"St. Catherine of Siena Besieged by Demons," Valeria Espinosa, ca 1500 AD
This is the feast day of St. Catherine of Siena , one of the more extraordinary women in all of history. Mystic, stigmatist (from humility she asked that the wounds be removed, and they were), and, though uneducated, adviser to popes, the author of several major works of mystical theology, as well as, perhaps most amazingly of all, a Doctor of the Church, St. Catherine was the 23rd of 25 children born in Siena to a dyer (which was a good job at that time) and his wife, who was the daughter of a poet. The Black Death was ravaging Siena at the time, and her twin sister, Giovana, did not survive. As a teenager St. Catherine resisted her parents' wish that she marry, and instead shut herself in a room in her father's house, where she cultivated a life of prayer and humility. In 1366, at the age of nineteen, St. Catherine was advised in prayer by Christ to begin a public life of service to the sick and the poor. From this small beginning, through travel and correspondence St. Catherine exerted considerable influence on the politics of her day, and was instrumental in achieving the return of the papacy to Rome from Avignon, where it had been subject to domination by the French monarchy.
From the Dialog of St. Catherine of Siena, dictated by St. Catherine during a state of ecstasy while in dialogue with God the Father:
I tell you that this way of [Christ's] doctrine, of which I have spoken to you, confirmed by the Apostles, declared by the blood of the martyrs, illuminated by the light of doctors, confessed by the confessors, narrated in all its love by the Evangelists, all of whom stand as witnesses to confess the Truth, is found in the mystical body of the Holy Church. . . . His doctrine is true, and has remained like a lifeboat to draw the soul out of the tempestuous sea and to conduct her to the port of salvation.
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