Catherine of Siena. Project Gutenberg www.gutenberg.org
• "St. Catherine of Siena" www.newadvent.org
• Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin www.ewtn.com
• Letters of Catherine from Gutenberg www.gutenberg.org
• St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Springfield, Massachusetts. www.scsparish.4lpi.com
• St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Great Falls, Virginia. st-catherines.net
• St. Catherine of Siena Church in Reseda, California. www.catherineofsiena.org
• Saint Catherine of Siena www.intratext.com
• Drawn by Love. The Mysticism of Catherine of Siena www.drawnbylove.com

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