Catholic Thought discussion
Catherine of Siena by Undset
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Chapters 14 thru 18
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I find this era of church history, from the Babylonian exile through the Great Schism fascinating. It is amazing that theChurch pulled through this time of scandal in tact. I am glad that the pope is no longer a temperal power. It proved to hold too many temptations for Church leaders.
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But the most overwhelming event in Catherine’s life while she was in Pisa was that she was marked with Christ’s stigmata. Raimondo describes the event as he saw it.
On Laetare Sunday—mid-Lent Sunday—he celebrated Mass in the church of St. Christina and had given Catherine Holy Communion. She lay on her face for a long while afterwards without moving. Raimondo and her friends waited patiently—they hoped that when she awoke from her ecstasy she would have a message for them from the lips of her Bridegroom. Suddenly it was as though the outstretched figure was lifted up; she knelt with closed eyes and her face shining with supernatural bliss. She stretched out her arms, with the palms of her hands outward, stiff and still: then she fell suddenly to the ground as though mortally wounded. A little while after, she recovered consciousness.
Some time later she called Raimondo to her and whispered: “Father, know that by the grace of our lord Jesus I now bear His stigmata in my body.” Raimondo had guessed by her movements what had happened, but he asked her to describe the manner in which the gift of grace had been given her. “I saw Our Savior on the cross lean down toward me in a bright light. And when my soul tried to hasten to meet its creator, it forced my body to rise. Then I saw how five jets of blood came from the five wounds and streamed toward my miserable body. I cried out, ‘O my Lord and Savior. I beg You, do not let the wounds on my body be visible outwardly’—and while I spoke the jets of blood changed to shining light, and as the rays of light they struck my hands, feet, and heart.” (p. 180)
It is amazing there was a witness at the time and recorded what happened and her understanding of it.
It's also pretty amazing just how active her contemplative life became. We had a retreat master a couple of years ago emphasize that our work is not our prayer, our prayer is our work. There's a pretty strong emphasis among our faculty that we need to be rooted in prayer before we can effectively carry out the active ministries of priesthood and I think in these chapters St. Catherine models that relationship brilliantly.
I'm inspired by how Catherine went wherever God needed and wanted her, for example when she would have preferred to stay with the contemplatives at Montepulciano because she found happiness in the prayers, peace, silence and services there. And yet I still get such a sense that wherever she went, prayer was always her most important work. Prayer and doing God's will in the chaos of the world. What a difficult time it seemed to be. It makes me want re-read Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century" to refresh my knowledge about the era.Manny, I remember you mentioned in an earlier comment about Catherine's support of a Crusade. Her strong belief in that cause came through clearly to me in these chapters and surprised me a little. Then I realized how she saw a crusade as a means to unify the warring Christian factions against a common foe.
Other things also stood out for me in these chapters:
- The stigmata and her description of the experience
- The way the Pope dressed as a humble priest and went to visit her. The Pope!
- The way Catherine had almost a sixth sense about people and things. For example, when she turned away from the host because she knew it wasn't consecrated. She was seriously ill at the time and still she knew. And her ability to read people's souls so well and bring about so many conversions that the Pope ordered her to have three priests with her.
Such examples help me see what a mystic really is. Catherine seems to be both of the world and not of it. Undset even says that the majesty of the world was a mirage to Catherine.
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Well, she's Dominican you know.
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Yes, that was the immediate need for the crusade but she also said it would convert the Muslims for God. I think that was rather naïve on her part.
To everyone interested in Catherine of Siena: Learn25.com is having a sale on certain items, including a course on Catherine of Siena. I just ordered the Audio CD for $6.95. Of course, they got me with the $8 delivery fee but ... https://www.learn25.com/product/life-...
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Gerri, I have that course. It's presented by Sr. Suzanne Noffke who is probably the world's leading scholar on St. Catherine of Siena. She has written and edited many books on St. Catherine. Here is her Goodreads page:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
When I first listened to the course, I didn't at first particularly fall in love with it. It took several listens over a span of time to warm up to them. It seemed like Noffke brought in too much of her own life to the lectures for my taste and it didn't seem like she got to the heart of Catherine's ideas. This would not be a starter course on St. Catherine, but now that you will have read this biography I think you might not feel lost.
Oh, boy, thanks for that insight, Manny. I'm not a big fan of authors bringing their own life into lectures/biographies. I'm there to learn about the subject, not the author. Especially with a person as complex as St. Catherine. As I finished the reading for the next round of discussions here, I really felt that I was getting closer to the heart of St. Catherine and her ideas. She is coming into much better focus for me. I'll listen to the Noffke lectures with a grain of salt. Noffke's credentials did catch my attention. I've found over the years that Learn25 (formerly Know You Know) programs can be hit or miss.
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Yes, I know what you mean. Some of those Lear25 courses are disappointing. I don't want to give the impression that the St. Catherine of Siena course is one of those disappointing ones. It's not. It's just organized in a manner I did not expect, and so was a little disconcerting. And Sr. Suzanne is not a dynamic speaker. But in time I grew to understand her and appreciate her course. I recommend it. Let me know what you think.
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You know I went to visit him, and he gained such great strength and power that he made his confession in the right state of mind. He made me promise for the sake of God’s love I would be with him when the day of execution came, and I promised. The next day before the bells rang for the first time, I went to him, and that consoled him greatly. I went with him to Mass, and he received Holy Communion, which he had always avoided. His will was one with God’s holy will and submitted to it. He was only afraid of one thing—that his courage would fail in the crucial moment. But God’s immeasurable goodness fired such love and longing in him that he could not have enough of God’s presence. He said, Say with me, do not go from me and I will be good, I will die happy. And he leaned his head against my breast. I was filled with joy, for it seemed to me that the perfume of his blood mixed itself with mine which I long to be able to pour out for my beloved Bridegroom Jesus. (p. 225-6)
Three things I would like to highlight in that passage. Catherine’s power to charm is noticeable in all her encounters with people, be they religious people, regular people, Popes, or a young man who is facing execution. We don’t get the details of what she said that caused him to go from a wild and bitter man to one who was willing to “die happy.” This is one of the things that is so memorable about Catherine, her charisma, her charm.
Second, her amazing poetic descriptions: “it seemed to me that the perfume of his blood mixed itself with mine which I long to be able to pour out for my beloved Bridegroom Jesus.” Notice the compact series of images in that one sentence. Blood has a perfumed aroma? What a leap that is. And she envisions the aroma (as a sort of ether) of Niccolò’s blood somehow mixing with the ether of her blood, and the two bloods mixed into one is poured out for Christ. I haven’t been able to highlight much of her language, but this sort of intense imagery runs throughout her writing. She really was a natural poet.
Third, the blood. Blood is one of her central symbols: the blood of Christ that washes away sin, and the blood of our humanity, which is somehow supernaturally connected with the divine. I can’t pin it down—it would take a systematic study—but for Catherine it’s as if our human blood is our link to God. And why not? Christ in His incarnation had blood in His veins, blood that would be shed. That image of mixing of blood looks ahead to Niccolò’s execution.
Niccolò came, peaceful as a lamb, and he smiled when he saw that Catherine stood there waiting for him. He asked her to make the sign of the cross over him, and she whispered to him: “My dear brother, let us go to the eternal marriage feast, to enjoy life which shall never end.” She bared his throat, and when he laid his head on the block she knelt beside him. He said nothing but “Jesus, Catherine,” and then his head fell into her hands.
Then I fastened my eyes upon the Divine Goodness and said: I will. Immediately I saw, as clearly as one sees the sunshine, Him who is God and Man. He was there, He received the blood. In this blood was the fire of holy desire which grace had put into his soul, and this fire was swallowed up in the fire of God’s mercy.” She saw that Niccolò was as though drawn into the treasure chamber of mercy, his pierced heart into Christ’s breast, so the great truth was made clearly apparent—that Christ receives a soul entirely because of His mercy, and not because of any merits of the soul itself. But as the soul of Niccolò entered the mystery of the Holy Trinity it turned and looked at her, as the bride does when she has come to the house of her bridegroom and with bowed head acknowledges those who have accompanied her, as a last sign of gratitude. (226-7)
Can you imagine the amount of blood that must have splattered on her? And as she held on to the dripping head? What a mess, but that blood is so significant to her. Blood and fire and holy desire and treasure chamber of mercy—there’s a lot of theology there. Too much for here, and I’m not sure I can tie it all up together. But this is why she was made a Doctor of the Church. She connects Catholic doctrine—she never creates or distorts doctrine as some modern theologians—in a way that is original to her and is meaningful to us. I would love to have listened to her preach.
And kudos to Sigrid Undset for a beautiful description and integration of Catherine’s words.
I also loved the EWTN documentary and hope to watch it again. I sensed that the real Catherine showed through. Manny, I had always been a bit taken aback by how much St. Catherine used the imagery of blood. Thank you for your insight. She really does use the symbol in poetic ways. Once I got past my horror that di Toldo was executed for, basically, running his mouth when he should have shut up, I was impressed by the tenderness that Catherine showed him and - once again - by her fearlessness and her ability to bring others closer to God.
I was also impressed that she was allowed to counsel a condemned prisoner since she was a female. It makes me aware that gender restrictions were not as rigid in the Middle Ages as I tend to think.
Irene wrote: "I was also impressed that she was allowed to counsel a condemned prisoner since she was a female. It makes me aware that gender restrictions were not as rigid in the Middle Ages as I tend to think."I've always believed gender restrictions were pretty rigid in that time and place. Catherine had a strong personality, was intelligent, and knew how to work within/around the system. Add in her holiness, and she was a force to be reckoned with no matter what the societal norms. Even so, Undset writes that she had her share of detractors who thought she behaved scandalously.
I am not implying that there were not gender based social constrictions, I am just getting a sense that they may not have been as absolute as I had thought. Not only does Catherine do things I would not have expected a woman to have done, but her community is mixed gender and the women accompany her. And, you have Brigitta who we read about earlier. I am sure they are exceptions to the rule, but I did not expect nearly as many exceptions.
You're right, Irene. The more I think about it, I wonder if I'm missing the nuanced picture because of lazily falling back on what I've learned over the years. Some sources/historians may have been biased and/or unconsicously colored by their own perceptions as they shaped the material that came down to us. All I have to do is look at how modern narratives are being crafted - future historians will have to really dig to get the full picture.
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As I think of it, I'm surprised they let her stay beside him as the decapitated him, and not because of her gender. I can't imagine that being common.
I did not expect that a female would be permitted contact with a male prisoner, a female convict, but not a male one. Females were, I thought, viewed as delicate. The violence or vulgarity or other vices associated with criminal behavior I assumed would have been seen as too much for a female. I know that priests, who administered the Sacrament of Reconciliation, were long permitted access to prisoners to the end to ensure their access to absolution. I did not expect that females, who could not provide sacramental absolution, would have been permitted access to a condemned prisoner right to the moment of death. I did not expect that even a male who was not ordained or who was involved in the exicution would have had that access.
I think Catherine stood apart from the average person in so many ways, and was considered so holy, that she was able to bypass a number of restrictions and societal norms.
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We also have so many stories of women saints who seemed to be able to move freely and go about their chosen business. Some met resistance, often from their own families. St. Agnes of Prague was supposed to become the Emperor's wife, but eventually they let her have her wish to become a religious. Or her pen-pal, St. Clare of Assisi. She first defied her parents and snuck out of the house. They were a powerful and prominent family. I would imagine they would have enough resources to get her "back on track" - but they didn't. Where does this self-confidence in these women come from? They don't act like they are afraid of their own shadows. You find it all over Europe. I believe it is a combination of honoring their wishes and a deference to the holy. The Christian concept that the human being is made in the image of God applies equally to both men and women. This was true then it is true now.
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I suspect that is true. The thought has crossed my mind, but I don't have any expertise to know.
Catherine is now engaged in diplomatic efforts of a number of Italian City-States, advocating peace among themselves and the papacy and joining together for another crusade against Islam. While in the city of Pisa, where she stayed for quite a while, Catherine experiences the full stigmata. It is at this time in 1374 that Catherine’s letter writing dramatically increases, and while returning home from Pisa she writes her first letter to Pope Gregory XI. As she returned home, Catherine found out that most of the Tuscan City-States aligned together against the papacy.
Chapter 15
Much to Catherine’s dismay, Pope Gregory in his obstinacy entrenches himself further against the Tuscan City-States. Catherine writes several letters to the Holy Father imploring mercy toward the towns, but in his petulancy the Pope sent an army to capture Bologna and Casena, where men were massacred and women raped. In the meanwhile, Catherine resolved a local Sienese conflict where a young man, Stefano Maconi, would become her most devoted “son.” The Florentines, now under a humiliating interdict from the Pope, agreed to Catherine’s offer to act as a mediator in this dispute.
Chapter 16
Catherine arrives in Avignon in mid-June and will spend the entire summer there, leaving in mid-September. While there, the Holy Father she has several conversations with the Holy Father, meets the vast papal court and entourage, and wins over most, including the Holy Father himself. The Pope agrees to a peace with Florence, but the Florentines actually reject the offer. By the end of the summer, Pope Gregory XI, so smitten with her holiness, decides to follow Catherine’s advice and return the papacy back to Rome. He takes up the court and moves leaves for Rome two days after Catherine departed.
Chapter 17
On the journey back home, Catherine was bombarded with admirers. It took longer than expected because of the plague encountered, both to her entourage and in the various cities they stopped. Catherine’s letter writing, however, continued on a remarkable pace. During her stay in Genoa, the Pope, masquerading as an ordinary priest surprised her by stopping at her dwelling. On his way to Rome, Gregory XI was weakening from his decision and needed Catherine’s support. Catherine once again inspired the Pope to make the courageous and historic decision.
Chapter 18
As the Pope in 1377 arrives in Rome, Catherine finally arrives home to Siena. She continues her letter writing especially one imploring prisoners to come to the faith. She meets a particular young man, Niccolò di Toldo who was bitter and unforgiving over his sentence of death. Catherine through her personality go him to repent, take communion, and bravely walk to his execution with her by his side. She knelt by him and caught his head when it was severed.