English: Saint Catharine of Siena.
Deutsch: Hl. Katharina von Siena
Artist: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770).
Date: Circa 1746.
Collection: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie.
Source/Photographer: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Bilddatenbank
(Wikimedia Commons)
Text is from “The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 8.
Paschal Time. Book II.
The Dominican Order, which, yesterday, presented a Rose to our Risen Jesus [Editor: Feast Day of Saint Peter of Verona], now offers Him a Lily of surpassing beauty.
Saint Catharine of Siena follows Saint Peter of Verona (Saint Peter The Martyr): It is a coincidence willed by Providence, to give fresh beauty to this Season of grandest Mysteries. Our Divine King deserves everything we can offer Him; and our hearts are never so eager to give Him every possible tribute of homage as during these last days of His sojourn among us.
See how Nature is all flower and fragrance at this loveliest of her Seasons !!! The Spiritual world harmonises with the visible, and now yields her noblest and richest works in honour of Our Lord, The Author of Grace.
How grand is the Saint whose Feast comes to gladden us, today !!! She is one of the most favoured of The Holy Spouses of The Incarnate Word. She was His, wholly and unreservedly, almost from her very childhood. Though thus consecrated to Him by the Vow of Holy Virginity, she had a mission given to her by Divine Providence which required her living in the World.
But God would have her to be one of the glories of The Religious State; He, therefore, inspired her to join The Third Order of Saint Dominic. Accordingly, she wore the Habit, and fervently practised during her whole life the holy exercises of a Tertiary.
From the very commencement, there was something Heavenly about this admirable Servant of God, which, we fancy, existing in an Angel who had been sent form Heaven to live in a human body. Her longing after God gave one an idea of the vehemence wherewith The Blessed embrace The Sovereign Good on their first entrance into Heaven. In vain did the body threaten to impede the soaring of this Earthly Seraph; she subdued it by Penance, and made it obedient to the Spirit. Her body seemed to be transformed, so as to have no life of its own, but only that of the Soul.
The Blessed Sacrament was frequently the only food that she took for weeks. So complete was her union with Christ, that she received the impress of The Sacred Stigmata, and with them the most excruciating pain.
And yet, in the midst of all these supernatural favours, Saint Catharine felt the keenest interest in the necessities of others. Her zeal for their Spiritual advantage was intense, whilst her compassion for them in her corporal sufferings was that of a most loving mother. God had given her the gift of Miracles, and she was lavish in using it for the benefit of of her fellow-creatures.
Sickness and death, itself, were obedient to her command; and the prodigies witnessed at the beginning of The Church were again wrought by the humble Saint of Siena.
Her communings with God began when she was quite a child, and her ecstasies were almost without interruption. She frequently saw Our Risen Jesus, Who never left her without having honoured her either with a great consolation or with a heavy Cross. A profound knowledge of The Mysteries of our Holy Faith was another of the extraordinary Graces bestowed upon her.
So eminent, indeed, was the Heavenly Wisdom granted her by God, that she, who had received no education, used to dictate the most sublime writings, wherein she treats of Spiritual things with a clearness and eloquence to which human genius could never attain, and with a certain indescribable unction which no reader can resist.
But God would not permit such a treasure as this to lie buried in a little Town of Italy. The Saints are the supports of The Church; and, though their influence be generally hidden, yet, at times, it is open and visible, and men then learn what are the instruments which God uses for imparting Blessings to a World that would seem to deserve little else besides chastisement.
The great question, at the close of the 14th-Century, was the restoration to The Holy City of the privilege of having within its walls The Vicar of Christ, who, for sixty years, had been absent from his See.
One Saintly Soul, by merits and Prayers, known to Heaven alone, might have brought about this happy event after which the whole Church was longing; But God would have it done by a visible agency, and in the most public manner.
In the name of the widowed Rome - in the name of her own and The Church's Spouse - Saint Catharine crossed The Alps, and sought an interview with The Pontiff, who had not so much as seen Rome. The Prophetess respectfully reminded him of his duty; and, in proof of her mission being from God, she told him of a secret which was known to himself, alone. Pope Gregory XI could no longer resist; and The Eternal City welcomed its Pastor and Father.
But, at the Pontiff's death, a frightful schism, the forerunner of greater evils to follow, broke out in The Church. Saint Catharine, even to her last hour, was untiring in her endeavours to quell the storm. Having lived the same number of years as Our Saviour had done, she breathed forth her most pure Soul into The Hands of her God, and went to continue in Heaven her ministry of intercession for The Church she had loved so much on Earth, and for Souls redeemed in The Precious Blood of her Divine Spouse.
Our Risen Jesus, Who took her to her eternal reward during the Season of Easter, granted her, whilst she was living on Earth, a favour which we mention here as being appropriate to the Mystery we are now Celebrating. He, one day, appeared to her, having with Him His Blessed Mother. Saint Mary Magdalen - she that announced The Resurrection to The Apostles - accompanied The Son and The Mother. Saint Catharine's heart was overpowered with emotion at this visit. After looking for some time upon Jesus and His Holy Mother, her eyes rested on Saint Mary Magdalen, whose happiness she both saw and envied. Jesus spoke these words to Saint Catharine: “My beloved !!! I give her [Editor: Saint Mary Magdalen] to thee, to be thy mother. Address thyself to her, henceforth, with all confidence. I give her special charge of thee”.
From that day forward, Saith Catharine had the most filial love for Saint Mary Magdalen, and called her by no other name that that of Mother.
Pope Pius II, one of the glories of Siena, composed two Hymns in honour of his Saintly and illustrious fellow-citizen. They form part of The Office of Saint Catharine of Siena in The Dominican Breviary.
