The stigmata, the ecstasies, the conversations with God, the bilocations were some of the countless graces received by Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), co-patron of Italy and Europe. And the saint responded to these graces by becoming consumed with passion for the Church and for the crucified Christ, whom she sometimes invoked thus: “O madman of love!”. About her The 33 years of her earthly life, one of the many signs of her total belonging to Jesus, were accompanied by extraordinary mystical gifts since childhood, combined with a charity towards the poor and sick that shook the hardest hearts. Twenty-fourth of the 25 children of Lapa and Jacopo Benincasa (a dyer), Caterina had her first important vision at just six years old: she saw the sky open with Jesus on the throne in the act of blessing her, crowned with the papal tiara and covered with a red mantle, with Saints Peter, Paul and John the Evangelist at his side.
She was born in the midst of the Avignon Captivity (1309-1377), the long phase of crisis of the Church in which the seat of the papacy was established in Avignon, far from where Peter and Paul had suffered martyrdom. That first supernatural experience was like a foretaste of her mission, aimed at bringing the Pope, whom she called “the sweet Christ on earth”, back to Rome. A few months later she took a vow of virginity, but around the age of 12 her parents tried to marry her off.
Mindful of the vote and the request made to the Madonna, whom she had asked to give her Son in marriage, the saint resisted. She even cut her hair and covered her head with a veil. Her father finally decided to give his daughter’s will assent, after seeing her absorbed in prayer while a dove hovered over her head. At 16 she was exceptionally able to enter, once again thanks to Providence, among the “cloaked women” of the Dominican Third Order (only widows and adult women were admitted), so called due to the black cloak on the white dress.
At the end of the Carnival of 1367, the moment Caterina had long awaited arrived: the mystical wedding with Christ, who placed a ring on her finger visible only to her, amidst the jubilation of the Virgin and a host of saints. Three years later the “Bella Brigata” began to form, made up of men and women, religious and lay, fascinated by the charisma of the saint and called “caterinated”. They will accompany Caterina in her travels and will help her in her works of charity towards the sick, whom she lovingly assisted, even more so if they were contagious patients. The more abandoned they were, the more she saw the face of Christ in them. Meanwhile, the Lord had given her her Heart during an ecstasy in the convent church: «Here Jesus appeared to her surrounded by light who opened her chest and handed her her Heart, saying:“Here, my dearest daughter, just as I took away your heart the other day, so now I give you Mine for which you always live.”», wrote her first biographer, Blessed Raymond of Capua, who the Dominicans had assigned to her as personal confessor in 1374.
Four years earlier the saint had already begun to write or dictate, thanks to the gift of infused science (which remedied her illiteracy), a large quantity of letters. 381 are preserved, addressed to pontiffs, bishops, rulers and other illustrious personalities of the fourteenth century. Her letters had very firm tones but were always dictated by maternal love, for the salvation of souls and the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ on earth: «No State can be preserved in civil law in a state of grace without holy justice», in fact he warned. She used to introduce herself like this: «I Catarina, servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in her precious Blood».
On April 1, 1375 he received the stigmata, who by his explicit request to God remained invisible, appearing only shortly before his death. The following year, his ardent advice was fundamental in overcoming the last fears of Pope Gregory precise divine will.
Upon Gregory’s death, the saint had to suffer another immense ecclesial passion: the beginning of the Western Schism (1378-1417), caused by the rift of the French cardinals who elected their own antipope. Now almost unable to walk, she went to St. Peter’s every morning: «It seems to me that I must confirm this time with a new martyrdom in the sweetness of my soul, that is, in the holy Church». In those last years the magnificent was born Dialogue of Divine Providence (which in 1970 earned her the proclamation as Doctor of the Church), where the eternal Father revealed to her that the incarnate Son is the bridge between heaven and earth, the fruit of his Mercy: «Seeing my goodness that you could not be come to Me, I sent Him to earth […]. She could not show you greater love than by giving her life for you. Therefore man is forcibly drawn by Love, provided that in his ignorance of it he does not resist letting himself be drawn.”
After weeks of agony, he took his last earthly breath at three in the afternoonsaying softly: “Father, into your hands I commend my soul and spirit.”
Patron of: nurse, Italy, Europe
to know more: letters, Dialogue of Divine Providence
