Status Updates From Legenda: The Real Women Beh...

Aged 21 Catherine had a vision that she was marrying Jesus Christ. At the wedding were: the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and Saint Dominic. King David provided the music. The wedding ring was made out of Jesus's foreskin (a popular relic).

After her death, aged 33 - naturally, the Basilica of St. Domenic (where she prayed regularly) kept Catherine of Siena's head and one of her fingers as relics. It does not say who got the rest of her fingers.

According to her biographer, young Catherine desparately wanted to join the third order of the Dominicans. One barrier stood in her way - she was too good looking, but then a miracle occurred, God intervened and struck her down with acne. Hideously ugly, she was now able to take holy orders.

Catherine of Siena was the youngest of 24 children!

Story of Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish boy who at age 6 in 1858 eas removed by police from his family home and brought up as a Catholic, he eventually became a priest. He had been secretly baptised as a baby by a catholic servant who was frightened that the boy was going to die. This was a huge international cause celebre - there were even reports about it in the New York Herald.
Somehow this links to Catherine of Siena

The chapter on Germany begins with Lola Montes, the mistress of a King of Bavaria. I had her mixed up with Eliza Lynch who was the wife of the Dictator of Paraguay (similar place to Bavaria, but the beer tradition isn't as rich and their waterfalls are bigger).
Though both women were born in Ireland and baptised with the name Eliza. Still, odd to mix them up.