Catherine of Siena - Path of Holiness

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• Path of Holiness: Wisdom from Catherine of Siena
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• A Simple Life: Wisdom from Jane Frances de Chantal
• Solace in Suffering: Wisdom from Thomas Kempis
• Strength in Darkness: Wisdom from John of the Cross

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James Alberione

Path of Holiness

Path of Holiness

Wisdom from Catherine of Siena

Edited and with a Foreword by Mary Lea Hill, FSP

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Catherine, of Siena, Saint, 1347-1380.

[Correspondence. English. Selections]

Path of holiness: wisdom from Catherine of Siena / edited and with a foreword by Mary Lea Hill.

p. cm.(Catholic wisdom collection)

Selections from the authors correspondence and Dialogue.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

ISBN-10: 0-8198-5965-6 (Epub)

ISBN-13: 971-0-8198-5965-5 (Epub)

ISBN-10: 0-8198-5964-8 (Kindle)

ISBN-13: 971-0-8198-5964-8 (Kindle)

1. Catherine, of Siena, Saint, 1347-1380Correspondence. I. Hill, Mary Lea. II. Catherine, of Siena, Saint, 1347-1380. Libro della divina dottrina. English. Selections. III. Title. IV. Series.

BX4700.C4A4 2011

282.092dc22

2010043346

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Other Scripture references are translated from Catherine of Sienas own wording of the text as she dictated to her followers.

Cover design by Rosana Usselmann

Cover photo by Mary Louise Winters, FSP

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

P and PAULINE are registered trademarks of the Daughters of St. Paul.

Copyright 2011, Daughters of St. Paul

Published by Pauline Books & Media, 50 Saint Pauls Avenue, Boston, MA 02130-3491

www.pauline.org

Pauline Books & Media is the publishing house of the Daughters of St. Paul, an international congregation of women religious serving the Church with the communications media.

For all the strong women
I have known
in gratitude for
their witness to Christ

Contents

As we novices settled into our rooms at the retreat house, I noted aloud, This is pretty ascetical, isnt it? We were studying ascetical theology at that time and just beginning to dabble in some real-life applications. Forty-some years later, I can confirm my note: That place was very ascetical. It had formerly been the seminary of some very hearty missionaries and comprised an austere series of small farmhouses and a converted horse stable: hot, musty, and infested. The good seminarians kept the old buildings together rather nicely by foreign mission standards, but we city girls had never seen a convenience we didnt like. Besides spiders and bats, plenty of mosquitoes buzzed around, headquartered in the Concord River below our property. Ah, yes, night prayer outside beneath the trees was second only to human sacrifice. Each mosquito seemed bent on consuming another being a million times bigger than itself.

This experience was my youthful version of true sacrifice. I did try to offer it up, not that God wasnt up there chuckling at the whole scene. But to me, the rest of life wasnt much of a sacrifice. Retreat experiences were the extraordinary. However, I had become enthralled with someone who did make real sacrifices, and who did so willingly and even joyfully: Saint Catherine of Siena.

One of the mainstays of community entertainment in those days was an old Italian film on Catherines life. It was a black and white wonder, jumping and scratching its way through the projector. Todays critics might consider it tacky, but it succeeded in dramatizing many of Catherines internal joys and struggles. One of my favorite scenes was of wild horses racing around in her tiny cell. Their fury did some justice to the inner turmoil and temptations carnival revelers caused from outside.

After watching the film, I launched into a marvelous biography of Saint Catherine written by Johannes Jorgensen. He traced her steps from her earliest days in Siena, Italy, to her premature death thirty-three years later. Jorgensen helped me see the reality of Catherine. I could sense her apprehension in the face of her calling, her wonder at the trust God placed in her, her bold confidence before princes and popes, her maternal love for her disciples and co-workers, her internalizing of every struggle and pain of the Church. From this saint, I learned about the personal nature of a religious vocation, how within a calling there is a particular relationship and responsibility. Many people receive the call to spend a lifetime in the company of Jesus Christ, but Jesus calls each one to a unique expression, an individual yes that will mold that person into a singular saintliness.

The singular holiness of Catherine Benincasa (13471380) manifested itself in her early childhood. The six-year-old Catherine first encountered Jesus Christ while on an errand with her brother, Stefano, when Jesus appeared to her above the Church of Saint Dominic accompanied by saints Peter, Paul, and John the Evangelist. Jesus was seated on a throne, dressed in priestly garments, and wearing a popes crown. He said nothing to the little girl but simply gave her a blessing. However, in that encounter, Jesus captured her heart and her imagination.

Catherine soon dedicated her virginity to God, and as the years progressed, she turned down many marriage proposals, much to her parents dismay. Thinking she was in the midst of some youthful fantasy, they loaded her with household duties. But Catherines love of God was very real and deep, and her family eventually recognized the presence of something extraordinary in this young woman, so caught up in prayer. To fulfill her desire to fully dedicate herself to God, Catherine joined the Sisters of Penance of Saint Dominic, a secular religious group known as the Mantallate because of the heavy Dominican capes they wore. These sisters lived independently but gathered for daily Mass and prayer. During her early years as a Mantallata, Catherine practiced many penances, including reducing to a minimum her intake of food and her sleep. In 1370, in the midst of her mystical experiences, Catherine received the stigmata, although the marks remained invisible. A few months later, she suddenly fell into a state similar to death in which she heard Jesus admonish her to awaken so that he might send her on a mission to popes and rulers and to the whole Church.