Chapter V
Her Austere Penances, And The Persecutions Of Her Mother
As soon as Catharine had the liberty of serving God conformably to her desires, she set to work in an admirable manner; she procured a small apartment separate from the others, in which she could build a solitude, and torment her body at will. It is impossible to describe the austerities that she practiced and the ardor with which she sought the presence of her Spouse.
From her infancy, Catharine seldom touched meat; she interdicted herself so completely at that time, and so habituated herself to this privation, that in the end, she could not smell the odor of it without her stomach being offended. One day as I found her in a state of extreme weakness, because she had taken nothing to sustain her strength, I caused a bit of sugar to be put into the water that she was drinking; when she perceived it, she said to me: "I see that you are anxious to extinguish the remnant of life that I yet have." As I asked her why, she replied that she had become so accustomed to taking unsavory dishes, that whatever was sweetened, sickened her; it was the same thing in reference to animal food: as to wine, she mingled it so, that at the time in which she dwelt in her cell, it had neither taste or odor, and hardly preserved the rich color of the wine of that region. At the age of fifteen she renounced it entirely and drank only pure water, and by daily curtailing some new article of diet, she terminated by taking only a little bread, and some cooked vegetables.
