Sunday, April 29, 2007

Catherine of Siena, Reformer, Mystic, Lover of the Poor, Preacher to the Powerful

Sorry for that logo on the left, it's the only way Robert Lentz will let his icons be reproduced.

[Ooops, I originally posted this a day early! I meant to post it on the 29th, which is Sunday. I've just moved it to the proper day. Catherine' s feast is the 29th, but in some churches the 30th. Never on the 28th, though.]

Today (or in some churches tomorrow) is the feast of Catherine of Siena, one of the several great mystics of the 14th century, who was also a church reformer and supporter of church authority (yes, both).

More on her later perhaps, but here are some links.

Profile from the online Daily Office
and the same profile by James Kiefer here (the original place of publication, I think)

A somewhat traditional Catholic perspective.

And another profile of Catherine.

3 comments:

Joshua Migallos Ligan said...

I love Catherine of Siena. Have you read any of her letters?

Thanks for informing me about St. John the Baptist the other day. Much appreciated, hehe.

Padre Mickey said...

I've always been troubled by her vision of Christ dressed as the Pope. Doesn't work for me!

Jane R said...

Padre Mickey -- Yeah, she had some quirks ;-). You gotta understand her in context... There's also her living on nothing but the Holy Eucharist for a year, so the story goes. Screeching -- I've only seen a couple of her letters; she wrote gazillions and there are 400 available! I must get a hold of that volume. Fun stuff for my History of Christianity course :-). Do you have any favorites among her letters?

I like that icon of her holding up the Bark of Peter. She's also one of only three women Doctors of the Church in the RC tradition.