A Book Review… Catherine Of Siena: Ambassador Of The Lord

Catherine of Siena, by Sigrid Undset, translated by Kate Austin-Lund (Ignatius Press: San Francisco, 2009), 335 pp. Available from www.ignatius.com or call 1-800-651-1531.

By MITCHELL KALPAKGIAN

A reprint of the English translation of the original Norwegian edition of 1951 issued in 1954 by Sheed and Ward, Inc., Sigrid Undset’s comprehensive biography captures the magnetism, holiness, and heroism of a great mystic who communed with Christ in ecstatic visions and lived an active public life devoted to the cause of ending schism in the Church during the fourteenth century when temporal and spiritual powers clashed in power struggles and when both Avignon and Rome competed for the residence of the Holy Father.
The inspiring story of this fourteenth-century mystic, however, remains timeless by its universal appeal. In Undset’s estimation, “St. Catherine’s teaching is just as applicable to-day as in her lifetime — neither more nor less so.” All social and political problems are moral in nature and demand the truth of Christian love.
The youngest child of a family of twenty-two children of which thirteen survived, Catherine Benincasa, “the youngest and darling of the family” and “the adored baby of a couple who were already elderly,” radiated an exuberance and vivaciousness from her early childhood that brought joy to everyone who delighted in her company.
Called Euphrosyne (the name of one of the Graces in Greek mythology) by her neighbors, “her words and her presence banished despondency and faint-heartedness, and filled their souls with the peace and love of God.”
Moved by a love of God from an early age, she once beheld a vision of God that illuminated for her “the way the saints lived.”
In this mystical experience, “she saw a sight so wonderful that she could never have dreamed of anything like it: the Saviour of the world sitting on a royal throne, clothed in a bishop’s robes, and with the triples crown of the Pope on His head.”
Though still a child, Catherine felt inspired to imitate the saints and behaved with an extraordinary commonsense and maturity far beyond her years as a little girl. The thought of living in a cave like the Desert Fathers and practicing the ascetical life of a hermit captured her young imagination. During these early years Catherine made a private vow of virginity and committed her life to be the bride of Christ alone.
In a prayer to the Virgin Mary, she confesses, “I love Him with all my soul, I promise Him and you that I will never take another bridegroom.”
Mature, patient, pious, and gentle, Catherine matured into early womanhood when her parents arranged for her marriage — a proposition she adamantly refused. Not desiring to be a nun and not agreeing to marriage, she endured many strong arguments with her parents who accused their daughter of disobeying their parental authority, especially when she cut off her luxurious golden hair as a statement of protest.
To dispel all ideas of a religious vocation and consecrated virginity, Catherine’s mother delegated to her daughter all the domestic duties normally performed by a housemaid.
Without any sign of disobedience or irritability, Catherine gladly accepted her mother’s decision, following her religious calling by building “an inner cell” or interior life in the midst of her busy days as the handmaid of her mother. She came to understand the words “The Kingdom of God is within you”: “Within us — it is there that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are poured out upon us to perfect our natural talents.”
She eventually at age nineteen joined an order of women known as The Cloaked Sisters or The Sisters of Penitence (“The Mantellate”) who lived at home but lived as nuns — a decision that Catherine’s mother regretfully accepted. In the words of her father, “My dearest daughter, it is far from us to set ourselves against the will of God in any way….Keep your promise and live as the Holy Spirit tells you to live.” Catherine’s mother, however, disapproved of her daughter’s life of self-denial, fasting, sleeping on boards, and acts of mortification.
Living a life of prayer and solitude at home in a small room except to attend Mass, Catherine began to remain hours in church to savor “Holy Conversation” with the Lord that filled her with supernatural joy. In these ecstatic visions she recalled Christ’s words: “And because you have fought like a hero you have earned and won still more grace, and I will appear to you more often than before and show you greater confidence than before.” In another vision Catherine received an engagement ring from Christ who said, “I shall betroth you to Myself as I have promised,” and called her “to undertake without protest all the works which I come to demand of you.”
God now wanted Catherine to join her family at the table for meals and live among people as preparation for the next phase of her vocation: “to serve Him among people of every kind.” This new chapter led Catherine to perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy throughout the streets of Siena and Rome as she involved herself in the political and religious conflicts of her day, attempting to bring peace between hostile Italian republics and to persuade Pope Gregory XI to leave the papal palace of Avignon and return to Rome.
Catherine’s almsgiving relieved the poor with the possessions of her family, and the once reclusive sister now assumed more responsibilities in the homemaking duties of family life — washing clothes, baking bread, scrubbing floors, and cleaning the kitchen — while also appearing as a familiar figure in the streets in her zeal to aid the poor. As the servant of God, “her care for the sick . . . led her to the city’s hospitals and to homes where people lay suffering from all kinds of horrible diseases.”
Catherine’s great works of mercy ended feuds between hostile families, subdued the pride of aristocratic nobles, prevented wars between the Italian republics, and reconciled the French and the Romans in their bitter opposition about the Pope’s residence.
In another of her ecstatic visions, Christ revealed to her the way she was to act as the ambassador of the Lord: “There are many whose salvation depends on you….I shall send you to Popes and the leaders of My Church and to all Christians, for I choose to put the pride of the mighty to shame by the use of fragile tools.”
Catherine’s prayers effected miraculous conversions, like the transformation of the depraved Andrea de Bellantis, notorious for his drunkenness, violence, gambling, and blasphemy who confessed his sins, sent for a priest, and died in a state of grace. Other sudden conversions followed through her prayers like the change in two ruthless robbers who, before their execution, died with peace of mind and reconciliation with God.
When Clement V had been elected as Pope in 1303, he refused to leave France to occupy the papal residence in Rome to avoid the turbulent politics in Rome between Popes and emperors about spiritual and temporal matters — a period in history known as “the Popes’ Babylonian captivity.”
In the words from Muratori’s history of the time, “As a result of the absence of the Popes, party war and enmity between small groups flourished unchecked.” The rivalry between France and Italy for the seat of Peter embroiled also the Germans and English who favored Rome over Avignon, a volatile political situation that destroyed all peace between Christian nations: “In vain the Pope tried to make peace in a world where peace had become a stranger.”
Into this turbulent realm of political and religious chaos, Catherine played the part of God’s instrument of mediation: “She was to be the master tool in the hand of God to bring St. Peter’s Successor back to his home besides the graves of St. Peter and St. Paul.”
When Gregory XI and Urban V succeeded as Popes, the same unsettled enmity continued with no resolution in sight. In 1372 Catherine corresponded with a cardinal legate to address this controversy, writing: “Love alone is able to put an end to discussion, unite those who are divided, enrich those who are poor in virtue; for love will bring to life all the other virtues, give peace, put an end to war, give patience, strength, and perseverance in all and good holy causes.”
As mediator, peacemaker, and adviser to both diplomats and prelates, Catherine boldly proclaimed the moral principles and Christian virtues necessary for the unity of Christendom.
In another letter to a cardinal, she warns, “A soul which is full of slavish fear cannot achieve anything which is right.” She reproaches Gregory XI for the nepotism in his appointments and for “his exaggerated gentleness, which is the result of his lenience” — the failure to correct the corrupt members of the Church.
When Bernabo Visconti appeals to Catherine in seeking allies in Siena in his dispute with the Pope, Catherine warns the Italian leader: “I beg you therefore not to continue in rebellion against him who is your overlord.”
As Catherine soon gained the reputation of a holy woman (“Christ’s ambassador to her contemporaries”) who obtains from God “all that you pray for with your whole heart,” she wrote honest, direct letters to statesmen and military figures advising them to forsake petty civil wars to devote themselves to the holy cause of a crusade.
She gave primacy to the Pope’s return to Rome as the foremost remedy to all the strife of her age. She attributed full responsibility to Gregory XI for all the tribulations of the Church, accusing him of the self-love that fears making enemies among subordinates who deserve correction.
The Pope’s failure to exercise authority to discipline “the bad shepherds and the treacherous monks whose shameful way of living is undermining the faith of believers” she called an example of the blind leading the blind: “The kind of mercy which is due to self-love and the love of friends, relations, and temporal peace, is in fact the worst cruelty” — the failure to clean a wound by salves rather than by a painful, efficacious remedy. She condemned Gregory XI’s attempt to appease his allies by granting them the prelates they requested “instead of the best and most worthy” — a compromise that only provoked more war.
Visiting the papal court in Avignon to end the war between the papacy and Florentines who were placed under an Interdict and denied the sacraments, Catherine spared no words in condemning the luxury and the flagrant vices of decadent priests wherever “she smelled the stink of hell’s putrefaction,” a mark of her gift for reading souls that amazed the Pope: “How have you, who have been here such a short time, got such knowledge of all that goes on here?”
God’s peacemaker, a weak unworldly woman with no political experience or sophistication of the court, finally moved Gregory XI to leave Avignon and return to Rome, only to hear the pleas of the French cardinals to return to France. Before making his final decision, the Pope “put on a simple priest’s robe and went alone to the Sienese woman to let her decide his fate and the fate of the Church for many years to come.”
When Gregory XI entered Rome in January of 1377, he was greeted with flowers, confetti, and dancing in the streets — a political and diplomatic coup accomplished by the saintly wisdom of the holy bride of Christ who taught fortitude to the vacillating leader of the universal Church.

The Power Of Good

Undset concludes her tribute to this great saint with the highest praise:
“It is certain that Catherine voluntarily — and few women have ever had such an inflexible will — chose to suffer ceaselessly for all she believed in, loved, and desired” — the unity of Christ’s Church, God’s Kingdom on Earth, and the eternal happiness and salvation of all people.
Undset’s biography testifies to one of the fundamental truths of the Christian faith that Catherine’s life exemplifies: “The saints have always known that the power of good is something quite incalculable.”