Life of Saint Catharine of Sienna/Preface
PROTESTATION
In obedience to the decrees of Urban VIII. I protest that of the miraculous deeds and gifts ascribed in this work to certain servants of God, and not already approved by the holy See, I claim no other belief than that which is ordinarily given to history resting on mere human authority, and that in giving the name of Saint or Blessed to any person not canonized or beatified by the Church, I only intend to do it according to the usage and opinion of men.
Preface to the American Edition
The providence of God in the government of the world, but especially the divine economy with regard to the children of his Church, is best learned from the study of the lives of His faithful servants. The world, with its own views, and means, and end, being always antagonistic to the spirit of God, must not be taken as a standard or as a testimony of God's providence towards his people. The Apostle St. Paul warns us "not to be conformed to the world," and St. James urges the motive " that the world is the enemy of God." Profane history even, is often elucidated by this principle, while its light is almost always necessary to follow correctly the path which sacred or ecclesiastical history points out.
The life of St. Catharine of Sienna by the Blessed Raymond of Capua, is now, for the first time, presented to the American reader in the English language. Its perusal will, at times, be sustained with interest by remembering the time, and circumstances in which that wonderful woman lived and acted. And it is not unlikely that the reader, may perchance, become startled at some of the facts narrated by her biographer. A closer acquaintance, however, with the history of the times in which she lived, and the circumstances in which she acted, and by which, we may say, her conduct and history became a portion of the history of the Church, will, in a great degree verify her actions, by revealing the providence of God, in the government of the Church.
The commencement of the fourteenth century saw the Church surrounded by difficulties, at once the consequence and source of many evils. The wild ambition of Princes, and the lawlessness arising from habitual warfare which then disturbed the heart of Christendom, exercised an unhappy influence on the interests and possessions of the Church. Men of worldly views, either themselves desired, or by the interests of their families were urged to seek, preferment in the Church; and the records of that period but too frequently exhibit the sad and fatal consequences. The spirit of the world had, in many instances, stained the holiness of the Sanctuary: and the virtues of ecclesiastics were diminished or destroyed by the dangerous contact with worldly interests. Amidst the conflict of such opposing elements it is not to be wondered that a wily and ambitions Prince, conceived the idea, and was enabled to carry it into execution, of transferring the venerable See of Peter from Rome to Avignon.
It was during this melancholy and eventful period of the Church, while the seventy years captivity of the Roman Pontiffs was being endured, that a simple daughter of a wool dyer, was practising in the retirement of her father's house, virtues of self-denial and penance that were, one day, to manifest the sublime power of prayer and enlighten even the councils of the Princes of the Church. That St. Catharine was raised up a simple and uneducated female, to confound the wisdom and direct the actions of those to whom God confided higher destinies need not, now, be doubted. Nor does the divine economy require that the guidance of the bark of Peter should not be directed by the holy and required warnings of a saintly woman. Her prudence and persevering energy in reconciling the Florentines with the Sovereign Pontiff", induced the devoted Urban VI., to seek, and in essential political arrangements, to adopt the salutary counsel of St. Catharine; and the restoration to the Holy City of the residence of the Papacy in his person, and by the continuation of his successors, may in no small degree justify the assertion, that to the inspired wisdom of the wool dyer's daughter, Rome was indebted for the return and perpetuity of the successors of St. Peter.
A word may here be said regarding her biographer, the Blessed Raymond of Capua. Ample opportunity was afforded him, for years, as her Confessor, to become acquainted not only with her actions and mode of thinking, but also of most perfectly understanding her motives, and the sincerity of her conduct. He was himself, moreover a man of sober thought, of respectable theological knowledge, and of no rash and precipitate judgment. His frequent reference to the testimony of living witnesses and his own not unfrequent difficulty of belief, sufficiently testify his appreciation of the responsibility he was assuming in narrating facts open to the doubts and startling to the faith of many. It was beside mainly from the facts mentioned by him, and by reference to the testimony which he so often, and so urgently quoted, that the act of her Canonization was produced. That he states many things of a most wonderful character upon the sole testimony or conviction of St. Catharine is true, but matters though bearing strong interior evidence of their truth, by no means constitute subjects of divine faith, and may be taken or set aside, as their evidence will appear sustainable or otherwise to the judgment of the reader. And yet, perhaps, it would savor of rashness, if not of deep presumption to reject as unfounded, facts that have been thought worthy of credit by many wise and prudent men, possessing means of forming judgment which are not now at our command
The pious reader will find in her life much to console and strengthen his conviction, that the providence of God deals wonderfully in his Church, with the actions and integrity of her children, while the less credulous may discover some difficulty in rejecting consequences which correctly flow from facts sustained by respectable testimony. No one however is required to give to purely historical facts a credence beyond that demanded by merely human testimony, and even the more timid will be shielded by the remark of the learned and critical De Feller, in his Historical Dictionary, speaking of St. Catharine, that " The canonization of the Saints does not ratify either their opinions or their revelations," and he quotes the remark of Gregory the Great, "That Saints the most favored by God frequently deceived themselves, by mistaking for a divine light, that which was merely the effect of the activity of the human soul." St. Jerome well remarks upon this point, "That they are nevertheless the effect of a piety to be always much respected, both in its principle and in its object."
The confidence extended, both in Italy and France, to this life of St. Catharine, should recommend it to the English reader; and the fact that the venerable author has already received from the Church the title of Blessed testifies that the pages of the volume are free from serious or obnoxious doctrines.
Preface to the French Edition
One of our most dearly cherished hopes, is that of beholding Science consecrated to the glory of Him, who is life and light, — an historical edifice of which Divine Providence has disposed the elements from the beginning, God himself having traced its plan, and immortal Truth fashioned its immoveable foundations. Every age, and every people will be represented; each exterior or interior stone will be a name or an event placed with order and with justice. Those deeply obscure beginnings, those different tongues and defined nationalities, those rapid revolutions, those elevations and those falls, so unforeseen, will appear in magnificent unity and the Church taking possession of that temple which Science will have prepared for her, will give within it a last and most solemn lesson to man.
The materials of that majestic edifice are already preparing throughout the world. God, like Solomon, employs on it foreign hands; the workmen of Tyre and Sidon, though far distant, carve the stones and cut the cedars. The Protestant and the unbeliever draw forth from the heart of ages past, the most precious metals and daily present to knowledge the admirable fruits of their criticism and their studious labors. Historical studies have never been so active or so complete. Every ruin is explored, all monuments are studied, traditions are interrogated, inscriptions are deciphered; Asia conceals not her doctrines, Egypt explains her mysteries, and Nineveh opens to our inspection the annals and gigantic remains of her civilization.
Man, in presence of these wrecks of ages and of empires, inquires what power produced those revolutions, and vivified that dust; he perceives that doctrines animated those people and fashioned those monuments, and he discovers in their relation with truth, the causes of their grandeur and their decay. Then, beyond time, appears to him Eternity in which God reigns and governs all things. Life, light and power emanate from his throne, and the Church distributes them to intelligent creatures. All those laws written and effaced, those forms of government that are modified, those dynasties which pass, are exterior phenomena which have profound causes. The inner life of humanity is in Religion and her saints are the true princes of the world. Providence gives them to mankind according to its necessities, and charges them with the execution of its will. Hence they occupy an important place in the field of history, and whosoever wishes to explain events, without considering their agency, will necessarily fall into grave errors.
Saint Catharine of Sienna was to the fourteenth century, what St. Bernard was to the twelfth; that is, the light and support of the Church. At the moment in which the bark of St. Peter is most strongly agitated by the tempest, God gives it for pilot a poor young girl who conceals herself in the poor shop of a Dyer. Catharine sets foot in the territory of France, to lead the Sovereign Pontiff Gregory XI, from the delights of his native land; she brings the Popes from Avignon to the tomb of the Apostles, the real centre of Christianity. Her zeal is inflamed at the view of the disorders which are preparing the great schism of the West, and she displays an extraordinary activity in order to avert it. She addresses herself to cardinals, princes and kings; she negotiates peace between the nations and the Holy See, brings back to God a multitude of souls, and communicates by her teaching and examples a new vigor to those great Religious Orders which are the living, vibrating pulse of the Church. Urban VI, claims her counsels; she hastens to Rome, sustains by her word the Sacred College, alarmed by the threatening storm; and in presence of the evils which overturn the heritage of Christ, she offers herself to God as a victim, and terminates her sacrifice, at thirty -three years of age, by a painful martyrdom.
To write the life of St. Catharine was a task beyond our strength; but God who watches over his own glory, has preserved all the documents that justify that great historical miracle, and we have only filled the part of translator. Instead of judging of facts through the prejudices of our time, and thus tinging them perhaps with a false and fading hue, we have been so happy as to meet with a contemporary author who describes them with incontestable fidelity. The life of St. Catharine by the Blessed Raymond of Capua, her confessor, is a work that may be compared to those churches of the middle ages, which charm us as much by their general harmony, as by the richness of their details. The soul reposes within, far from the contests of the world; she is sensible too of the presence of God which invites her to prayer, and excites her to become better. We had besides another motive for selecting this book, which we are happy to make known. The Sovereign Pontiff, Pius IX. , condescended himself, to name it for our "Dominican Library," and we were delighted to follow an indication so paternal and so august.
The Blessed Raymond of Capua presents the most precious qualities that could be united in a historian. He is not a simple and credulous man whose imagination can be easily seduced, but a Religious of profound knowledge and renowned sanctity, who relates to the Church what he saw and heard; and he does it with all the conditions which oblige his testimony to be accepted. A descendant of the celebrated Pierre des Vignes, Chancellor of Frederick II., he employed eminently better than his ancestor, the activity of his mind and the splendor of his talents. Entering betimes into the Order of St. Dominic, he exercised its most important offices. After directing during four years, the Monastery of Montepulciano, he became Professor of Theology at Sienna, and was the Confessor of St. Catharine, whom he accompanied in her journeys to France and Italy. Urban VI., confided to him the most delicate and the most difficult affairs. In 1380, he was named General Master of his order which he governed during nineteen years. Schism and plague had enfeebled the children of St. Dominic; the Blessed Raymond restored its ancient vigor, and it was under his agency that was developed in the Order of Friar Preachers, that epoch so fruitful in virtues and talent. The blessed Jean de Dominici, Antoine Neyrot, Constant de Fabriano, Pierre Capucci, Saint Antonino, Fra Angelico, Fra Benedetto, are sons of that reform which he established In the convents of Lombardy, Tuscany, Sicily, Hungary, Germany, Spain and France He died in the midst of his work, in 1399, at Nurembarg, and his body was transported to Naples, — where it now reposes amid the splendors of the church of St. Dominic.
The fatigues of his apostolate, did not prevent him from leaving precious writings behind him. Besides the life of St. Agnes of Montepulciano and that of St. Catharine, he translated into Latin, the spiritual treatises of her of whom he was at once the Confessor and Disciple. He composed an admirable commentary on the Magnificat, the Office of the Festival of the Visitation, a treatise on reform, and a great number of very remarkable letters. All his contemporaries laud his science and his virtues; the Sovereign Pontiffs wished to raise him to the highest dignities of the Church, but his humility opposed it. Urban VI in the briefs which he addresses to him, styles him his head, eyes, and mouth, his feet and his hands; he claims for him the veneration of the Emperor, of kings, cardinals and people.
This is the eminent man whom God promises for Confessor to Catharine, as a special favor; he becomes the witness of her life, and the depositary of all the secrets of her soul; he writes what he saw, and what he heard; he addresses himself to those who could be capable of contradicting him and carefully discusses the facts which he relates; he confesses his constant hesitations and all the means that he adopts in order not to be deceived. He requests, through the intercession of her whom he fears to be in illusion, an extraordinary contrition for his sins; and when he has obtained that abundance of tears which the spirit of darkness can never bestow he still doubts; then he meets on the countenance o Catharine, the threatening looks of our Lord himself.
The manner in which he exposes the miraculous abstinence of Catharine, her spirit of prophecy, and her frequent communions, shows that he brings to the examination of the facts all the lights of theology, and all the guarantees of prudence. In fine there is in the recital, such a simplicity of language, such an evidence of sincerity, that it seems impossible not to believe in his testimony; God will never allow falsehood thus to assume the garb of truth.
The life of St. Catharine, written by the Blessed Raymond, has been confirmed by all the depositions of his contemporaries; it has served as the basis of the process of canonization, and the bull of Pius II recalls its most extraordinary facts. We will not, therefore, discuss the doubts that might be conceived by a timid faith. The miracles are proved by testimony, and as soon as the Church admits them, we believe them as easily as the most simple phenomena of nature; they emanate from the same infinite power.
It may perhaps be found that the Blessed Raymond does not sufficiently bring forward the social action of St Catharine. It is true that he scarcely speaks of it; he shows it rather in its principle than in its effects. Saints are not statesmen who draw their plans in form and combine their means. They act under the immediate direction of God, and have no other policy than his Providence. Prayer, word and example render them powerful in heaven and on earth. They triumph over justice itself and change its most vigorous decrees into treasures of mercy. It was thus that St. Catharine influenced the events of her time.
After having made known Saint Catharine in the verity of her life we hope to cause her to be admired in the beauty of her doctrine, and in the greatness of her action. If God permit, we shall give to the public her spiritual dialogues, which contain the sublimity of her teaching, and her letters which will lead to the comprehension of her extended power.
Our translation has been taken from the text of the Bollandists. We have striven to preserve the simple and poetic form of the recital; at the risk of being prolix, we would not retrench any fact, nor any pious reflection. We have given but one of the author's prologues, the other appeared useless to us, and indeed not in harmony with the work. We have preferred adding to the narrative of the Blessed Raymond, the testimonies of other disciples of St. Catharine, who were summoned to depose before the Bishop of Venice.
The Dominicans were accused of celebrating the feast of St Catharine before the decision of the Holy See. They explain triumphantly the honors that they rendered to her memory, and the documents of the processes, that God permitted for the glory of his Spouse, to be used in her canonization.
In fine, desiring to render our work more complete, we resolved before terminating the impression of this volume, to see Italy again, and the localities consecrated by the presence of our beloved Saint. We have followed her footsteps to Rome, to Sienna, to Florence and to Pisa; we there venerated her relics and her memory; we sought in the ancient monuments of Christian art, the tradition of her portrait, and we offer to those who desire to know them, the result of our studies and of our pilgrimage.
We dedicate this volume to our Brethren and Sisters of the third Order of St. Dominic, who have, in France, chosen St. Catharine for their patroness. May the examples and teachings of that great Saint, develop in our hearts the love of the Church which inflamed her burning heart! May France by her devotedness to the Holy See, ever merit to be blest among the nations!
Sienna, April 29th, 1853.
LIFE OF
St. Catharine of Sienna.
PROLOGUE
David, the prophet of Christ, son of Isai, the sweet singer of Israel, said, when speaking of the coming of the Messiah: "Let these things be written unto another generation; and the people that shall be created, shall praise the Lord." The holy man Job, desiring to announce the Resurrection, exclaimed: "Who will giant that my words may be written ? Who will grant me that they may be marked down in a book ? with an iron pen and in a plate of lead, or else be graven with an instrument in flint-stone?" These passages of Holy Writ prove to us that whatever can glorify God and edify men, ought not to be related in one age and in one locality, but should be written down and taught to those who live, or who will live hereafter. Solomon said, Oeneratio proeterit et generatio advenit (Eccl. i. 4) One generation goes, and another comes. It is not just that one generation should alone possess what may be useful to all, and that the works of divine wisdom, which are worthy of never-ending praise, should obtain a transient eulogium. Moses also wrote of the beginning of Creation and the history of the human race until his own epoch; Samuel, Esdras and the other prophets continued his sacred recitals, and we religiously preserve their sacred words. The Evangelists are, by their dignity, entitled to the first rank among historians; not only did they announce the word of God, but they preserved and fixed it by committing it to writing; and a great voice said to one of them: Quod rides, scribe in libro, What thou see write in a book. (Apoc. i. 11)
I, therefore, brother Raymond of Capua, called in the world Delia Vigne, humble master and servant of the order of Friar Preachers, in the justifiable astonishment, excited by the wonders I have seen and heard, am resolved to write, (after having proposed them with the living voice to the admiration of the faithful,) the deeds of a holy virgin, named Catharine, to whom Sienna, a city of Tuscany, gave birth. The present age as well as future ages, on becoming acquainted with the prodigies that Almighty God produced through this woman, must praise him in his Saints, and bless him according to the multitude of his great works, and excite themselves to loving him with all their strength and above all things, as well as to serve him interiorly and exteriorly without ceasing.
I assure all the readers of this book, in presence of the God of truth, that there is in my narrative neither fiction nor falsehood, and that the facts are as faithfully reported as my weakness would allow. In order to satisfy even the least credulous, I will cite, in the different Chapters, the witnesses of what I relate; and it will be clearly seen from what source I have drawn what I offer to refresh the soul. And as I purpose doing all in the name of the adorable Trinity, I have divided the book Into three parts. The first will contain the birth, infancy and youth of Catharine, until the mystic nuptials with our blessed Lord. The second, her relations with the world from that period until her happy death; the third, the latter days of her life and the miracles which accompanied and succeeded her death. I do not pretend to tell all; it would not only make too voluminous a work, but my lifetime would not suffice for its accomplishment. May God allow me the privilege of accomplishing this task, and others that I purpose concerning her doctrine and devotions to the glory of the ever blessed Trinity, to whom be all the glory now and forever more. Amen.