From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   March 9th - St. Catherine of Bologna, Poor Clare V (RM)   
    (also known as Catherine de'Vigri)   
      
   Born in Bologna, Italy, September 8, 1413; died there on March 9, 1463; name   
   added to the Roman Martyrology by Clement VIII in 1592; canonized 1712 by   
   Clement XI; bull of canonization published by Benedict XIII in 1724.   
      
   At age 11, the patrician Catherine de'Vigri became lady-in-waiting to   
   Margherita d'Este at the ducal court of Nicholas III d'Este at Ferrara,   
   where she was given a good education. After Margherita's wedding, Catherine   
   (age 13) joined a sisterhood of virgins in Ferrara, who lived according to   
   the rule of the Franciscan tertiaries. Largely as a result of her efforts,   
   this company formed itself into a convent of Poor Clares.   
      
   In 1432 Catherine took solemn vows and soon became mistress of novices. In   
   1456, she traveled to Bologna to oversee the building of the Poor Clares'   
   Corpus Christi Convent and became abbess of the new foundation. She was an   
   effective novice mistress and superioress. Catherine's incredible zeal and   
   solitude for the souls of sinners made her pour forth unceasing prayers and   
   tears for their salvation.   
      
   From an early age Catherine was subject to visions, some of which from their   
   nature and effects she judged to be diabolical temptations, while others   
   were consolatory and for her good. One Christmas she had a vision of the   
   Blessed Virgin with the infant Jesus in her arms, which is reproduced often   
   in art since.   
      
   The learned saint recorded her soul's struggles and mystical experiences in   
   a Latin work entitled Manifestations. She also wrote Latin hymns, and   
   composed and painted-including a self- portrait that is really quite good.   
   The transfiguration of her prematurely aged, plain features often observed   
   in her life was even more remarkable after her death. She also had a talent   
   for calligraphy and miniature painting; a breviary written out and   
   ornamented by her still exists at the Bologna convent.   
      
   Her life and the occurrences after her death were described by an   
   eyewitness, Blessed Illuminata Bembi:   
      
   "Thereupon the grave was prepared and when they lowered the corpse which was   
   not enshrined in a coffin, it exhaled a scent of surpassing sweetness,   
   filling the air all around. The two sisters, who had descended into the   
   grave, out of compassion for her lovely and radiant face covered it with   
   cloth and placed a rough board some inches above the corpse, so that the   
   clods of earth should not touch it. However they fixed it so awkwardly that   
   when the grave was filled up with earth it covered the face and body   
   nevertheless.   
      
   "The sisters came to visit the churchyard often, wept, prayed, and read by   
   the grave and always noticed the sweet odor in the air around it. As there   
   were no flowers or herbs near the grave- nothing but arid earth-they came to   
   believe that it arose from the grave itself.   
      
   "Soon miracles occurred, for some who visited the grave in ill health were   
   cured. Therefore the sisters repented that they had interred her without a   
   coffin, and complained to their father confessor. He a man of sound judgment   
   asked what they wanted to do about it.   
      
   "We replied: 'To take her out again, place her in a wooden coffin and rebury   
   her.' He was taken aback by this request it was 18 days after her death and   
   he thought that by now the corpse must be decomposed. We, however, pointed   
   out the sweet odor, and finally he granted permission to disinter her,   
   provided no smell of putrefaction would make itself felt during the digging.   
      
   "When we found the body and laid the face free, we found it crushed and   
   disfigured by the weight of the board placed above it. Also, in digging,   
   three of the sisters had damaged it with the spade. So we placed her in a   
   coffin, and made ready for re-interment, but by some strange impulse were   
   driven to place her for some time under the portal.   
      
   "Here the crushed nose and the whole face gradually regained their natural   
   form. The deceased became white of color, lovely, intact, as if still alive,   
   the nails were not blackened, and she exhaled a delicious odor. All the   
   sisters were deeply stirred; the scent spread throughout the church and   
   convent, attaching itself to the hands that had touched her, and there   
   seemed to be no explanation for it.   
      
   "Now after having been quite pale, she began to change color and to flush,   
   while a most deliciously scented sweat began to pour from her body. Changing   
   from paleness to the color of glowing ember, she shed an aromatic liquid   
   which appeared sometime like clear water and then like a mixture of water   
   and blood.   
      
   "Full of wonder and perplexity we called our confessor; the rumor had   
   already spread to the town and he hurried to us accompanied by a learned   
   physician, Maestro Giovanni Marcanova, and they closely observed and touched   
   the body. Others joined them: priests, physicians, laymen." The whole of   
   Italy converged to see her, and her body was placed on a chair in a special   
   chapel behind bars and glass, and to this day is kept there in a mummified   
   condition (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth,   
   Schamoni).   
      
   In art, Saint Catherine is a Poor Clare carrying the Christ Child. Sometimes   
   she is shown enthroned with a cross, book, a cross on her breast and bare   
   feet (Roeder). Catherine is the patron of artists (Attwater).   
      
      
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   "Believe me that the mortification of the senses in seeing, hearing, and   
   speaking, is worth much more than wearing chains or haircloth"   
   -St. Francis de, Sales   
      
   St. Aloysius Gonzaga was admirable for mortification of the eyes, for it is   
   narrated in his Life that he never looked any woman in the face. After he   
   had served the Empress as page for two years, a report was spread that she   
   was coming into Italy, where he happened to be, and some congratulated him   
   on the prospect of seeing his mistress again. But he replied: "I shall not   
   recognize her except by her voice, for I do not know her face:" His rare   
   mortification was well rewarded by God even in his life, for he was never   
   attacked by temptations of the flesh.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". February - Humility)   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   16 For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the   
   concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the   
   Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:16)   
      
      
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   A Hymn to our Blessed Mother, Momento Salutaris. It is taken from the Hour   
   of Sext of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Little Office   
   is available from both St. Bonaventure Press and Angelus Press, and online   
   at http://members.tripod.com/~gunhouse/.   
      
   Memento salutis auctor.   
   Quod nostri quondam corporis,   
   Ex illibata virgine   
   Nascendo, formam sumpseris.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)