Today is the great feast of St. Catherine of Siena. It used to be tomorrow, but for some reason it has reverted to this day, the actual date of her death at age 33 in 1380. May all the Cathys in our life rejoice on this their feast day!
She was a good little girl and precocious as well. At age 6 she saw Our Lord in glory with St. Peter and St. John. Isn't that appropriate that she who considered herself later in life a bride of Christ, who counseled popes and who was a great mystic saw these three men? She scolded a small boy for shocking her out of her reverie by his grabbing of her hand. "You shouldn't have done that!" she said.
It wasn't the first time this uppity medieval (almost Renaissance; she died in 1380) woman scolded men. She lived to counsel her own confessor (who admitted he had nothing to teach her); the "bella brigati", her friends and disciples as it were, of which there were many men; her Dominican superior (she was a Dominican tertiary), Raymond of Capua; and the Pope himself (first Gregory XI, then Urban VI, and Urban's antipope back in Avignon). She was a contemplative, devout, ascetic woman who loved solitude -- which couldn't have been very easy when you are one of 25 (25!) children and especially so when your "shrewish mother" - Butler's Lives, sets out to punish you by never leaving you alone for a minute, even taking away your little bedroom. Sigh, Catherine responded with good humor and meekness. Her father eventually forced Mom to give in, allowing her her solitude and a chance to don the habit of the Third Order Dominicans. For three years she never left her room except to go to Mass and confession. But in response to a vision she came out again, rejoined family life and helped out doing even the most menial tasks. Now that she was not quite such a recluse, her reputation spread and that's when she acquired her "bella brigati," including many male platonic friends. They came from all walks of life, religious and secular, and at all hours of the day and night. Apparently it was quite a scandal. But Catherine and the brigade (now called the "School of Mystics") were undaunted. They remained friends until the bitter end. Her friend Alessia, a widow, held her in her arms when she died of her second stroke.
But all that came after her great adventure, which entailed both a stunning failure and a glorious success. She it was who got the pope to return to Rome from the self-imposed exile of the papacy to Avignon during the last 70 years. But she was unsuccessful in her suit for peace between Florence and the papal states. There was just too much wishy-washiness on the one side and too much rigidity on the other. She had more luck with his successor, Urban VI, who was blessed to live his entire reign in Rome.
She lived through the plague, nursing many (she is the patron of nursing), and helping out in hospice for many of its victims. She was a great mystic, saw herself in a mystical marriage with Our Lord, complete with a wedding ring that only she could see. And she was blessed with the stigmata, which only she could see (and feel), but which was evident to all when she died.
She left us (through dictation, since she was what you might call illiterate) a great spiritual document known as "The Dialogue" and 400 letters, mostly to friends, but also to popes and prelates -- all straightforward and practical, even "dictatorial" - Butler's Lives, but wise and clear, as befitting a doctor of the Church.
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