From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   April 29th - St. Catherine of Siena   
      
       St. Catherine of Siena deliberately told popes, queens and kings how to   
   behave. She was spontaneous, unafraid of authority and fearless in the face   
   of   
   death. She was a Dominican religious who corresponded with Popes and   
   peasants   
   alike.   
      
       Born in 1347, at Siena, Italy, Saint Catherine lived through the Black   
   Death, famine and numerous civil wars. During her lifetime the papal   
   residence   
   moved from Rome to Avignon and back again, and the great western Schism   
   pitted   
   Pope against anti-pope.   
      
       Even at a young age, Catherine sensed the troubled society around her   
   and   
   wanted to help. Childishly she dreamed of dressing up like a man to become a   
   Dominican friar; more than once she ran into the street to kiss the ground   
   where   
   Dominicans walked. l   
      
       Catherine's parents tried hard to discourage her from becoming   
   religious,   
   but eventually, when she was about sixteen-years-old, Catherine, with the   
   help   
   of the Holy Spirit, was permitted to enter the sisters of Penance of St   
   Dominic,   
   the Mantellate.   
      
       During her life as a religious, St. Catherine had numerous visions and   
   long   
   ecstasies, but she is most remembered for her writings, which eventually led   
   to   
   her being declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970.   
      
       Truth be known, she didn't learn how to write until the end of her life,   
   but   
   that never stopped her. She dictated her literary masterpieces, sometimes   
   reciting three documents to three secretaries at the same time.   
      
       Her bold letters, even today, have a way of shocking the reader into   
   reality. The style of her letters was lean and direct. She sometimes broke   
   with   
   polite convention. For example, during the Great Western Schism, in defense   
   of   
   Pope Urban VI, she rebuked three Italian cardinals who were supporting the   
   anti-pope, writing to them, "what made you do this? You are flowers who shed   
   no   
   perfume, but stench that makes the whole world reek." 2   
      
       These words are strong, and it is not recommended that we imitate them.   
   St.   
   Catherine had a unique call from God, which Pope Paul VI referred to as her   
   "charism of exhortation." 3 it was her great love and fidelity to the Pope   
   and   
   college of bishops that prompted her to respond to God's urgings that she be   
   forthright with those who were against the Vicar of Christ.   
      
       Wanting Pope Gregory XI to leave his residency in Avignon and return to   
   Rome, and knowing the Supreme Pontiff was afraid of being poisoned,   
   Catherine   
   wrote to him, "Be not a timorous child, but manly . . ." 4 she spoke to him   
   as a   
   loving daughter would. In other parts of her letters to the Popes she used   
   an   
   affectionate pet name for them: Babbo, which means Daddy.   
      
       To Giovanna, the Queen of Naples, who supported the anti-pope and was   
   accused of murdering her husband, St. Catherine wrote, "You know that you do   
   ill, but like a sick and passionate woman, you let yourself be guided by   
   your   
   passions." 5   
      
       Catherine risked death by sending such words to the authorities of her   
   time.   
   But she was not afraid. "I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, not in myself"   
   was   
   one of her favorite prayers. 6   
      
       There was a dramatic moment in St. Catherine's life, when she proved to   
   the   
   public that death, for her, had no sting.   
      
       Once, a young man, Nicolo di Toldo, sentenced to be beheaded, asked   
   Catherine to come to his execution. The saint caressed his head as it lay on   
   the   
   block. Later, she wrote to Blessed Raymond of Capua about the event. "I have   
   just taken a head into my hands and have been moved so deeply that my heart   
   cannot grasp it . . . I waited for him at the place of execution. . . he   
   arrived   
   like a meek lamb and when he saw me he began to smile. He asked me to make   
   the   
   sign of the cross over him . . . I stretched out his neck and bent down to   
   him,   
   reminding him of the blood of the Lamb. His lips kept murmuring only "Jesus"   
   and   
   "Catherine," and he was still murmuring when I received his head into my   
   hands .   
   . . my soul rested in peace and quiet, so aware of the fragrance of blood   
   that I   
   could not remove the blood which had splashed onto me." 7   
      
       It was with this kind of courage that Catherine approached the Vicar of   
   Christ. She succeeded in convincing Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome, but   
   he   
   soon died and Pope Urban VI took his place. Relentless, Catherine began to   
   write   
   to the new Pope. She was direct with him and told him he needed to control   
   his   
   temper. Pope Urban VI appreciated her forthright counsel. When an anti-pope   
   was   
   supported and the Great Western Schism began, Urban VI invited Catherine to   
   Rome. He needed her support. She went to Rome in 1378 and from there wrote   
   regular letters to state and Church leaders in defense of Pope Urban's sole   
   right to the papal throne. Every day she walked to St. Peter's Basilica and   
   prayed for church unity. After two years of this exhaustive work, she died   
   in   
   1380 at age thirty-three.   
      
       St. Catherine's impact on her society was so profound that Europe was   
   unable   
   to forget her. Only eighty-one years after her death, she was canonized by   
   Pope   
   Pius II. Even now, Rome recalls her aptitude for unprecedented action. For   
   example, Pope John Paul II recently honored her "impassioned liveliness" and   
   "freedom of initiative," when he marked the 25th anniversary of her being   
   named   
   one of the FIRST women Doctors of the Church. 8   
      
   by Mary Ann Sullivan   
      
      
       Notes   
   1. Raymond of Capua, The Life of Catherine of Siena, pp. 33-34.   
   2. St. Catherine of Siena, Letters of St. Catherine of Siena, Vida D.   
   Scudder,   
   (ed). P. 278.   
   3. O'Driscoll, Mary, O.P., Catherine of Siena, p. 38.   
   4. Ibid., Scudder. P. 185   
   5. Ibid., Scudder. P. 287   
   6. Raymond of Capua, The Life of Catherine of Siena, pp. 99-100.   
   7. O'Driscoll, Mary, O.P., Catherine of Siena: Selected Spiritual Writings,   
   pp.   
   41-42.   
   8. Pope John Paul II, Oct. 1, 1995, Letter to Archbishop Gaetano Bonicelli   
   of   
   Siena, Italy.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Then this soul exclaimed with ardent love,-"Oh, inestimable Charity, sweet   
   above   
   all sweetness! Who would not be inflamed by such great love? What heart can   
   help   
   breaking at such tenderness? It seems, oh, Abyss of Charity, as if you were   
   mad   
   with love of Your creature, as if You could not live without him, and yet   
   You   
   are our God who have no heed of us, Your greatness does not increase through   
   our   
   good, for You are unchangeable, and our evil causes You no harm, for You are   
   the   
   Supreme and Eternal Goodness. What moves You to do us such mercy through   
   pure   
   love, and on account of no debt that You owed us, or need that You had of   
   us? We   
   are rather Your guilty and malignant debtors. Wherefore, if I understand   
   aright,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)