Justin Appel
Dear Friends in Christ,
Yesterday was the feast of Saint Catherine of Sienna, a 14th-century mystic and doctor of the Catholic Church, and I would like to draw attention to her in this reflection.
The longer I live, the more I understand the need to become familiar with the lives of holy men and women in the Church’s tradition. These people present us with stories, palpable and recognizable patterns of life, so that we can “absorb” their journey towards Christlikeness, and hopefully, to imitate them in our own unique journey.
St. Catherine had an early interest in living a life fully devoted to God and seems to have done so against her parents’ wishes. She later joined the Servite Order, which would become one of the mendicant orders of the Catholic Church.
She experienced mystical visions, understood herself to be mystically married to Christ, was devoted to intense fasting, visited the sick and incarcerated, eventually receiving the stigmata of Christ’s passion. As a young woman, she confronted Pope Gregory XI, convincing him to move the papacy from Avignon back to Rome (a move prior to the “Babylonian Captivity” of the papacy).
Catherine’s words were written down in a series of “Dialogues” which describe the things God communicated with her in moments of ecstasy. Among these ideas are those of God as Mare pacificum, a “peaceful sea” in which we move and breath like fish, or God as a mirror in which we see reflected our dignity and beauty as creatures.
One of the lovely expressions St. Catherine used described God as being “pazzo d’amore,” literally “crazy in love” with us: a love that is beyond reason, lavish, ridiculous.
She also emphasized the reality of deification as a mode for growing closer to Christ, of moving from a motivation of fear of God, to a filial love, to a union of our will with God’s will and to constant prayer.
You can learn more about St. Catherine of Sienna through this well-made documentary with Bishop Robert Barron, filmed in Italy, with many scenes from the Vatican City, Rome, Florence, and Sienna.
Yours in Christ,
—Justin
