Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin(d.1380)

EWTN ^ | 00/00/00 | John J.Crawley & Co Inc(Publisher)-Lives of the Saints

[Lady In Blue]

ping

[JMJ333]

Thank you, LIB. I have missed your saint posts. Its very nice to see you. :)

[eastsider]

Thank you for this post on my favorite saint. Shouldn't her feast day be April 29th instead of the 30th?

[Salvation]

Bumping of Feast Day of St. Catehrine of Siena, 4-29-04

[eastsider]

LOL -- I had completely forgotten about that!!! Has it really been a year already? : )

Have a great St. Catherine's Day, Salvation!

[Salvation]

I laughed when I saw it too.

We could use a couple St. Catherine of Siena's during these modern times, couldn't we?

What a super -- saint!

[nickcarraway]

St. Catherine of Siena, pray for us.

[Lady In Blue]

Thanks for bringing this one back! I was going to put a new post in tomorrow but now thanks to you I won't have to.

[Salvation]

Bump to the top on 04-29-05, Feast of St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church.

[Salvation]

BTTT!

[Salvation]

St. Catherine of Siena

 

 

[Salvation]

American Cathlic's Saint of the Day

April 29, 2005

St. Catherine of Siena

(1347-1380)

The value Catherine makes central in her short life and which sounds clearly and consistently through her experience is complete surrender to Christ. What is most impressive about her is that she learns to view her surrender to her Lord as a goal to be reached through time.

She was the 23rd child of Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa and grew up as an intelligent, cheerful and intensely religious person. Catherine disappointed her mother by cutting off her hair as a protest against being overly encouraged to improve her appearance in order to attract a husband. Her father ordered her to be left in peace and she was given a room of her own for prayer and meditation.

She entered the Dominican Third Order at 18 and spent the next three years in seclusion, prayer and austerity. Gradually a group of followers gathered around her—men and women, priests and religious. An active public apostolate grew out of her contemplative life. Her letters, mostly for spiritual instruction and encouragement of her followers, began to take more and more note of public affairs. Opposition and slander resulted from her mixing fearlessly with the world and speaking with the candor and authority of one completely committed to Christ. She was cleared of all charges at the Dominican General Chapter of 1374.

Her public influence reached great heights because of her evident holiness, her membership in the Dominican Third Order, and the deep impression she made on the pope. She worked tirelessly for the crusade against the Turks and for peace between Florence and the pope

In 1378, the Great Schism began, splitting the allegiance of Christendom between two, then three, popes and putting even saints on opposing sides. Catherine spent the last two years of her life in Rome, in prayer and pleading on behalf of the cause of Urban VI and the unity of the Church. She offered herself as a victim for the Church in its agony. She died surrounded by her "children."

Catherine ranks high among the mystics and spiritual writers of the Church. In 1970 Paul VI named her and Teresa of Avila as doctors of the Church. In recent years, it has been suggested that she (among other possibilities) should be named patron of the Internet. Her spiritual testament is found in The Dialogue.

Comment:

Though she lived her life in a faith experience and spirituality far different from that of our own time, Catherine of Siena stands as a companion with us on the Christian journey in her undivided effort to invite the Lord to take flesh in her own life. Events which might make us wince or chuckle or even yawn fill her biographies: a mystical experience at six, childhood betrothal to Christ, stories of harsh asceticism, her frequent ecstatic visions. Still, Catherine lived in an age which did not know the rapid change of twenty-first-century mobile America. The value of her life for us today lies in her recognition of holiness as a goal to be sought over the course of a lifetime.

Quote:

Catherine's book Dialogue contains four treatises—her testament of faith to the spiritual world. She wrote, "No one should judge that he has greater perfection because he performs great penances and gives himself in excess to the staying of the body than he who does less, inasmuch as neither virtue nor merit consists therein; for otherwise he would be an evil case, who for some legitimate reason was unable to do actual penance. Merit consists in the virtue of love alone, flavored with the light of true discretion without which the soul is worth nothing."

[Salvation]

Saint of the Day Ping!

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[Lady In Blue]

Bump and thanks!

[Salvation]

I didn't know until today that St. Catherine of Siena was a lay-woman. Third Order of the Dominicans, but nevertheless still a lay woman. (And yet a doctor of the church to boot!)

[Tribune7]

Wonderful post. Thanks.

[annalex]

Andrea Vanni, St Catherine of Siena, San Domenico, Siena

[Salvation]

BTTT on the Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, April, 29, 2006!

[Salvation]

St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin, Doctor of the Church 1380 (April 30)

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