Perhaps the best known Dominican woman, Catherine was born into a large family in Siena Italy in 1347. She died 33 years later in Rome in 1380. Motivated by a vision of Saint Dominic she entered the female branch of the Third Order of the Dominican’s known as the Mantellate, at the age of 16. St Catherine was canonised in 1461. In 1939, she and Saint Francis of Assisi were declared co-patrons of Italy. Pope Paul VI named her and Saint Teresa of Avila doctors of the Church in 1970. Saint Catherine’s feast day is celebrated on April 29th each year. She was also declared Co-Patroness of Europe by Pope John Paul II.
Jesus Christ was the centre of her life on earth. All that she did, her thoughts, words, and deeds were rooted in love of Christ. While still an adolescent and living at home she dedicated herself to prayer, penance and works of charity especially to look after the sick, including patients with leprosy. She lived the two fold commandment to love God with all her heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love her neighbour as herself, and perfected it in the New Commandment given at the Last Supper by Jesus namely “to love one another has I have loved you.” The New Commandment of Jesus. She is a concrete example of one who took the Lord’s invitation:
“Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest /or your souls! Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
In the biblical and Jewish tradition a yoke was used as a metaphor for religious instruction, representing the commandments of God’s Law or the counsel of Divine Wisdom that guided men and women to a pius and prosperous life in the Wisdom tradition. Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of the commandments of God given in the torah and is Wisdom Incarnate calling us to listen to his words and to imitate his way of life. He teaches us the importance of being gentle in heart, that is respecting the dignity, the infinite dignity of each person created in the image and likeness of God, of being humble of heart, of recognising ourselves as creatures with our weaknesses and frailty who are loved by God into existence and held in existence by God who is love. God who invites and calls each of us to share in the life of the Son, as children of God, Catherine heard this invitation, this call, indeed it was revealed to her by the Father … for that is what it pleased the Father to do. Catherine responded with great and wonderful generosity of heart – drawing others by her fidelity to Christ’s invitation –
“Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest /or your souls!”
Catherine’s entire life was a Yes to this invitation, around her Christ established a true and authentic spiritual family, they called her mother because as her spiritual children, they drew nourishment from her example and wise counsel. Her most famous writings “The Dialogue”; are a series of conversations between herself and Christ showing the amazing relationship that existed between them. Catherine’s Letters were written to many of her followers and were a tremendous source of Catherine’s teachings.
Thankfully throughout the history of the church, including in our own day the Church receives much and great benefit from the exercise of spiritual motherhood by so many women, lay and consecrated, who nourish souls with thoughts of God, strengthen faith and direct Christian life to ever more noble heights. Let us thank God for the gift of such women and that the Lord will continue to bless the Church with their courageous presence and witness, that we may all learn to follow Jesus, the Way the Truth and the Life.