ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA (1347–1380) was a tertiary of the
Dominican Order, a Scholastic philosopher, and theologian who had a
great influence on the Catholic Church.
Born in
Siena, she grew up there and from an early age desired to devote
herself to God consecrating her virginity by a private vow, and
refused to marry against the will of her parents. She joined the
Sisters of the Penance of St. Dominic and made her vows. She made
herself known very quickly by being marked by mystical phenomena such
as stigmata and mystical marriage.
She
accompanied the chaplain of the Dominicans to the pope in Avignon, as
ambassador of Florence, then at war against the pope. Her influence
with Pope Gregory XI played a role in his decision to leave Avignon
for Rome. She was then sent by him to negotiate peace with Florence.
After Gregory XI's death and peace concluded, she returned to Siena.
She dictated to secretaries her set of spiritual treatises The
Dialogue of Divine Providence.
The Great
Schism of the West led Catherine of Siena to go to Rome with the
pope. She sent numerous letters to princes and cardinals to promote
obedience to Pope Urban VI and defend what she calls the "vessel
of the Church." She died on 29 April 1380, exhausted by her
penances. Urban VI celebrated her funeral and burial in the Basilica
of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.
The devotion
around St. Catherine of Siena developed rapidly after her death. She
was canonized in 1461, declared patron saint of Rome in 1866, and of
Italy in 1939. She was declared a Doctor of the Church on October 4,
1970 by Pope Paul VI, she was proclaimed patron saint of Europe in
1999 by Pope John Paul II.
St.
Catherine's spiritual director, Bl. Raymond of Capua, wrote she also
had the gift of prophecy and foretold future events to him, such as
the spiritual upheavals during the end of the Avignon Papacy and the
beginning of the Western Schism under Pope Urban VI and said he would
live to see them. However, he was careful to explain she never, ever
gave dates or times as to when her prophecies would happen but left
it all to Divine Providence. Of interest, while she did say he would
see the disasters she foretold, which happened, after seeing him on
the point of tears with her warnings she gave him a consoling
prophecy of the future. This time, however, she didn't say he would
see the 'Great Renewal' as with the other prophecies she gave him,
which implies it would happen after his time.
She
predicted the coming Renewal would be so marvellous that thought of it
exalted her spirit. Considering her statement that the renewal of
the Church after the distressing time she foretold would be
absolutely wonderful and marvellous with mass conversions, which
apparently hasn't happened yet, it sounds as though she skipped far
into the future and delivered an Age of Peace
prophecy:
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“After all these tribulations and miseries, in a way
beyond all human understanding, the Lord God will purify His holy
Church, and and awaken the spirit of His elect. Such
a wondrous reform after these things will happen in the holy Church
of God, and the renewal of holy shepherds, that at the mere thought
my spirit exalts in the Lord, and the bride (i.e the Church) who is
now almost deformed and ragged, will then be beautiful and adorned
with precious jewels, and crowned with the diadem of all the virtues.
All the faithful peoples will rejoice in the faith of so many holy
shepherds, and even the unfaithful nations drawn by the good odour
(of sanctity) of Christ Jesus will return to the Catholic fold, and
will be converted to the new Pastor and the bishop of their souls.
Give thanks, therefore, to God, who after this hurricane will give
his Church an unspeakable calm.” (*1)
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1.
Bl. Raymond of Capua, The Life of St.
Catherine of Siena: The Classic on Her Life and Accomplishments as
Recorded by Her Spiritual Director, TAN
Books, 2009. This prophecy is
also recorded by the Bollandists.
