Catherine of Racconigi, Bl. Catherine of Siena
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CATHERINE OF RACCONIGI, BL. ry, the Spiritual Dialogue, ed. S. HUGHES (New York 1979). D. C. she was hardworking, maternally affectionate, but spiri- NUGENT, ‘‘Saint Catherine of Genoa: Mystic of Pure Love,’’ in tually rather obtuse. Catherine grew up intelligent, cheer- Women Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation, ed. K. M. WIL- ful, and intensely religious. It is reported that at the age SON, (Athens, Georgia 1987) 67–80. K. JORGENSEN, ‘‘‘Love Con- quers All’: The Conversion, Asceticism, and Altruism of St. of 7, following a vision of Christ in glory, she vowed her Caterina of Genoa,’’ in Renaissance Society and Culture, eds. J. virginity to him. Later on, her mother repeatedly urged MONFASANI and R. MUSTO (New York 1991) 87–106. C. BALDUZZI, her to care more for her appearance with a view to mar- Il Soprannaturale in Santa Caterina da Genova: patrona degli os- riage. Catherine at first yielded a little but then proved in- pendali (Udine 1992). F. DE MARTINOIR, Catherine de Genes, La tractable, and to show her resolution she cut off her hair. joie du Purgatoire: Caterina Fieschi Adorno, 1447–1510 (Paris 1995). This led to persecution from her family, which was ended when Jacopo ordered that Catherine be left in peace and [P. L. HUG] allowed her a room of her own for prayer and meditation. Catherine was already being guided in her spiritual life by the Dominicans, and she greatly desired to become a CATHERINE OF RACCONIGI, BL. tertiary of the order. This was accomplished, after some difficulty, in 1364 or 1365. The next three years she spent Mystic; b. Racconigi, province of Cuneo, Piedmont, in seclusion from the world, devoting herself to prayer Italy, June 24?, 1486; d. Caramagna, Piedmont, Sept. 4, and the practice of severe austerities. It proved to be a 1547. Catherine was the youngest of seven children of a preparation for the active apostolate that was to follow, blacksmith. She worked as a weaver and distributed her and it ended, probably in the spring of 1368, with a vision wages to the poor. She loved solitude and contemplation that convinced Catherine that Christ had accepted her as and was vowed to virginity; she is known to have been his ‘‘bride.’’ She received his command to carry her love favored with many mystical graces and prophecies as for him out into the world and so give full scope to the well as being privileged with the stigmata. From her Do- charity within her. minican confessor she received the habit of a tertiary on Dec. 22, 1513. Although she was esteemed and consulted Catherine’s life from that time until her death fell by illustrious personages, she was also persecuted by the into three somewhat clearly marked periods: from 1368 envious. When forced to take refuge in Caramagna, Cath- to the summer of 1374; from this date to November 1378; erine offered herself as a victim for sinners and for the and then the year and a half until her death in 1380. The maintenance of peace. Pius VII authorized her Mass and first period was spent entirely in Siena and is marked by Office on April 9, 1808. She is commemorated in the four important developments. First, there gathered Order of Preachers and in the dioceses of Turin and Mon- around her the nucleus of the group of friends and disci- dovì, and is particularly venerated in Racconigi, where ples with which her name is associated: men and women; her house was made into an oratory and chapel in the Do- priests both secular and religious, among whom Domini- minican church, in Caramagna, and in Garessio (Cuneo), cans naturally predominated; and the laity; most of them where there is a chapel in her honor. her seniors, but all in some measure her spiritual pupils, Feast: Sept. 4. and all accustomed to calling her ‘‘mother.’’ The forma- tion of this ‘‘family’’ led in turn to the beginning, not Bibliography: G. F. PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA and P. M. MOREL- later than 1370, of the great series of Catherine’s letters. LI, Compendio delle cose mirabili della beata Caterina da Rac- Probably she could already read, and later would learn to conigi (Chieri-Turin 1858). G. BONETTI, Vita.... (Turin 1876). A. FERRARIS, Beata Caterina Mattei da Racconigi (Alba 1947). A. write, but she dictated nearly all her letters to secretaries GUARIENTI, La Beata Caterina da Racconigi (Alba 1964). chosen from her ‘‘family.’’ At first simply vehicles for spiritual instruction and encouragement, the letters soon [I. VENCHI] began to touch on public affairs. The first public issue to receive her attention was a projected Crusade against the Turks. Meanwhile, in the little world of Siena, it was in- CATHERINE OF SIENA, ST. evitable that her personality and influence should arouse some opposition and even slander. She was a saint who Dominican tertiary and mystic, doctor of the church; mixed fearlessly in the world and spoke with the candor b. Siena, probably in 1347; d. Rome, April 29, 1380. and authority of one completely committed to Christ. At Life. Catherine was the 23rd child (a twin) of Jacopo the same time she was a woman, young and with no so- Benincasa, a dyer, and his wife, Lapa Piagenti. Jacopo cial position. She was accused of hypocrisy and presump- was a good Christian and was to prove a true father to tion. At this critical point it was her Dominican affiliation Catherine in her struggle for freedom to follow her un- that saved her. Summoned to Florence to give an account usual vocation. Lapa was an average Italian housewife; of herself to the general chapter of the order held there 272 NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA CATHERINE OF SIENA, ST. in May and June of 1374, she satisfied the rigorous judg- es, and her work was given official Dominican protec- tion. The chapter appointed Bl. RAYMOND OF CAPUA (1330–99) as director of Catherine and her followers; from then on he was very closely associated with her ac- tivities. The next four years saw Catherine’s influence on public affairs at its greatest. Two issues in particular led her into church politics: the Crusade already mentioned and the war between Florence and her Italian allies against the papacy (1376–78). Catherine’s political achievements should not, however, be overestimated. She had no interest in secular politics as such and often showed herself naïve and ingenuous when involved in them. Such influence as she had was due to her manifest holiness, to her Dominican connection, and to the impres- sion she made on Gregory XI and, to a lesser degree, on his successor, Urban VI. She first saw Gregory at Avi- gnon in June 1376. She had gone there at the request of the Florentines, hoping to make peace between them and the pope. This effort was in vain, but she did have much to do with Gregory’s decision to bring the Curia back to Rome in that same year. She had persisted also in her ef- forts for the Crusade, the project that so often recurs in her letters and that had brought her to Pisa in 1375. This visit is worth recording because it was during an ecstasy in a church in that city that Catherine received the stigma- ta, though the wounds were visible only to herself. By January 1377 Catherine was back in Siena. During the next two years she continued her tireless apostolate in Jesus Christ presenting St. Catherine of Siena with crown, that city and in the Tuscan countryside and, with less suc- painting by Pier Francesco Bissolo. (©Hulton Getty/Liaison cess, her efforts for peace in Florence. Gregory had died Agency) in March of 1378, and his successor was the well- meaning but often harsh and tactless Urban VI. In the au- ing is God’s creative and recreative (redemptive) love, tumn the Great Schism began. expressed and symbolized in the Precious Blood. Her This disaster overshadowed and saddened the last stress on the importance in Christian living of clear, exact phase of Catherine’s life. From November 1378 until her knowledge shows her Dominican training, but her teach- death she was in Rome, occupied chiefly with her prayers ing derives at least as much from SS. Augustine and Ber- and pleading on behalf of Urban VI and the unity of the nard as (indirectly in any case) from St. Thomas. Church, and with the composition of her book, the Dia- Venerated in her lifetime as a saint, she was canonized logue, written in four treatises, which she intended as her by Pius II in 1461. In 1939 Pius XII declared her and St. spiritual testament to the world. Early in 1380 her agony Francis of Assisi the chief patron saints of Italy, and, on over the state of the Church, for which she had offered Oct. 1, 1999, she was declared patron of Europe by John herself as a victim to God, brought on a seizure, the pre- Paul II. In 1970, she was declared Doctor of the Church. lude to her death. She died, surrounded by her ‘‘chil- Feast: April 29 (formerly April 30). dren,’’ and was buried in the church of the Minerva at Rome. Her head is at S. Domenico in Siena. Bibliography: Works. The standard complete edition of Catharine’s letters is Le lettere di s. Caterina da Siena, ed. N. TOM- Spirituality. Spiritually, Catherine ranks high MASÈO, 4 v. (Florence 1860), rev. ed. P. MISCIATTELLI, 6 v. (Siena among Catholic mystics and spiritual writers. Her spiritu- 1913–21; repr. Florence 1939–40). E. DUPRÉ-THESEIDER, Episto- lario da Santa Caterina da Siena (Rome 1940).