September 9, 2018 - "Saint Catherine of Siena"

Last week I wrote about Saint Peter Damian, a Doctor of the Church who was a great reformer of the Church nearly 1,000 years ago.  Today I want to write about another Doctor of the Church who was a great reformer in her era about three hundred years later.  This is Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-80).  Catherine was the twenty-fourth of twenty-five children.  According to the Life of Catherine (hereafter Life) written by Fr. Raymond of Capua, her Dominican confessor, she made a vow of virginity at the age of seven after receiving a vision of Christ.  Eleven years later, over the objections of her family who wanted her to settle down and marry, she received the habit of the mantellate, pious women, usually widows, who were associated with the Dominican order.  For the next three years she retired to her room and lived a life similar to that of the enclosed women or anchoresses, popular throughout the Middle Ages.  During this time period she learned to read and engaged in an intensive prayer life that resulted in a famous vision in which, like her legendary namesake Saint Catherine of Alexandria, she was espoused to Christ.  Catherine interpreted this vision as a call to leave her enclosure and to engage in an evangelical lifestyle.  For this reason at the age of twenty-one, she began to go out to look after the poor and sick in her native city.  Gradually she also gathered a group of followers around her to hear her reflection on Christian life.  In the process Catherine became a model of someone in involved in contemplation who would then pass on to others the fruits of her contemplation, particularly through the works of mercy.  She did this all in the service of church reform.
 
Even though Catherine’s role in Church reform was unusual for women of her time, there were certainly precedents to it.  Women teachers before Catherine called on the example of the legendary accounts of Mary Magdalene that had been given an apostolic status.  Other fourteenth century women in Italy who were apostolic women teachers included Angela of Foligno (d. 1309) and Birgitta of Sweden (d. 1373).  Both Angela and Birgitta, like Catherine, appealed to their direct visionary contact with God to authorize their teachings.  Like them Catherine had to struggle to gain acceptance of her Dominican confessors and other ecclesiastical figures that her revelations could be conformed to Church teaching and were helpful for the salvation of souls.  Catherine certainly had her detractors both early on and later in her life.  Raymond of Capua writes, “She was scarcely able to do a single act of devotion in public without suffering calumnies [false and malicious accusations], impediments, and persecutions, especially from people who should have been more favorable to her” (Life 3.7).  Catherine persevered because she was confident in her message from God.  The years of her public life saw her gain ever greater fame as a teacher, guide, and conduit for God’s message to the world.
 
Part of the reason for the international reputation of Birgitta and Catherine was the dangerous state of the church during the Avignon captivity of the papacy.  Both Birgitta and Catherine came to be recognized as representatives of God’s call to return the papacy to Italy, the end of the fractious Italian city-states, and the general reform of the church in head and members.  In 1376 Catherine undertook a journey to Avignon, France to mediate between Pope Gregory XI and Florence, which the Pope had put under interdict (an ecclesiastical penalty in which the public celebration of sacred rites is forbidden). 

While she was in Avignon, she urged the Pope to return to Rome.  Her pleadings with him were successful.  Pope Gregory finally agreed to do this and returned to Rome in 1377. 
 
The next year Pope Gregory asked her to return to Florence to try to arrange for a cessation of the hostilities between the Holy Father and the city.  On March 27, 1377, Pope Gregory died.  The election of his successor, Urban VI, soon led to a split in the ranks of the cardinals.  The French faction, dissatisfied with the turmoil in Italy and the actions of the new pope, left for Anagni (an ancient town in central Italy) where they elected Robert of Geneva as Pope Clement VII.  He soon returned to Avignon to begin what is called the Great Western Schism, which divided Western Christendom from 1378 to 1417.  From the beginning of the schism. Catherine remained a strong supporter of Urban VI, the Roman claimant.  He called her to Rome in November 1378, where, even though her health was failing, she continued to write letters of his behalf.  Most of her twenty-six prayers date from this time until her death on April 29, 1380.
 
At the beginning of a general audience on November 24, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI made these remarks in a general audience that he devoted to the life and influence of Catherine of Siena:
 
Today, I would like to talk to you about a woman who played an eminent role in the history of the Church:  St. Catherine of Siena.  The century in which she lived—the 14^th—was a troubled period in the life of the Church and throughout the social context of Italy and Europe.  Yet, even in the most difficult times, the Lord does not cease to bless his People, bringing forth Saints who give a jolt to minds and hearts, provoking conversion and renewal.
 
Catherine is one of these and still today speaks to us and impels us to walk courageously toward holiness to be ever more fully disciples of the lord.
 
Until next week,
Fr. John