A SECOND ST. CATHERINE - OF FLORENCE, NOT SIENA
Of 32 saints and blesseds listed for Feb. 13, easily the most dramatic of the documented stories is this one.
I did not realize Italy had another St. Catherine whose life and story are in many ways as remarkable as Catherine
of Siena's.
Catherine dei Ricci
Born in Florence, Italy, April 23, 1522; died in Prato (near Florence), February 2, 1590; beatified by Clement XII in 1732;
canonized in 1747 by Benedict XIV; feast day formerly February 2.
Pierre Subleyras, The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine dei Ricci, 1740.
Alexandrina dei Ricci was born of a patrician family, but Catharine Bonza died leaving her motherless in her infancy.
She was trained in virtue by a very pious godmother. The little girl took Our Lady as her mother and had for her
a tender devotion. The child held familiar conversations with her guardian angel, who taught her a special manner
of saying the rosary and assisted her in the practice of virtue.
As soon as Alexandrina was old enough to go away from home (age 6 or 7), she was sent to the convent school of
Monticelli, where her aunt, Louisa dei Ricci, was the abbess. Besides learning her lessons for which she was sent,
the little girl developed a great devotion to the Passion. She prayed often before a certain picture of Our Lord,
and at the foot of a crucifix, which is still treasured as "Alexandrina's crucifix." Returning from the monastery
when her education was completed according to the norm for girls, she turned her attention to her vocation.
In her plans to enter a monastery of strict observance, she met with great opposition from her father Peter.
She loved the community life that had allowed her to serve God without impediment or distraction. She continued
her usual exercises at home as much as she was able, but the interruptions and dissipations that were inseparable
from her station, made her uneasy.
Finally, Peter allowed her to visit St. Vincent's convent in Prato, Tuscany, which had been founded by nine
Third Order Dominicans who were great admirers of Savonarola. Alexandrina begged to remain with them; however,
her father took her away, promising to let her return. He did not keep his promise, and the girl fell so ill
that everyone despaired of her life. Frightened into agreement, her father gave his consent; Alexandrina, soon
recovering, entered the convent of Saint Vincent.
In May 1535, Alexandrina received the habit from her uncle, Fr. Timothy dei Ricci, who was confessor to the convent.
She was given the name Catherine in religion, and she very happily set about imitating her beloved patron.
Lost in celestial visions, she was quite unaware that the sisters had begun to wonder about her qualifications
for the religious life: for in her ecstasies she seemed merely sleepy, and at times extremely stupid. Some thought
her insane. Her companions did not suspect her of ecstasy when she dozed at community exercises, spilled food,
or broke dishes.
Neither did it occur to Sister Catherine that other people were not, like herself, rapt in ecstasy. She was about
to be dismissed from the community when she became aware of the heavenly favors she had received. From then on
there was no question of dismissing the young novice, but fresh trials moved in upon her in the form of agonizing pain
from a complication of diseases that remedies seemed only to aggravate. She endured her sufferings patiently by
constantly meditating on the passion of Christ, until she was suddenly healed. After her recovery, she was left
in frail health.
Like Saint John of Egypt and Saint Antony, Catherine met Philip Neri in a vision while he was still alive and in Rome.
They had corresponded for a long time and wanted to meet each other but were unable to arrange it. Catherine
appeared to Philip in a vision and they conversed for a long time. Saint Philip, who was also cautious in giving
credence to or publishing visions, confirmed this. This blessed ability to bilocate, like Padre Pio, was confirmed by
the oaths of five witnesses. Also like those desert fathers, Antony and John, she fasted two or three times weekly
on only bread and water, and sometimes passed an entire day without taking any nourishment.
Like Saint Catherine of Siena, she is said to have received a ring from the Lord as a sign of her espousal to him -
a mysterious ring made of gold set with a diamond, invisible to all except the mystic. Others saw only a red lozenge a
nd a circlet around her finder.
Sister Catherine was 20 when she began a 12-year cycle of weekly ecstasies of the Passion from noon each
Thursday until 4:00 p.m. each Friday. The first time, during Lent 1542, she meditated so heart-rendingly
on the crucifixion of Jesus that she became seriously ill, until a vision of the Risen Lord talking with Mary Magdalene
restored her to health on Holy Saturday.
She received the sacred stigmata, which remained with her always. In addition to the five wounds, she received,
in the course of her Thursday-Friday ecstasies, many of the other wounds which our Lord suffered. Watching
her face and body, the sisters could follow the course of the Passion, as she was mystically scourged and crowned
with thorns. When the ecstasy was finished, she would be covered with wounds and her shoulder remained deeply
indented where the Cross had been laid.
Soon all Italy was attentive and crowds came to see her. Skeptics and the indifferent, sinners and unbelievers,
were transformed at the sight of her. Soon there was no day nor hour at which people did not come, people in need and
in sin, people full of doubt and tribulation, who sought her help, and, of course, the merely curious. Because of
the publicity that these favors attracted, she and her entire community asked our Lord to make the wounds less visible,
and He did in 1554.
Her patience and healing impressed her sisters. While still very young, Catherine was chosen to serve the community
as novice- mistress, then sub-prioress, and, at age 30, she was appointed prioress in perpetuity, despite her intense
mystical life of prayer and penance. She managed the material details of running a large household were well, and
became known as a kind and considerate superior. Catherine was particularly gentle with the sick.
Troubled people, both within the convent and in the town, came to her for advice and prayer, and her participation
in the Passion exerted a great influence for good among all who saw it.
Three future popes (Cardinals Cervini
later known as Pope Marcellus II, Alexander de Medici (Pope Leo XI), and Aldobrandini (Pope Clement VIII)
were among the thousands who flocked to the convent to beseech her intercession.
Of the cloister that Catherine directed, a widow who had entered it observed: "If the world only knew how blessed
is life in this cloister, the doors would not suffice and the thronging people would clamber in over all the walls."
A contemporary painting of Catherine attributed to Nardini (at the Pinacoteca of Montepulciano) shows a not unattractive,
though relatively plain woman. Her eyes protrude a bit too much and her nose is too flared to account her
a classic beauty, but she possessed high cheekbones, dark hair, widely spaced eyes, and full lips. Her mein is that
of a sensitive woman who has experience pain and now has compassion.
Catherine's influence was not confined within the walls of her convent. She was greatly preoccupied by the need for
reform in the Church, as is apparent from her letters, many of them addressed to highly-placed persons. This accounts,
too, for her reverence for the memory of Savonarola, who had defied the evil-living Pope Alexander VI and been
hanged in Florence in 1498.
Saint Catherine was in touch with such contemporary, highly-orthodox reformers
as Saint Charles Borromeo and Saint Pius V.
After Catherine's long and painful death in 1589, many miracles were performed at her tomb. Her cultus soon spread
from Prato throughout the whole of Italy and thence to the whole world.
The future Pope Benedict XIV,
the "devil's advocate" in Catherine's cause for canonization, critically examined all relevant claims.
As in the case of her younger contemporary, Saint Mary Magdalene de'Pazzi, canonization was not granted because
of the extraordinary phenomenon surrounding her life, but for heroic virtue and complete union with Christ.
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The stigmata of Christ and the marks of the Passion! That's another phenomenon I have long wanted to read about.
And now, here's bilocation. And incorrupt bodies. And all sorts of suspension of natural laws - i.e. miracles -
that God decides to show us when He sees fit! Obviously, they are not necesary for the faith, but that they happen
can only strengthen the faith...
P.S. Let me correct a big oversight when I failed to post the two major saints commemorated by the Universal Church
on Feb. 14
Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop
Born in Thessalonika, Greece; Cyril in 827, Methodius in 815 (some say 826);
died respectively in Rome on February 14, 869, and probably
at Stare Mesto (Velehrad, Czechoslovakia) on April 6, 884; feast day formerly on July 7 (or March 9);
Pope John Paul II in 1981 declared them joint patrons of Europe with Saint Benedict.
". . . We pray Thee, Lord, give to us, Thy servants, in all time of our life on earth, a mind forgetful of past
ill-will, a pure conscience and sincere thoughts, and a heart to love our brethren; for the sake of Jesus Christ,
Thy Son, our Lord and only Savior."-
From the Coptic Liturgy of Saint Cyril.
Cyril and Methodius were brothers, born into a senatorial family, who both rose to high positions in the world -
Methodius became governor of a colony in the Slav province of Opsikion; Cyril, a leading philosopher at the
University of Constantinople.
Cyril, the younger of the two, was baptized Constantine and sent at an early age to study at the imperial
university at Constantinople under Leo the Grammarian and Photius, was ordained deacon, and in time took
over Photius's position at the university. Cyril also served as librarian at the church of Santa Sophia, where
he earned the reputation and surname 'the Philosopher.' Methodius was also ordained. Both renounced
the life of this world and went to live in a monastery on the
Bosphorus.
In 861, Emperor Michael III sent Cyril deep into the Dnieper-Volga regions of Russia to convert the Khazars,
who were Jews. His brother accompanied him. Both brothers were brilliant linguists and soon familiarized
themselves with the Khazar language. They came back to their monastery after a successful mission, and
Methodius became abbot of an important monastery in Greece.
Almost immediately (863) they were sent by the then Patriarch Photius of Constantinople to convert
the Moravians at the request of Prince Rostislav. German missionaries had been unsuccessful in their
attempts to convert the Moravians; Cyril and Methodius met with success because of their knowledge of the
Slavonic tongue.
They invented an alphabet called glagolitic, which marked the beginning of Slavonic literature (the Cyrillic
alphabet traditionally ascribed to Cyril was probably the work of his followers in Bulgaria, although both
could have been inventions of Saint Cyril). Cyril, with the help of his brother, translated the liturgical
books into Slavonic.
Meanwhile, they incurred the enmity of the German clergy because of their free use of Slavonic in Church
services and because they were from Constantinople, which was suspect to many in the West because of
the heresy rife in the East. Further, their missionary efforts were hampered by the refusal of the German bishop
of Passau to ordain their candidates for the priesthood.
In Rome the pope had heard of their good work. Pope Nicholas I summoned them to meet him, but when they
reached Rome he had died. They travelled at an unfortunate time; Photius had incurred excommunication
(because he had been illegally appointed) and their liturgical use of Slavonic was strongly criticized.
Nicholas's successor, Adrian II, received them warmly. They presented him with the alleged relics of
Pope Saint Clement, which Cyril was said to have miraculously recovered from the sea in Crimea on his way back
from the Khazars.
Adrian was convinced of their orthodoxy, approved their use of Slavonic in the liturgy, and was so delighted
and impressed by Cyril and Methodius that he determined that they should be consecrated bishops. It is
believed that before this could happen, Constantine became a monk at SS. Boniface and Alexus in Rome and
took the name Cyril, but probably died before his consecration as bishop.
He was buried in the beautiful church of San Clemente on the Coelian in Rome, where there is an ancient
fresco depicting Cyril's funeral. (His earthly remains were discovered in the lower part of the church
in 1880 and now lie in a chapel dedicated to him and his brother, set off the right aisle of this church.)
Methodius was consecrated bishop and struggled on alone, often in dangerously hostile lands. He bore a letter
from the Holy See commending him as a man of "exact understanding and orthodoxy."
At the request of Prince Kosel of Moravia and Pannonia, Pope Adrian revived the ancient archdiocese of
Sirmium (now Mitrovitsa), consisting of Moravia and Pannonia, independent of the German hierarchy, and made
Methodius archbishop at Velehrad, Czechoslovakia.
Although he was supported by the pope, many German bishops resented his work among the Moravians (and
probably the loss of territory). King Ludwig (Louis the German), urged on by the bishops, deposed Methodius
at a synod at Ratisbon (Regensburg) and actually imprisoned him for two years in 870.
Pope John VIII secured his release and returned him to his see, but thought it politic to forbid his use of
Slavonic in the liturgy, although Methodius was authorized to use it in preaching. At the same time John
reminded the German bishops that Pannonia and the disposition of sees throughout Illyricum belonged to
the Holy See.
During the following years, Methodius continued his work of evangelization in Moravia, but he made an enemy
of Rostislav's nephew, Svatopluk, who had driven his uncle out. Methodius rebuked Svatopluk for his wicked ways.
Accordingly, in 878, the archbishop was reported to the Holy See for continuing to hold Mass in Slavonic and
for heresy, in that he omitted the words "and the Son (filioque)" from the creed, which at that time had
not been introduced everywhere in the West, not even in Rome.
Methodius was summoned again to Rome in 879. John was convinced that he was not heterodox, and impressed
by Methodius's arguments, again permitted the use of Slavonic in the Mass and public prayers.
Finally, Methodius returned to Constantinople to complete a translation of the Bible that he and Cyril had
begun together. Methodius's struggle with the Germans continued throughout the balance of his life.
Methodius was subjected to serious vexations, especially from his suffragan Bishop Wiching of Nitra, who was
so unscrupulous as to forge a papal letter in his own favor. After Methodius's death, Wiching drove out his
principal followers, including Saint Clement Slovensky, who took refuge in Bulgaria.
These two heroes of the faith are considered the "Apostles of the Slavs" or "of the Southern Slavs."
Even today the liturgical language of the Russians, Serbians, Ukranians, and Bulgars is that designed by the
two brothers. Their feast was extended to the universal Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1880.
Methodius is regarded as a pioneer in the use of the vernacular in the liturgy and as a patron of ecumenism.
In art, the two can be identified as an Oriental bishop and monk holding up a church between them. Sometimes
Bulgarian converts surround them; at other times Methodius holds up a picture of the Last Judgement.
Cyril is sometimes portrayed in a long philosopher's coat. They are especially venerated by the Bulgarians.
Their patronage includes Europe and the former Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 19/02/2007 3.17]