Today we look at Saint Catherine of Siena first of all to admire in her what immediately struck those who approached her. The extraordinary richness of humanity, not at all obscured, but rather increased and perfected by grace, which made it almost a living image of that true and healthy Christian “humanism”, whose fundamental law is formulated by Catherine’s brother and teacher, Saint Thomas Aquinas, with the well-known aphorism: “Grace does not suppress, but presupposes and perfects nature”
Today we look at Saint Catherine of Siena first of all to admire in her what immediately struck those who approached her. The extraordinary richness of humanity, not at all obscured, but rather increased and perfected by grace, which made it almost a living image of that true and healthy Christian “humanism”, whose fundamental law is formulated by Catherine’s brother and teacher, Saint Thomas Aquinas, with the well-known aphorism: “Grace does not suppress, but presupposes and perfects nature” (St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae, I, q.1, a. 8, a 2). The full-sized man is the one who realizes himself in the grace of Christ. Thus the Sienese saint, in her nature as a woman largely endowed with imagination, intuition, sensitivity, strong-willed and operational vigor, communicative ability and strength, willingness to donate herself and serve, is transfigured but not impoverished, in the light of Christ who calls her to be his bride and to identify mystically with him in the depth of interior knowledge, as well as to engage in charitable, social and even political action, among the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the learned and ignorant. Completely uneducated, to the point of not knowing how to read or write, Caterina was able to carry out incisive action up to the highest political and civil and ecclesiastical authorities of the time, in order to restore harmony and peace between peoples; Furthermore, Caterina was certainly not favored by her feminine status, let us remember that she lived in an era where women were little considered. Yet, in the short thirty-three years of earthly life granted to her, this young woman of such modest means reached heights that still surprise us today:
she reached the heights of spiritual perfection, was called teacher by a considerable number of disciples,
among which were illustrious theologians, university professors, nobles of high culture. She was received and listened to by Popes, cardinals, sovereigns and heads of state throughout Europe. She managed to obtain the transfer of the papal seat to Rome, after seventy years of exile in Avignon. She managed to reconcile Florence with the Papal State, laid the foundations for the reform of the Church, effectively defended the pontificate in the Great Western Schism, urged Europe, torn by fratricidal wars, to unite in the name of Christ. It is an unusual, astonishing fact that a woman, of such humble origins, maintained a political correspondence with the powerful of the time, to whom she addressed with a tone of firm command, without losing anything of her usual humility: her eloquence was visibly dictated by that love that makes even the most excited invectives acceptable.
The great Sienese saint appears to be the bearer of the heartfelt message of peace and harmony between peoples and of an example that people today particularly need: love and fidelity to God and the Church.
Catherine’s ardent love for the Church and for Christ is authentic love for the truth, which identifies itself in Christ and consequently has the Church as its supreme guide. The century that sees Caterina come to light is a century crossed by a profound crisis of both the institutions and the Church: for more than a century now, Saint Francis and Saint Dominic had left the earth and the fervor of renewal with which these two great revolutionary figures had been protagonists, it was increasingly waning. Added to this is the catastrophe of the plague, bringer not only of physical death but above all of moral corruption. In this spiritual and moral climate, so terrible and dramatic, in this social context animated by low material interests, in a cultural context that sees the rise of the first humanism thanks to Petrarca and Boccaccio, it appears on the scene of Tuscany, Italy and Europe , Catherine of Siena who places man at the center of her action and works. The Sienese saint can be considered the precursor of Christian humanism, bearer of a message that still remains relevant and valid for contemporary man today. Messenger of peace among the powerful, she stood up to kings and queens, governors and men of the Church, of whom she simply asked to convert their hearts and put charity at the service of the good of all, as she wrote in all her letters, in which reflects strong morality and great spirituality. But more than anything Caterina lived constantly in and of the fire of the word, in this regard she had written: “In your nature, eternal Deity, I will know my nature. And what is my nature? Priceless love? It is fire, for you are nothing other than the fire of love.”
