St. Catherine of Siena

It is hard to say something new about someone whom I think was one of the most impressive women in the history of the church. Few women have been so determined and valiant in speaking the truth as St. Catherine of Siena who “in season and out of season”, spoke to any one, from prisoners and prostitutes to kings and popes. She was someone who had the determination to teach herself to read and write until she became the Doctor of the Church we know today.

We have the luxury of entering into her spiritual depths, thanks to the writing of Bl. Raymond of Capua. A saint knows better what makes a saint, so what could be better than his firsthand account of her deeds.

“… while she was praying in the garden, the satellites of Satan, came rushing in with sticks and daggers, shouting, “Where is this infamous woman? Where is she?” Hearing the shouts, the virgin, as though she had been invited to a wedding feast, made ready for the martyrdom she had so long desired and went forward to meet one of them, who with dagger unsheathed was shouting the most loudly of all. Smiling she knelt down and said to him, “I am Catherine; do what the Lord permits with me! But on behalf of the Almighty I order you not to touch any of the people with me!” At this the wicked man was so taken aback that he no longer had the strength to strike and was ashamed to find himself in her presence.

We also have access to her wisdom through her own writtings in her letters, her prayers and above all, her book. What follows is just an excerpt from one of her letters,

We have three chief foes. First, the devil, who is weak if I do not make him strong by consenting to his malice. He loses his strength in the power of the Blood of the humble and spotless Lamb. The world with all its honours and delights, which is our foe, is also weak, save in so far as we strengthen it to hurt us by possessing these things with intemperate love. In the gentleness, humility, poverty, in the shame and disgrace of Christ crucified, this tyrant the world is destroyed. Our third foe, our own frailty, was made weak; but reason strengthens it by the union which God has made with our humanity, arraying the Word with our humanity, and by the death of that sweet and loving Word, Christ crucified. So we are strong, and our foes are weak.

It is very true, then, that we are more cruel to ourselves than our foes are. For without our help they cannot kill nor hurt us, since God has not given them to us that we might be vanquished, but that we might vanquish them. Then our fortitude and constancy are proved. But I do not see that we can avoid such cruelty and become merciful without the light of most holy faith, opening the eye of the mind to behold how displeasing it is to God and harmful to soul and body, and how pleasing to God and useful to our salvation is mercy.