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Catherine of Siena (April 29th) was born in 1347, the 24th child of a wealthy merchant's 25 (!) offspring. When she was 6, she had an ecstatic vision that set her life's course: she reported "I beheld our Lord seated in glory with St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John" and that Jesus smiled on her and blessed her. From then on, Catherine spent most other time in prayer and meditation. Her family opposed her convictions and harassed her continually, but she remained steadfast and they eventually relented.
She decided not to marry and to practice a severe regimen of fasting during long periods of prayer. Nonetheless, she often felt abandoned by the Lord and was tormented by degrading images and temptations. Finally, in 1366, she received a vision that "espoused" her to Christ, and her years of loneliness and inner struggle ended. Renewed, she set out on a life of service and highly public activism within the Church. She became a nurse, caring particularly for patients with leprosy, plague, and other conditions that most nurses avoided treating.
She conducted many preaching missions mat were extraordinarily successful (despite strong opposition from those who felt it was presumptuous far a lay woman to preach). All manner of persons sought her counsel (including the Pope) and she worked passionately for Church reform and unity. Exhausted by overwork and the effects other fasting, Catherine suffered a physical collapse that led to a stroke. She died on April 29,1380, aged only thirty-three.
Throughout her life, opinion was sharply divided as to whether Catherine was a saint or a willful fanatic, but her inspiring writings and a biography of her written by her spiritual director won her acceptance. Canonized a saint in 1461, she became the first layperson to be titled a "Doctor of the Church" in 1970. |
