SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA
Doctor of the Church
His feast is celebrated on April 29.
Biography of Saint Catherine of Siena
Catalina was born in Siena (Italy) on March 25, 1347, on the feast day of the Annunciation of the Virgin, which that year coincided with Palm Sunday. Her parents were Jacobo Benincasa, a leather dyer, and Lapa Piacenti. They had a total of 25 children, Catalina being the penultimate. From her father I inherited kindness of heart, charity towards the poor. From her mother I inherited a great love for work and an admirable energy to undertake difficult tasks and overcome difficulties.
Catherine was so immensely devoted to her Savior that He was the center of all her many mystical experiences. But we will see how the saint had a very tender, loving and trusting relationship with the Blessed Virgin, and in a significant number of events in her life, it was in the Mother of God that she sought her refuge, or it was the Virgin who came in your aid.
As a child, she began to pray to the Queen of Siena, and she was often heard praying the Ave Maria down the stairs of her house. One day when he was 6 years old and while walking through the streets of Siena with his brother, he raised his eyes and suddenly saw on the roof of the Church of Santo Domingo the King of Kings, on a splendid throne, dressed as the Pope. with his Papal crown; and with him were Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and Saint John. Jesus, looking tenderly at Catherine, slowly and solemnly blessed her, making three times the sign of the Cross over her.
From that moment, Catherine ceased to be a child and fell deeply in love with her beloved Savior. That vision and that blessing were so powerful that afterward she couldn’t think of anything but the hermits, and how to imitate them.
The following year, before a painting of Our Lady, she offered herself to the Lord who had blessed her. At this crucial moment, I prayed to Our Lady: “Most Holy Virgin, do not look at my weakness, but give me the grace to have as a husband the one whom I love with all my soul, your Most Holy Son, Our only Lord, Jesus Christ! I promise al and you, that I will never have another husband.”
When Catherine was twelve years old, her family wanted to force her into marriage. She, after consulting with a Dominican priest about her vow of chastity and how to defend it against this threat, cut her hair, as a sign of having cut off from the world. Her parents did everything possible to prevent her from having time for prayer and solitude. They put her to work all the time, treating her very badly, as a servant of her family. Catherine humbly accepted this rejection of her family, and she acted as if she were in the house of Nazareth, taking the Blessed Virgin as her only mother.
Her sisters and friends persuaded her to participate in their amusements and vanities. But she soon repented and it pained her for the rest of her life. I considered it as the greatest infidelity of hers to her husband from heaven of which she was guilty.
With his example of humility, obedience and charity before his family, he conquered them and then they allowed him to be a member of the Third Order of Santo Domingo and to have a private room. There he began to perform heroic acts of mortification. He fed mainly on grasses and dressed in very coarse cloth. He assisted with great generosity the poor, the sick, consoled prisoners. His submission of his own will to the Lord, even in his penances, gave true value to what he did.
But his mystical experiences did not take away the evidence. He suffers from his temper which he mastered with great patience. In the midst of his ailments she prayed without ceasing to atone for his offenses and purify his heart.
On the night before her profession in the order, after undergoing a severe ordeal in which the devil appeared to her as a very handsome and elegant gentleman and offered her a silk suit with sparkling jewels, Catherine threw herself on the crucifix. and shouted: “My only one, my beloved husband, You know that I have never wanted anyone but you. Come to my aid, my beloved Savior!”
Suddenly, in front of Catherine was the Mother of God, holding a golden dress in her hands, and with her soft and tender voice, the Virgin told her: “This dress, my daughter, I have brought from the heart of my Son. It was hidden in the wound in his side as in a basket of gold, and I made it for you with my own hands.” Then with fervent love and humility, Catherine bowed her head, while the Virgin imposed this heavenly dress on her “.
Finally, in 1365, at the age of 18, he received the habit of the third Dominican order.
For three years after receiving the habit, Catherine lived in the holy solitude of her small room and in her favorite chapel. There he passed a strict training based on self-denial and spiritual development under the personal direction of Christ and his Mother. She spoke only to God, the Virgin and her confessor.
The serpent, seeing her angelic life, assaulted her seeking to destroy her virtue. She filled her imagination with the foulest representations and assaulted her heart with the lowest and most humiliating temptations. Then her soul was left in a cloud of darkness, the most severe test imaginable of her. She saw herself hundreds of times on the edge of the precipice, but always held by an invisible hand. Her weapons were fervent prayer, humility, resignation, and trust in God. In this way she overcame the trials that did much to purify her heart. Our Lord visited her after her and she said to him: “Where were you, my divine Husband, while I lay in such a fearful abandoned condition?” Jesus replied, “I was with you.” “How?!” she replied, “among the dirty abominations with which they infected my soul?! He says to her, “They were unpleasant and extremely painful for you. This conflict, therefore, was your merit, and the victory over them was due to my presence.”
The enemy also invited her to pride, sparing neither violence nor any strategy to seduce her to her vices. But humility was her defense. God rewarded her with her charity for the poor and many miracles.
One Thursday after Catherine had prayed all day with extraordinary faith, Our Lord appeared to her and said: “Since for love of Me you have renounced all earthly joys and wish to rejoice only in Me, I have solemnly resolved to celebrate My husband will marry you and take you as my wife in faith.”
As the Lord spoke, many angels appeared, His Blessed Mother, Saint John, Saint Paul and Saint Dominic (founder of the order to which she belonged). And while King David played sweet music on her harp, our loving Mother took Catherine’s hand and placed it in the hand of her Son. Then Jess put a gold ring on Catherine’s finger and said: “I, your creator and Savior, accept you as my wife and grant you a firm faith that will never fail. Fear nothing. I have placed on you the shield of faith.” and you will prevail over all your enemies.”
With the strength received from the Lord, Catherine continued to grow in her fervor and effectiveness in the apostolate, first among the people of Siena, then in Pisa, in Florence, and eventually in the Papal cities of Avignon and Rome. Catherine was attracting a group of devoted friends. All her speeches, her actions and even her silence induces the love of virtue. According to Pope Pius II, no one approached her who was not better off.
He established an inspiring correspondence that reached six volumes. He began all his letters with these words: “In the name of Jesus Christ Crucified and sweet Mary.”
Saint Catherine came to influence two popes, numerous prelates and religious. More than any other factor, it was the prayers and sacrifices of this young bride of Christ that allowed her to be an instrument of divine messages that came to be heard by the Pope.
Nannes, a powerful personage, was brought before the saint. Nothing she said to him seemed to have any effect. Then Catherine paused suddenly to offer prayers for him. At that very moment the young man began to cry, deeply converted. He reconciled himself with his enemies and devoted himself to penance. When Nannes later had many temporary calamities, the saint rejoiced knowing that it was for her spiritual good. “God purged his heart,” Catherine said, “of the poison with which he was infected by his great attachment to creatures.” Nannes gave Catherine a mansion which she, with the approval of the Pope, converted into a convent.
Many impressive conversions were achieved through his mediation. Among them, during the plague of 1374, in which he served the sick, those of two Dominican saints, Raymond of Capua and Bartholomew of Siena. The most obstinate sinners softened before the power of his exhortations.
Catalina had great compassion for the sick and cared for them with care. On a visit to Pisa, sent by her superiors, she healed many sick people and even more souls.
As Catherine devoted her entire life entirely to the service of the Crucified and her sweet Mother, she often came to her aid. On occasions when Catherine had the conversion of a hardened sinner on her hands, she confidently turned to the Mother of Mercy. She, through the Blessed Virgin, achieved the grace of resignation and peace for a young man sentenced to beheading and was able to be with him until the end.
“I waited for him at the place of execution, I waited in continuous prayer and in the presence of Mary, and before the condemned man arrived, I put my head on the brick and prayed beseeching heaven, repeating: “Mary!” I wanted to obtain grace. that she, at the last moment, would give him light and peace. And Maria did not disappoint me”.
On at least two occasions, Catalina received supernatural help from the Virgin when she was preparing food for others. Once when she was baking bread for her family; the next time she was during an epidemic, where with the same amount of flour that everyone else had, she managed to make five times as much bread.
We must not forget that Jesus granted her so much because she, for her part, was always faithful, ready to suffer everything and pass the greatest tests for His love.
Possibly the greatest of miracles was her patience in the face of severe attacks and reproaches even from ungrateful people whom she had benefited from her services. Such was the case of a leprous woman whom everyone had abandoned and whom Catherine carefully cared for. The care of her continued from her the same despite the woman’s insults. I treated another woman with sores and cancer. For a long time, Catalina overcame her natural dislike and sucked, washed and bandaged her sores. This woman, however, published the most infamous calumnies against Catherine, which were seconded by a sister from the convent. Catherine suffered in silence the violent persecution. and she continued with her affection her services until with her patience and her prayer she obtained from God the conversion of both of them.
Stephen was one of Catherine’s closest disciples. The son of a senator from Siena, this nobleman had been brought to ruin by his enemies. The saint taught him the path of the Gospel and the renunciation of the things of the world. He was the saint’s secretary and compiled her words and letters from her. He was her companion on trips to Avignon, Florence and Rome. Later, on the advice of the saint, Esteban became a Carthusian monk. He assisted the saint in her death and wrote her biography.
It was on “Mary’s Day,” as Catherine called the Sabbath, that she began to write her famous “Dialogue,” an inspired treatise on the Christian virtues.
Catherine had prayed for a long time to find a good confessor and spiritual director. She as…