Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin
(Acts 14:5-18; John 14:21-26)
One of St. Catherine of Siena’s modern biographers admits
that he had trouble warming up to her.
He says in the introduction of his book that at first he was put off by
her domineering style. But in time, he continues,
after carefully considering all that Catherine wrote and did, his attitude
changed. Like an early Franciscan critic
who thought Catherine a fake, he turned into one of her avid followers.
Reading her story, people of modernity readily dismiss
Catherine as a fanatic. Her self-imposed
penances like not eating anything but the Eucharist seem extreme. Her way of demanding from others what she saw
as necessary appears rude and perhaps egotistic.
However, as a person learns the trajectory of her life and reads her book The
Dialogue, she or he cannot but admire her.
We too may be bewildered by Catherine of Siena. Her spirituality is as tough as the rigorist
novice master’s. She may have been naïve
around the political power brokers of Italy. But we must admit that she had an
ocean of love for God which itself is worth emulating.
