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Catherine
of Siena
(1347-1380, Italy)
Biography Excerpt:
Caterina Benincasa was born, in 1347, the 25th child of an Italian family of modest means. Enjoying sublime visions and practicing extreme austerities from a tender age, Catherine consecrated her virginity to Christ at the age of seven. When her parents attempted to betroth her at sixteen, she incurred their wrath by cutting off her hair. In turn, they deprived her of a private prayer space, dismissed the maid, and placed Catherine in charge of the household work. Imagining her father to be Jesus, her mother the blessed Mary, and the rest of the family to be the disciples of Jesus, she toiled blissfully. It was when her father witnessed a white dove hovering above her head as she prayed that he finally recognized his daughter’s destiny as a nun.
Enlightenment Story Excerpt:
Know then, reader, that from the time when
this virgin drank the water of life from the Lord's side, she abounded
in such fullness of graces that she was almost always in a state of contemplation,
and her spirit was so absorbed in the Creator that she spent most of her
time in a region beyond sense. This… I experienced personally time and
time again, and so did others, who saw and touched, as I did, her arms
and hands, which remained so numb while she was in a state of contemplation
that it would have been easier to break them than to get them to move.
Her eyes remained tightly shut, her ears could not hear the loudest noise,
and none of her bodily senses performed its accustomed functions. You will
not find this astonishing if you follow carefully all that follows.