Catherine Fieschi Adorno

ON ST. CATHERINE FIESCHI ADORNO, WIDOW, OF GENOA,

AT GENOA.

In the year 1510.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Catherine Fieschi Adorno, widow, at Genoa (St.)

BY U. S.

§ I. The Saint's biographers, praised by many, and their credibility: the various copies of her Life, written first in Italian and afterwards translated into other tongues: whence her Acts are here to be given: the authors to be used.

Genoa, metropolis of the republic of the same name and of Liguria, Many heralds of the Saint to be treated today to be reckoned by its title among the chief cities not only of Italy but even of all Europe, numbers among her Saints Catherine, whose Acts I undertake to illustrate. That to this admirable widow, most celebrated for the sanctity of her life, and for a love toward God truly fiery like a seraph's, and for prodigies, the honours due to the Heavenly ones were to be paid on this XV day of September by the whole Church of Christ, Clement XII decreed in the Bull of canonization, although some Fasti, as we shall see below, recall her memory on the preceding day, which they also mark (wrongly, however) as the day of our Saint's death; and therefore we treat of her today. That most holy Woman had almost innumerable heralds of her virtues, and those men of the first rank and most distinguished writers, a very long catalogue of whom the additional Summary to the process of canonization reviews: a still more extended one, with the addition namely of the eulogies in which they honourably proclaim our Saint, was woven by Giacinto Parpera in Blessed Catherine illustrated, part 1: concerning these there will be discussion afterwards, so far as shall seem expedient. Now we must inquire into the authors who first wrote the Saint's Life, which afterwards others vied with one another in turning into various tongues, and offered to the reader as a most powerful goad for impelling the hearts of men to the pursuit of virtue and perfection.

[2] Agostino Giustiniani, a contemporary of our Saint, inasmuch as he, The testimony of Agostino Giustiniani concerning the Saint as Ughelli and others testify, born at Genoa in the year 1470, obtained the bishopric of Nebbio in Corsica in the year 1514, and lived until the year 1536, speaks in book 6 of the Annals of Genoa concerning our Saint and the writers of her Life in such a way that I have judged it altogether expedient to transcribe his very words here, rendered into Latin: thus he has it. She (our Catherine) was the daughter of Giacomo Fieschi, viceroy of Naples … and the wife of Giuliano Adorno, with whom she lived many years in conjugal chastity: and her whole life, since in her youth the divine grace had penetrated her heart, was charity, love, meekness, kindness, patience, ineffable abstinence, and a pattern of all the virtues, so that one may compare her to St. Catherine of Siena; and the whole city was a partaker of, and perceived, the odour of the virtues of this holy Matron, who, rapt in spirit, among other things spoke excellently concerning the state of the souls existing in purgatory, things marvellous and worthy to be heard by all those to whom a taste for a life devoted to divine things is pleasing. Her body is buried in the oratory of the greater hospital, and affords a spectacle no less admirable than venerable: for it is entirely whole with its flesh, which appears living as though she had been buried today, although twenty-five years have elapsed from the time when she was laid here.

[3] [and concerning the credibility of her biographers. The Acts which are now current,] Giustiniani wrote these things, then, in the year 1535, in which twenty-five years had passed from the Saint's death, which took place in the year 1510; and he adds: It would be fitting to write down this venerable Matron's sublime perception of God, her excellent virtues, her holy works, joined with an immense charity: yet for brevity's sake we shall omit them, chiefly because an excellent volume has been composed by men worthy of credit concerning these matters alone. That testimony of Giustiniani, a man conspicuous for integrity and learning, seems to me of such moment that I should reckon him foolish who should call into doubt the credibility and sincerity of our Saint's biographers, or presume to disparage them, although it must be confessed that some things may at times appear somewhat harsh, as far exceeding the common sense of men. Giacinto Parpera, in a letter given to our Henschen, speaks thus of the book praised by Giustiniani: How truthful and faithful it was, many public testimonies of ancient writings prove even now; and he writes that that book is the same as the History of our Saint printed at Genoa in the year 1551, and that it agrees altogether with the Life which is now current: he brings forward as witness Agostino Schiaffino in the Ecclesiastical Annals of Genoa, which are in the hands of the inquisitors of state, asserting that the manuscripts had been seen by him, and their conformity with the printed Life of St. Catherine.

[4] consonant with the ancient monuments, having the Saint herself in some measure From what has been said thus far, the credibility of the authors who consigned to writing the deeds of St. Catherine is established, and no prudent doubt remains that the Life which we now have agrees altogether with the ancient manuscripts: now the authors of this narrative must be more closely investigated. In chapter 44 of the Life rendered into Latin by Thanner I read thus: This priest (the Saint's confessor), at the request of certain persons devoted to this Blessed one, wrote a great part of this Work, since he had often provoked and incited her to make manifest the singular graces received from God and those things which He had wrought peculiarly in her: especially because that same religious, by long experience and long-continued converse with her, knew and understood most excellently the course of her life. But in the Preface to the pious readers, before the Italian Life published in print at Venice in the year 1590, the author professes that he did not aim at elegance of style, but took care only faithfully to report the deeds of the Saint with that simplicity with which they had been written down by the arbiter of the Saint's conscience and by a certain spiritual son, received from St. Catherine's own mouth.

[5] Hence it probably came about that, as Oldoini testifies,

in his Athenæum Ligusticum, page 136, may be said to have as their author. some have asserted that a Life of herself was written by St. Catherine herself at the command of her superiors: this opinion of many Baillet reports in the critical Table concerning authors and Acts, prefixed to the Lives of the Saints for each month, article 3, at the XIV day of September, and he restricts it at least to that part which has Marabotto for its author, and finally adds: Yet one may judge that a few things were dictated by her (our Saint). Baillet adds not a word there by which to establish his opinion; nor do I think it necessary to divine the reasons which could have impelled a critical man so to judge, nor do I believe I shall do Baillet an injury if I openly declare that I prefer to give credence to men contemporary with the Saint rather than to him, who is removed some two centuries from the Saint's age and contradicts contemporary authors: for what is there incredible in the words reported in the preceding number? What is out of tune, if the Saint be said to have declared her past life, and the graces and gifts granted her by God? Certainly it does not seem to me repugnant to humility of mind if anyone should recount the course of his whole life, however holily lived, when he has known that this makes for the glory of God and the salvation of his neighbour, or has judged it expedient for the easier right ordering of the remainder of his life according to the counsel of a prudent director: certainly it was zeal for the divine glory that moved Catherine to make the declaration praised by her biographer, as is read in chapter 38.

[6] The first author of the Life may therefore be reckoned to be St. Catherine herself, The first writers of the Life were Marabotto who by narrating those things which had befallen her in the course of her whole life supplied the material which others consigned to writing: but the writers were Cattaneo Marabotto and probably Ettore Vernazza; concerning the former Oldoini in the aforesaid Athenæum, published at Perugia in the year 1680, writes thus on page 135: Cattaneo Marabotto of Genoa … of innocent life and unblemished faith, rector of the hospital called Pammatone, confessor of Bl. Catherine … Adorno, wrote the Life of that same Blessed one in the vulgar tongue. Of the other he has this on page 234: Ettore Vernazza, father of Battista … and spiritual son of Catherine … Fieschi Adorno … wrote the Life of that same Catherine together with the priest who was her confessor, and he cites for his assertion Raffaele Soprani. With Oldoini agrees Baillet in the critical Table just mentioned, yet in such a way that he ascribes the first records of the Life to Marabotto, but says that the Work was continued by Ettore Vernazza. However it may be — whether the one was a helper to the other in the writing, as Oldoini intimates, or whether Ettore succeeded to the burden when Marabotto was either forestalled by death or hindered by other cares — it will suffice me to have indicated the authors of the Saint's Life.

[7] As concerns Marabotto, it cannot prudently be doubted and probably Ettore Vernazza, that he wrote the Life of St. Catherine: for that he had lately ascertained this altogether from ancient public monuments, Giacinto Parpera testifies in the Letter praised in number 3: but concerning Ettore Vernazza, whom Oldoini reports to have been Marabotto's helper, some doubt may arise. Oldoini cites for his assertion Raffaele Soprani: he published a Catalogue of Ligurian writers at Genoa in the year 1667, as Oldoini testifies on page 485; that author has not come into our hands, and therefore it has not been possible to consult him: but Parpera certainly consulted him, for he designates him in his letter as an author to be consulted for illustrating the Saint's deeds: yet in the same place he asserts that the name of the Blessed one's spiritual son who was Marabotto's helper has hitherto been unknown; the same Parpera in Blessed Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter 1, number 6, speaks in such a way as plainly to intimate that Marabotto's helper was a different man from Ettore Vernazza: namely, he calls a priest the man who joined his industry with Marabotto's, and who afterwards, at the urging of some, committed the Saint's Life to the press in the year 1551.

[8] and a certain third man, unknown until now. But Ettore Vernazza was never a priest: for concerning him Mariano Grimaldi in the Sanctuarium of Genoa, published in the year 1613, in the Life of the venerable Battista Vernazza speaks thus: He (Ettore) had three children … living for the rest of the time thereafter with his wife (Bartolomea Ricci), although she was young, in chastity: which words do not seem to allow in Ettore the dignity of the priesthood, nor indeed, if he had been raised to that grade after his wife's death, or with the consent of her who had entered religion, would Grimaldi have omitted to indicate it, who recorded Ettore's dexterity in transacting business, the offices he undertook, his zeal for the divine service, and his glorious death in attendance upon those infected with the plague. Yet Parpera's silence concerning Ettore Vernazza in the passage cited above does not seem of such weight that we should depart from Oldoini and believe that he wished to obtrude upon the reader what is by no means read in Soprani, and what he had learned from no other monuments. I judge therefore, with Oldoini, that both Marabotto and Ettore Vernazza, joined to St. Catherine by great familiarity and her contemporaries, wrote the Life; and that afterwards a certain third man, and he a priest, whose name is hitherto unknown, either arranged their lucubrations in another order or even enlarged them. But I judge it superfluous to dwell longer on these matters, especially since I do not see whence I could bring fuller light to bear upon them, and since it suffices to know that the Life was written by writers nearly contemporary with the Saint.

[9] The manuscript Lives, and a hymn appended to one of them. Parpera in Blessed Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter 1, reviews the various editions of her Life, of which we must here treat briefly. He writes in number 6 that a little after her death a manuscript Life appeared, from which he affirms in number 7 that several others flowed, some shorter, some more extended, yet agreeing in the substance of the things narrated; and he asserts that this is established from several copies preserved in his keeping: in number 13 he reports a Latin hymn appended to a manuscript Life bearing the year 1546, which I subjoin.

That the blind and lukewarm may be able to bear The light of a brightness clear and likewise lofty, The light of burning, and may long to be set free When that light is seen,

May the kindly Spirit illumine the mind, drive back The darkness, kindle hearts inwardly with warmth, And wound them too, and unite them To Himself.

The sacred deeds of the beloved and precious Bride Of the Lord exceed the senses, and overcome The clear minds of men, and surpass them Utterly.

Fervour caught her up into so great a heat, The Holy Spirit penetrating the abyss Of her deep heart, that she should now die With body whole.

The body cannot endure the shining ardours Sent forth from the Love to pure minds Upon the earth, and it dies while living, Pierced by the point.

Whoever desires to know the things read, ever To be remembered, let him first seek with weeping To blot out his defilements, and let him bowed down Beg the Light of Love.

Let the one Trinity be venerated, and Ever loved, that by love it may at least Be equally called upon by us, If not possessed.

This is a brief summary of the admirable love of our Saint, and of the mighty light granted her by God.

[10] From the manuscript copies I proceed to those published by the press. The copies of the Life, often reprinted The Life was first printed at Genoa in the year 1551 with this title: The Book of the admirable Life and doctrine of the holy Bl. Catherine of Genoa, in which is contained a useful and Catholic demonstration and declaration of Purgatory; there is prefixed to it an image of Jesus hanging from the cross, and of the Saint prostrate on her knees before it, with these words of St. Matthew: I confess to thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones; so Parpera in Blessed Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter 1, number 8; in the letter mentioned above he says that this Life appeared from the press of Antonio Belloni, and that it is in all respects conformable to that which is now in men's hands, and he asserts that this is established from copies surviving to this day. It was reprinted at Florence in the year 1568, and again in the year 1580, and a third time in the year 1589: in his letter Parpera adds that the Florentine printer was Jacopo Giunti, and in the same place, without however naming anyone, he corrects the error of certain persons asserting that the first author of the Life of St. Catherine was Jacopo Giunti, who nevertheless was only the printer, as he says is clear both from a letter to a certain Florentine nun prefixed by him to the Life, and from these words, Nella stamparia di Giacomo Gionti, from the press of Jacopo Giunti: this blunder I have observed in the French Legend published at Paris in the year 1687 with this title: The Flowers of the Lives of the Saints … written in Spanish by the Reverend Father Ribadeneira of the Society of Jesus, rendered into French by René Gautier, etc., where in the Life of our St. Catherine it is thus read: Her (our Saint's) Life was written in Italian by doctor Jacopo Giunti; but this error, from what has already been said, and above all from the mentioned older copies of the year 1551, plainly falls to the ground.

[11] The Venetians rivalled the piety and veneration of the Florentines toward the Saint, The Italian editions are reviewed. among whom her Life was printed three times, first in the year 1590, and then in the years 1601 and 1615: the earlier edition Giovanni Battista Bonradino prepared, the last Jacopo Sarzina, as is established from a copy of each edition, which I have in my keeping: in both there is wanting the Treatise on Purgatory, which Parpera reports to be read in the Genoese and Florentine editions: but of these editions I have obtained no copy, as neither of the Neapolitan one, which by Parpera's testimony was published in the year 1645 according to the Florentine copy; nor have I obtained the Genoese Life, reprinted, by the same testimony, in the year 1667 according to the first copy of the year 1551. Mariano Grimaldi in the Sanctuarium of Genoa, which appeared at Genoa in the year 1613 from the press of Giuseppe Pavoni, reduced the Life of St. Catherine into a compendium, which Parpera in the often-praised Letter asserts to have been more elegantly arranged by the most illustrious lord Bartolomeo Imperiali and reprinted at Genoa in the year 1640.

[12] The zeal of peoples toward St. Catherine did not stop in Italy alone, but was extended to other nations far distant. The various translations of the Life into other tongues. Her Life and the twin Work of the Saint were turned into the French tongue and printed at Paris in the year 1598 by the fathers of the Charterhouse of Bourgfontaine, as Parpera and others testify; and these afterwards, as the piety of the faithful increased, were often reprinted in the same tongue and by the same Parisian presses, and likewise appeared in French at Lyons in the year 1610, and at Douai in Belgium in the year 1599: of this Douai edition I have a copy. Into the Spanish tongue Tomás de Freitas translated it and published it at Lisbon in the year 1647, with this Spanish title prefixed: Stupendous prodigies of the highest perfection in the admirable Life of the distinguished matron Bl. Catherine Adorno, with her Dialogue. The Life and the twin Treatise of the Saint Matthias Thanner, a religious of the Charterhouse of Freiburg, rendered into Latin and published at Freiburg im Breisgau from the press of Theodor Meyer in the year 1626, with an explanation of certain difficult passages prefixed: this Latin edition I shall use throughout this Commentary, inasmuch as concerning it Parpera in a letter given to Papebroch on the XXVIII of November in the year 1675 writes: Which you kindly sent to us,

the Life of Bl. Catherine of Genoa published in Latin, corrected against a most ancient manuscript, and enlarged also with several separate pieces, contains everything which seems to be desired by you, whether contained in the processes … or in other writings and authors, as you will be able to see from the enclosed index.

[13] The plan of a certain work, which we have not obtained. That index, preserved among the notices of our Museum, exhibits the plan of a work distributed into four parts, of which the first contains eight chapters, whose titles, compressed into a few words, I here subjoin: in chapter 1 there is given a delineation of the Blessed one; in the second, encomia of her sanctity and doctrine; in the third, a chronological summary of the history from the birth of Bl. Catherine to the year 1675; in the fourth, an explanation of almost as many questions as there are words of the Blessed one; in the fifth are explained certain words revealed to the Blessed one for the ordering of her life. The sixth chapter comprises an index of the notable things which she taught by word or example; the seventh, a canonical examination of her doctrine and its Apostolic approbation; and the eighth, a scholastic examination of the same. The second part exhibits the Life narrated in 12 chapters; the third, the Treatise on Purgatory divided into 17 chapters; and the fourth, the Dialogue in three books, each book divided into chapters, the old text however being preserved. In the aforesaid letter Parpera promised Papebroch two copies of this Work: but whether, having changed his plan, he did not submit that Work to the press, or whether he was hindered from elsewhere from fulfilling his promise, there exists none in our Museum.

[14] Three lucubrations of Giacinto Parpera concerning the Saint. This loss was made good by the often-praised and still to be praised Giacinto Parpera, a presbyter of the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, by the Life of St. Catherine published at Genoa in the year 1681 from the press of Giuseppe Bottari, corrected according to the older and authentic copies and illustrated with observations, together with the twin Treatise of the Saint. To this Work he subjoined another, and gave it the title Bl. Catherine of Genoa illustrated: that Work, published from the same press but only in the year 1682, he divided into three parts, of which the first comprises the Encomia of the sanctity and doctrine of Bl. Catherine, the second an index of the spiritual instructions of the same Blessed one, and the third an exposition of several peculiar expressions. To both these lucubrations, in the same year 1682 in which the two others appeared, the same Parpera added in the Italian tongue another Work, printed at Genoa at the house of Antonio Casamara, comprising the admirable Life of the Saint and the various occurrences observed in it concerning the state of the soul.

[15] In the letter prefixed to each of the two older Italian editions which I possess, What Acts are to be given here and whence, the rest being passed over. the pious reader is warned that some things are found in the Life not sufficiently arranged in order and at times repeated: and indeed so many chapters occur in which the instructions of the Blessed one are narrated, and her exhortations to the state of perfection so frequently repeated, that on this side it ought to bear the name of a book teaching piety rather than of a history of a life: but since it is not of our design to publish the doctrine and lucubrations of the Saints, but only to take from them those things which conduce to a fuller knowledge of their deeds, I have judged that none of the Lives hitherto mentioned should be reprinted entire. Therefore in their place I shall subjoin after the Commentary one rendered from Italian into Latin, more briefly written and received from the processes instituted for the canonization, which an anonymous author published at Rome in the year 1737: in this Life scarcely anything of the Saint's deeds contained in the more extended Lives is wanting: yet for the reader's sake I shall insert some things into this Commentary, from which the Saint's virtues, more briefly narrated in the Life to be given below, may become more fully known, both from the more extended Lives and Parpera's lucubrations and from the Saint's own Works: and to the Life, illustrated after our manner with Notes, I shall subjoin the Saint's posthumous Glory, collected from Parpera and from the instruments of the canonization which have come into our hands.

§ II. Baillet's over-severe censure of the Saint's Life is weighed: some encomia of her sanctity and doctrine: a brief notice of the Saint's Works.

[ ] Baillet, judging the Saint's Life akin to the errors of the modern mystics From what has been said in numbers 3 and 4 the integrity and credibility of our Saint's biographers is sufficiently established, nor should I have believed that anything was to be added here, unless once again — as also more frequently below — the over-severe censure of Baillet were to be discussed, who in the before-mentioned critical Table thus pronounces in French: That Work (the Life of St. Catherine) perhaps indicates the genius of its authors and interpreters better than that of Catherine herself, and it cannot be denied that it favours more than is right the modern mystics whom they call quietists, etc. It is not sufficiently clear whether Baillet so judges of every edition, or only of that which Jean Desmarets prepared in the year 1661: but howsoever Desmarets may have been disposed in mind — whether inclined to the errors afterwards condemned by the Church or not, which I do not here inquire — it is not credible that he, when the Saint's Life was so often reprinted at Paris in that century, would have dared notably to adulterate the text; and so I judge that Baillet so pronounced concerning the Saint's Life universally and as regards all the editions. Would that that severe Aristarchus, to whom it is so familiar to pass censure without adducing any reason for it, had here either expressed those things which he thought so akin to these errors, or had read a little more attentively the notice to the reader prefixed to the French version by the religious of the Charterhouse of Bourgfontaine, where among other things they ask that, if anyone does not sufficiently grasp all that is contained in the Life and Works of the Saint, he should nevertheless not make ill use of them, but rather stay with the Hebrews at the foot of the mountain than pass judgment upon those things which were transacted between God and Moses on the mountain's summit. It is to be noted meanwhile that Baillet in the critical Table advises that Catherine's Works, and especially the Dialogue on love, be read, that by their help some things may be explained which in the Life present the appearance of a paradox: but it must be observed that the biographers, when they hand down some doctrine, speak not in their own words but in the Saint's, as they sufficiently intimate, saying: This holy Lady affirmed, said, etc.

[17] is refuted by the weightiest testimonies Further, although the individual points against which Baillet sharpened his criticism in the summary of the Saint's Life must be weighed in their own places in the course of this Commentary, it will nevertheless be useful here to touch beforehand upon some things from the testimonies of most weighty men. Girolamo of Genoa, of the Order of Preachers, Apostolic inquisitor in the whole dominion of Genoa, approved the earlier edition of the year 1551 in these words: I agree that this book may be given to the press for the consolation and instruction of spiritual persons. The doctors of Paris, approving the French edition, found nothing contrary to the Orthodox faith, but judged it worthy of the light, for the edification and instruction of those who have made progress in the spiritual life. Luis Venegas, of the Order of Preachers, master of sacred Theology, in his approbation of the Latin edition speaks thus: Although I have found many things which at first sight will seem hard to theologians, yet I have found none which do not admit of a sound sense, and which cannot be turned to the profit and spiritual advancement of the readers. Therefore in our judgment let this golden little book come forth into the light, etc.

[18] and of the sacred Congregation of Rites, These things indeed might seem sufficient to remove from the Saint's Life all suspicion of kinship with the proscribed errors; but I think that a stronger argument will here also not be unwelcome to the fair reader. The sacred Congregation of Rites, according to the custom constantly observed in causes of beatification and canonization, committed the examination of St. Catherine's doctrine to the most eminent Cardinal Azzolini, and he in turn entrusted this care to Martín Esparza, a consultor of that same Congregation, who wrote back to the aforesaid Eminence in these words, which — since I do not have Esparza's Latin letter — I render into Latin from Parpera's Italian version, part 1, chapter XI, of Bl. Catherine illustrated. By command of your Eminence I have read and accurately examined the two Treatises of Bl. Catherine Fieschi Adorno, the one on Purgatory, the other the Dialogue between the soul and the body, and in these I have found nothing in the smallest degree contrary either to sound doctrine or to integrity of morals, or which does not agree most excellently both with the one and with the other: and although in these there are found some things which, according to the literal manner of speaking and the ordinary manner of acting, may seem discordant — such as that which is read on page CCLXVIII, in the middle, concerning contrition not accepted and fruitless penance — yet if we duly consider and maturely weigh both the context immediately preceding and following, and particularly the scope of the whole discourse, which on this side and on that is sublime to the utmost and beyond the common measure, as also the obscurity of words and things which are familiar and most clear to persons given to contemplation, such as Dionysius, Augustine, Bridget, Teresa and others divinely illuminated, it appears clearly that the whole matter is unstained and most salutary, and that that appearance of contrariety rests solely upon the profundity of a doctrine altogether seraphic, to which is added the ignorance of the reader and his lack of experience, and a mind unpractised in mystical and anagogical senses.

[19] The same I affirm concerning the heavenly axioms intermingled with the History of the Life of this Handmaid of God, approving her doctrine, and by the judgment of the Apostolic See and I add moreover that not only is there nothing in the aforesaid Treatises and axioms which could hinder and delay the definitive declaration of the sanctity of this venerable Handmaid of God, but rather her esteem is greatly increased by them: since by more than one indication it is clearly recognized that the doctrine which is delivered partly in words, partly in deed, and which most happily attains to the supreme degree and summit of the unitive life and of the heroic love of God, whereby He Himself is poured into the soul, was acquired neither by human discourse nor by human learning, whether by hearing or by reading, but that a knowledge drawn from experience was infused and impressed upon that soul by the Holy Spirit with a most singular and hidden illumination. Further, such knowledge drawn from experience, and of such things, and proceeding from such a mastership of the Holy Spirit, cannot fall upon a soul which is not thoroughly purged of every vice and every blemish of imperfection and all lukewarmness, and which is not kindled to the very marrow with a most burning flame of divine love. Wherefore (even if all other proofs were wanting) those two Treatises and those axioms are of themselves a most efficacious argument of a sanctity in this Handmaid of God altogether heroic, and one which has far surpassed the common usage, etc.

[20] Perhaps someone will take exception to the testimony of Esparza, and by the judgment of the Apostolic inasmuch as some assert that he was too much devoted to Miguel de Molinos (whether justly or unjustly it is not the place here to investigate), the malice of that old deceiver, veiled under a show of religion and piety, being perhaps not yet detected. But no such judgment can be made concerning the sacred Congregation of Rites, which, as Parpera reports in Bl. Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter XI, number 5, on the XXX day of March in the year 1675 issued a decree in the cause of our Saint, by which it judged that the excepted case was established: in this decree these things are read to our purpose: The same sacred Congregation (having first heard the report of the most eminent proposer concerning the Works of the said Blessed one, and these

being approved), etc.; nor can any such judgment be made concerning Clement X, who assented to that decree on the VI of April of the same year, as I read again in Parpera in the place just praised: yet observe, reader, that in the writing entitled Factum concordatum, offered to Clement XII by the most eminent Giorgio Spinola, it is thus read: But when notice had been had of certain Works written by Bl. Catherine, the revision of them was committed by the sacred Congregation on the XIII of June MDCLXXVI to the aforesaid Cardinal Azzolini, upon whose report on the XIV of June MDCLXXXIII their approbation came forth; and so according to this reckoning the Saint's doctrine was approved under the Pontificate of Innocent XI, who succeeded Clement X in the Roman Chair in the year 1676, and who in the year 1687 proscribed the errors of Miguel de Molinos.

[21] From all which — disputed perhaps at greater length than to some will seem necessary — is refuted. it becomes plainly manifest that the doctrine of St. Catherine, even as delivered in the Life, is altogether free from these errors. Whence, if Baillet had been willing to proceed rightly and sincerely, he would have argued thus: although perhaps some things are read in the Life which, torn from the context and the attendant circumstances, might furnish the followers of Miguel de Molinos with arguments by which to attack Catholics, yet it does not follow that that doctrine really favours the heretics; just as neither does it follow that St. Augustine or other Fathers favour the Jansenists and men of that kind, although these wrest into a depraved sense the more obscure words of this holy Doctor and of others: because just as those Fathers spoke more securely, these heretics not yet being born, so also did the Saint and her biographers, the heresy of Miguel de Molinos not yet having arisen.

[22] Concerning Catherine's remarkable doctrine And let these things disputed concerning the Saint's doctrine suffice; whoever desires more, let him go to Parpera, who in part 1 of Bl. Catherine illustrated heaps up many eulogies of very many writers, of whom, however, it will not be beside the purpose to review some here. Yet I wish the reader to be advised that the greatest part of those writers has not come into our hands, and so that most of what is to be given here is given upon Parpera's credit in the place cited. In chapter 5 he reviews some bishops, and in the first place indeed Agostino Giustiniani, whose words I gave in numbers 2 and 3. Francesco Gonzaga, general of the Observant Minors of St. Francis, and afterwards bishop of Mantua, praises our Saint for her assiduity in contemplating heavenly things, for her charity, endurance and humility of mind. Jean-Pierre Camus, bishop of Belley, contemporary and familiar of St. Francis de Sales, calls the Treatise on Purgatory written by St. Catherine a most excellent Work on that subject, and adorns her with the title of Blessed, and proclaims her as a mistress.

[23] and her extraordinary virtues, the eulogies of bishops, Passing over others, I add one testimony of Hardouin de Péréfixe, archbishop of Paris, who in the Notice to the reader prefixed to the French Work on the Piety of Christians toward the departed, speaks most honourably of the Saint: the words of this most religious archprelate, whose distinguished honours may be read in volume 7 of the Gallia Christiana reprinted, page 181 and following, I render into Latin from Parpera's Italian: concerning the new translation of St. Catherine's Treatise on Purgatory he speaks thus. Rare is the outpouring of the spirit of God into this Soul so pure and burning with love, and it is an admirable monument of God's solicitude in governing His Church… For when He had foreseen that the doctrine concerning purgatory and the suffrages for the dead would be assailed by the heresy of Luther and Calvin … He revealed the secrets of the most sublime truths to a Matron endowed with extraordinary virtue and sanctity, whom He chose for this among all the mortals of that age … to defend the truth of the faith against the heretics … and to instruct Catholics… The method in which she wrote is so worthy of the majesty of God and of the loftiness of our religion, that it cannot but be that those who read this Treatise should admire the providence of Him to whom it is pleasing to hide His secrets from the wise and prudent of this world, and to manifest them to the humble, and sometimes to raise the weaker sex to the knowledge of the highest truths, etc. He adds at the end: And to show the conformity of the perceptions of this distinguished Blessed one with the opinions of the Fathers, there is briefly reported what St. Bernard handed down concerning purgatory in some places of his Works.

[24] and the encomia of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. From the bishops I pass with Parpera to men distinguished with the Roman purple: he reviews four most eminent men who spoke of St. Catherine with much praise, namely Robert Bellarmine, Pierre de Bérulle, Federico Borromeo and Giovanni Bona: he says that Bellarmine asserted that the Genoese ought to promote her canonization and to erect for her a most sumptuous church, and Parpera cites as witness Sebastiano Bado, book 4, added to the Life published from the Genoese press in the year 1667: the same Bellarmine also honourably mentions the Saint in the Preface to his book on the Art of dying well. And the most eminent Bérulle most highly commended to the Order which he founded, and to the Discalced virgins of the Carmelite Order, whose protection he had undertaken, devotion toward Bl. Catherine of Genoa, whose image he always had by him, nor could he sufficiently admire her love toward God. So in Parpera testifies Germain Habert in book 3, chapter 5, of the Life of the most eminent Bérulle. I omit the rest, as also the persons of both sexes conspicuous for the fame of a holier life, whom Parpera reviews in chapter 7 of the often-praised part 1.

[25] Chapter 8 of the same Work bears this title: Encomia bestowed upon Catherine by Saints and Blesseds; How much certain Saints esteemed Catherine, and after a brief preface, as also in the preceding chapters, he heaps up many testimonies from the Works of St. Francis de Sales, bishop and prince of Geneva, whose suffrage is to be reckoned as equal to that of very many: but lest I be too long here, I rather take these few things from Parpera's letter to Papebroch: She (the Saint) is called cherub, seraph, phœnix and bird of paradise by the divine de Sales: the same Saint compares Catherine to St. Mary Magdalen and to St. Paul in her conversion, and joins her, for the purity of her love toward God and her other gifts, with SS. Paul, Augustine, Bernard, Francis, Teresa, Catherine of Siena and others. To St. Francis de Sales Parpera subjoins St. Aloysius Gonzaga, who, as Virgilio Cepari testifies in the Life among us, volume IV of June, page 1006, number 243, was marvellously affected toward the Life of St. Catherine, and had appointed a certain time each day for turning it over. St. Andrew Avellino also, a Clerk Regular, in chapter 8, number 15, in a certain letter of his reported by Carlo Tommaso in volume 7 On the Consideration of the Lord's Passion, although he does not expressly name Catherine, yet manifestly speaks of her, reciting her words, taken from the more extended Life, chapter 3, about the middle, Ah! quickly, quickly send it (the sacred Eucharist) into the inmost part of my heart, since it is its food: and so he celebrates the Saint's love toward the most holy Sacrament, and calls her a distinguished Saint.

[26] How highly Bl. Bernardine of Feltre, her contemporary, esteemed St. Catherine, he clearly showed; and Bl. Bernardine of Feltre, and others. for when, as Parpera testifies in number 14, preaching sacred sermons at Genoa in the year 1494, he had converted a certain Hebrew woman recently brought over from Spain, he was willing to assign her no other mistress, that she might be confirmed in the faith and might learn to order her morals according to the rule of the Christian religion, than St. Catherine. That the title of Blessed is rightly attributed to Bernardine by Parpera is indubitable, since his immemorial cult was in the year 1654 approved as legitimate, after examination by the sacred Congregation of Rites, by Innocent X, as may be seen in Prospero Lambertini, now Benedict XIV, a Pontiff truly Greatest, in book 2 of the most distinguished Work on Beatification and Canonization, chapter 24, §5: no such judgment is to be made concerning Angelo of Chivasso, to whom Parpera gives the title of Blessed, probably led to this by the authority of Arthur in the Franciscan Martyrology, and perhaps of others: but our Predecessors observe in the Prætermissi at the XI day of April that this is done by the authority of Arthur, not of the Church. And Parpera says in number 13, from many probable conjectures, that Angelo was that religious who in the Life to be given below, number 51, is said to have disapproved of the daily reception of the Eucharist, but afterwards, recognizing the good spirit in her, to have permitted her to follow the leading of her mind.

[27] I forbear to review a great number of other authors of every nation and order, Other encomia here omitted. lest by heaping up more testimonies often coming to the same thing I should make the reading of this Commentary tedious rather than useful: but those things from which some light may shine upon the History of St. Catherine I shall give in the course of the work, from the writers themselves, if I obtain them; if not, upon Parpera's credit. But the encomium which Parpera in chapter 12 reports as pronounced, as it were, by Clement IX (rather X) may be given, if it shall seem good, in the posthumous Glory. I also prudently omit the divine encomia concerning Catherine which Parpera comprises in chapter 12 of the same part 1 of Bl. Catherine illustrated, and which consist chiefly in this, that some texts of the sacred Scriptures are applied either to certain excellent deeds of the Saint, or to her inflamed love, or to the incorruption of her body after death, or to her doctrine: for certainly the greatest part of them can be expounded of other Saints as well as of our Saint, to whom these or like divine favours were common with her.

[28] A brief idea of the Saint's Works To these things I append a brief idea of the Saint's Works. Her Dialogue between the soul and the body, self-love, the spirit, humanity and God comprises three parts; each part has recently, as the French edition and Parpera's Italian one have it, been divided into a number of chapters. The first part contains twenty-one chapters, the second eleven, and the third fourteen. Having made a compact to seek some place where they might indulge their love and delight, and having taken self-love as an inseparable companion for settling the disputes that would arise, the soul and the body set out on their journey. The soul with great fervour desires heavenly things alone, but, seduced by the body and self-love under the appearance of necessity, is little by little entangled in worldly enticements, and begins to follow them: but afterwards she is perfectly converted to God, and applies herself wholly to austere works of penance: and these things are treated in the first part of the Dialogue. The second part describes her remarkable progress in the course of the virtues, and the admirable ways which divine Love uses to strip souls devoted to Him of all their blemishes and even of themselves. The third describes the stupendous effects of divine love, such as she herself experienced in herself: from each of them we shall take some things in the course of the work.

[29] is set forth. The Treatise on Purgatory, celebrated with many praises by most weighty men, as Péréfixe testifies in Parpera, sets forth the State in which those souls dwell who suffer in purgatory, and who, since with the love which at the time of death they detected in themselves there was mingled a certain slight stain, until they should blot it out by this purifying fire, couple joy with torments. Let the religious of the Charterhouse of Bourgfontaine also be heard, who concerning that Treatise have among other things these words in the preface:

Of the two things which the common and universal faith teaches to be joined in the expiatory fire, namely love and punishment, she is silent about the latter, as being more common and necessary to weak and imperfect minds, and considers only the former, together with the attainment of its most stupendous effects. In few words Parpera thus expresses the subject-matter of this Treatise: How from a comparison with the divine fire which she experienced within herself she understood what the expiatory fire is, and in what manner the souls dwell in it content and tormented; or, as Baillet sets it forth after the Saint's Life, she understood the nature of the expiatory fire from the fire of divine love with which she burned and was purged of every blemish: and as she herself, in this her own purgatory, perfectly joined to God her love, lived content amid even the most grievous pains, in the same way she comprehended that it happens with the souls that are wiping away the stain of sin in the purging fire. Meanwhile I wish the reader advised that, whenever I report anything from the Dialogue or the Treatise on Purgatory, I shall use Thanner's translation, but shall cite the place from which I have taken the words according to Parpera's division of each book into chapters; nor shall I alter Thanner's translation, either here or in the Life, save when that shall seem expedient, and then I shall always indicate it.

§ III. The Saint's most illustrious birth; her parents; her upbringing; her virtues and gift of prayer in tender years: her desire to put on the religious habit.

[ ] The Saint's most illustrious family, Having thus far set forth a notice of the Saint's biographers, and adduced the encomia of some authors of great name, and designated the instruments out of which this commentary will be composed, let us come closer to her history. Catherine drew her origin from the most illustrious family of the Fieschi, whence the surname Fieschi clung to her. And that family of the Fieschi, distinguished by the ancient title of counts of Lavagna, so excels in splendour of race, in antiquity of stock, and in the number of heroes heaped with every praise whom it has produced continuously now for many centuries, that it is second to no nobles of Liguria; nay, if we believe Uberto Foglietta, in the Eulogies of illustrious Ligurians, page 168, As in dignity, so in time also it far precedes the other Genoese families. Besides very many men renowned for deeds excellently performed in war and peace and for the highest magistracies held, this most noble family gladly recognizes in its records two supreme Pontiffs, Innocent IV and Adrian V, very many most eminent Cardinals, and a great number of ecclesiastical prelates. Agostino Giustiniani, praised above, in book 3 of the Annals of Genoa, at the year of Christ 1247, ascribes the beginnings of the name Fieschi to Ugo Fieschi, sprung from the blood of the counts of Lavagna, while others, as the same annalist there testifies, refer the origin of the Fieschi to the most serene princes of Bavaria and to the eleventh century of the redeemed world, and perhaps to still earlier times: however that may be, since it is not of our design to dwell longer on such matters, let what has been said suffice; for the rest, let him who desires to know the true beginnings of the Fieschi and the rest of their honours go to the genealogists.

[31] St. Catherine had for father Giacomo Fieschi, her parents. who drew his descent from Roberto, brother of Innocent IV, Pontiff of happy memory: so all the Saint's biographers testify, both ancient and more recent, who also assert that Giacomo was viceroy of the kingdom of Naples and died in that dignity: wrongly, however, do they report that this grade of honour was conferred by Rainerius, since it ought to be written René, namely of Anjou, who in that century, after the death of queen Joanna, it is certain contended with Alfonso king of Aragon for obtaining the kingdom of Naples. Parpera noticed this, who, having written Rainerius in the Life of the Saint published in the year 1681, in the other, published the following year, called René of Anjou the man in whose kingdom of Naples the parent of St. Catherine was appointed vicar. The Saint had for mother Francesca, daughter of Sigismondo de Nigro, which family is among the more celebrated Genoese ones, ancient and most distinguished.

[32] The year in which our most holy Widow drank the light of life Parpera marked in both the Lives just praised as 1447; The year of her birth probably 1447. but the month and the day on which that blessed Soul was first given to the world I nowhere find noted: yet since both the third Lesson of her proper Office and Clement XII in the Bull of canonization set her final age at sixty-three years, it is probable that her blessed birth is to be bound to one of the three last months of the year 1447, or at least is to be placed after the XV day of September, on which we shall see below that Catherine's happy passage to the Heavenly ones took place — lest, if it preceded the said XV day, she should have to be said, strictly speaking, to have died not in the sixty-third but in the sixty-fourth year of her age. But since such expressions admit of some latitude, and a month or two in excess of sixty-three complete years might have been neglected, nothing certain can be determined; for Parpera cites no instrument from which he drew the year of her birth, and if he rests upon the argument taken from the age of sixty-three years alone, it is manifest to the observer that nothing more can be made out for the year 1447 than for 1448, when some months of it also had begun: yet since both Clement XII in the Bull of canonization and Parpera, who professes that he searched all the ancient instruments, bind the Saint's birth to the year 1447, we must abide by that for the present.

[33] Born at Genoa, she is called Catherine at Baptism. The place of her birth Parpera set forth in the Life published in the year 1682, asserting that she was given to the light in her father's house, situated in the street or square which takes its name from the thread: in the same place he also reports that she was washed in the sacred font in the metropolitan church of Genoa, sacred to St. Lawrence, and that the name of Catherine was imposed upon her — perhaps, he says, on account of the flourishing fame at that time of St. Catherine of Siena, whose sanctity she was foreboded to attain, or in veneration of St. Catherine the martyr, because, as she had been most skilled in philosophy and by the cruelty of the tyrant a martyr in body, so our Catherine was to be most learned in mystical Theology and, through the vehemence of divine love, to undergo martyrdom in her heart. But who does not see that there is very little strength in these conjectures, however ingeniously devised, since it is most evident to everyone that almost innumerable reasons can be brought forward for imposing any name: and so, lest I should deservedly seem idle, since the Saint's contemporary biographers are silent about the reason for the name imposed, I judge it superfluous to dwell on these things. Parpera adds in the same place that St. Catherine, both on account of her tender age and according to the custom of the Genoese, was called by the diminutive name Catherinetta, which word some writers retain to this day.

[34] Her brothers and sister; her upbringing. The often-praised Parpera assigns to the Saint three brothers, Giacomo, Giovanni and Lorenzo, and one sister by the name of Limbania. Whether Catherine was the youngest of all is unknown to me: this is certain from all her biographers, that she was younger than her sister Limbania, who had already professed as a nun when Catherine, at thirteen years of age, desired with a vain attempt to embrace the regular institute among the religious women of St. Mary of the Graces. To these things Parpera in his later lucubration, chapters 2 and 3, appends much concerning Catherine's upbringing, which instructions, taken from the Scriptures and from authors, are fitter to stir parents to the right training of their children than to make us certain of the rule observed by her progenitors in Catherine's upbringing, although I should by no means wish to deny that they laboured in every way at this: let these few things therefore suffice here, which are read in the Life to be given below, number 1: She (St. Catherine), after she had been regenerated to grace by the help of most sacred Baptism, was with all diligence brought up by her progenitors (whom, with Parpera, chapter 1, number 5, I altogether believe to have been prudent and truly Christian) in the holy fear and love of God.

[35] Although the outward form of the body contributes nothing to holiness of life, The outward form of her body. yet since there is implanted in most men a certain curiosity by which they desire to contemplate, painted in living colours, those whose virtues and excellent gifts of soul they celebrate, or whose deeds they eagerly read, I have believed I should do a thing not unwelcome to the reader if I here represented the Saint's likeness in a very few words, as Parpera exhibited it after diligent investigation, as he professes, in Bl. Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter 16: to this description of St. Catherine's bodily figure I was moved also because, for the things to be said below, it seemed to me not altogether to be neglected: and it runs thus in Italian: Catherine was of a stature great rather than middling, with a head of proportion just to her body, a face somewhat oblong, but of excellent proportion and comeliness, of a complexion white and ruddy in the flower of her age; with a nose becomingly long, eyes dark about the pupils, eyebrows evenly long, a spacious forehead: nature had rightly formed every part of her: whence she appeared most beautiful in countenance to the eyes of the world, even as she needed to be most pleasing to God as to her soul. From her look she was recognized as a matron of lofty judgment, and endowed with much sense, of good manners in acting, most courteous in speaking.

[36] The rest which Parpera heaps up in the same place I omit, observing with him this one thing, Her first virtues in tender years, that in the last years of her life her body was so emaciated that it seemed to consist of nothing but skin and bones; at which we shall by no means marvel if we consider the long-continued abstinence of so many years, of which below, and her afflictions of the body. But although, as the reader will easily gather from what has been said, many things concurred which could apply goads to Catherine to follow the delights of the world — namely nobility of race, comeliness of form, the great riches of her father's house, a delicate body — Nevertheless, says the Life rendered into Latin by Thanner, chapter 1, from her tender years she began to trample upon the pride born of the splendour of her birth, and to abhor delights. The virtues practised by the Saint from the eighth year of her age the Life to be given below describes somewhat more fully in numbers 2, 3 and 4, which therefore let the reader consult. Parpera in the Life of the Saint published in the year 1682 sets forth at length, or rather adorns in oratorical fashion, in ten whole chapters, namely from the 4th to the 14th, the virtues of the tender Virgin, and mingles with them many moral instructions: I report the titles alone, omitting for brevity's sake the words that are not necessary: to chapter 4 this is prefixed: The first virtues of Catherine; to the rest the following, which I have thought necessary to distinguish only by punctuation. How great a lover of peace and how modest she was? Her docility and obedience; Her innocence and simplicity; Her zeal toward God and compassion toward her neighbour; Her first meditations; Her penances from her eighth year; Her love of solitude and silence; The infused gift of prayer; Her zeal for chastity.

[37] Concerning the gift of prayer granted her the biographer writes thus in chapter 1, in Thanner's translation: the infused gift of prayer: When she was twelve years old, God by grace conferred upon her the gift of prayer, with a wonderful affection and devotion toward her Lord, whence, besides many other holy and divine things inspired in her, new flames of inward love and new stings of sorrow from the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ came upon her. How much, further, to the meditation of heavenly things

and contemplation she was devoted, the Saint herself declares in her Dialogue, part 1, chapter 2, in the following words: I, who am pure and free from the stain of sin, shall begin to consider the beginning of my creation together with all the other benefits received from God. And hence I know that I was made for so lofty a blessedness, and that I am a creature so noble and excellent that I almost transcend the choirs of the angels: I see myself an almost divine mind, and I always feel myself drawn to contemplate divine things with a pure mind … truly I am invisible: therefore I set all my banquets and delights in invisible things, for to this end was I made, and in them I find my rest, having need of nothing else than to feed upon those things which are above the heavens, and to trample all the rest under foot. Wherefore I shall spend this whole week in such contemplation, and shall count the rest as nothing.

[38] concerning which And that these things agree with the age expressed by the biographer is concluded from this, that the Saint writes thus of herself immediately after she had undertaken the pilgrimage with the body, and that she subjoins to these the hindrances brought upon the fervour of her spirit by the body and self-love, on account of which, about the 22nd year of her age, she gradually turned aside to earthly things and withdrew from the path of perfection, yet without grave fault, into which even at that time she never fell, as the Life to be given below writes in number 14, from the testimony of him who lent his ears to the Saint's confession. But the things which we reported from the biographer at the beginning of the preceding number, concerning the gift of prayer infused into Catherine when she was in her twelfth year, in no way conflict with what the same Life has in chapter 2: At that time she was instructed in spirit concerning prayer, which refers to the beginnings of Catherine's conversion to a more perfect life, and so belongs to about the twenty-seventh year of her age, and the year of Christ 1474. They do not conflict, I say, for he does not add that she was then first taught: moreover, when charity had somewhat cooled in Catherine, that gift of prayer also, which some mystics call the Espousal of the soul with God, had at least to be diminished: for among the conditions required for infused contemplation Prospero Lambertini lays down, in book 3, chapter 26, number 7, the impulse of charity; and when this was lulled to sleep by earthly affections, that gift languished; but when charity returned to its former vigour, by the help of God efficaciously calling and assisting, that gift revived anew in St. Catherine.

[39] some things But that it may be more fully established that St. Catherine was endowed with the gift of prayer, it may be useful here to recite some things from the aforesaid Lambertini, who in book 3, chapter 26, number 9, speaks thus: The examination of confessors and spiritual directors, which we have said elsewhere to be useful, will assuredly be able to profit greatly in these causes, that it may be discerned whether the Servants of God gave themselves to meditation and contemplation, of what kind their meditations and contemplations were, what fruit they drew from them, whether, and what, visions and revelations befell them, of which we shall treat in their place. This same thing may be had from the writings of the Servants of God themselves, if by the command of their superiors they committed to writing those things which pertain to their meditations, contemplations, visions and revelations: and from all these it will be possible to discover whether they were assiduous in meditating and contemplating, and how they bore themselves in distractions and aridities… All these things are taken from the second report of the auditors of the Rota on the virtues of St. Teresa, article 21, §1: "But if we should wish to seek from witnesses worthy of credit, we have the testimony of the Blessed one herself in those things which she left written in her books concerning her own prayer and divine contemplation. For the most frequent suspension of her mind, her deepest quiet, her closest union, her most frequent raptures, the wounds of her inmost charity, the most vehement impulses of love, the sweetest colloquies with God, the most tender endearments with which her writings are besprinkled, easily demonstrate a sublimity of prayer without doubt angelic, and a most complete skill infused from heaven for instructing others."

[40] Whoever shall be willing to peruse the writings of St. Catherine, and to consider both those things which will be briefly inserted into this Commentary and those which are read in the Life below, are observed. will easily perceive that the things which the Auditors of the Rota testified concerning St. Teresa fit our Catherine exactly, so that Clement XII deservedly said in the Bull of canonization: And despising all childish amusements, a rigid Guardian of silence, she took delight in prayer alone: in the same Bull Catherine is said to have entered by the loftiest ways of contemplation into the chamber of the heavenly Bridegroom: by which oracle of the supreme Roman Pontiff those things become indubitable which Marabotto, the arbiter of her conscience, received from Catherine's own mouth, and which he and others consigned to writing — men worthy of credit, as Giustiniani, among others, testifies, praised here in number 3.

[41] The fruit of her assiduous prayer was the desire with which she burned about the thirteenth year of her age She seeks the religious habit in vain. of embracing the regular institute: concerning this there is sufficient discussion in the Life below, number 5 and following, so that it is not necessary to add anything here whereby the most ardent vow of the tender Virgin and her vain attempt may be known. The cause on account of which the Saint could not put on the religious habit the more extended Life reports thus: But since she was of a very small stature, she was not received: so too writes the Life published in French, so Baillet: but far more probable appears to me the reason on account of which she was not admitted which our biographer below refers to the Saint's too tender age; the same cause Parpera reports in the Life, number 6, and it agrees better with what was said above from Parpera concerning Catherine's bodily form: so too the older biographers seem to have judged, for in the preface to the reader, number 6, Parpera testifies that the text was by no means altered by him, but was corrected according to ancient and authentic copies. And the word piccolina, which both our Italian editions have, can indeed rightly be rendered small, as both the French translators and the Latin one did; but I see nothing to prevent its also being rendered of tender age: for in the Lexicon of Giovanni Veneroni da picciolo is rendered from boyhood, from tender nails: perhaps also the word eta, age, was added by the biographers in the earlier editions, and in others, which the aforesaid translators saw, dropped out through the carelessness of the compositors.

§ IV. The Saint's marriage with Giuliano Adorno: she is afflicted by her husband's discordant morals and turns to worldly things: the Saint's return to her first fervour.

[ ] The Saint, for the sake of the peace between the Fieschi and the Adorni Catherine, cast down from her hope of obtaining the religious habit, and nevertheless, that she might solace the grief thence conceived, applying herself the more diligently to the exercise of religious virtues, was pierced by a wound far heavier than the first. About the sixteenth year of her age her parents gave her in marriage to Giuliano Adorno, whom Thanner wrongly calls William: And, continues the Latin Life of Thanner, chapter 1, although this was contrary to her will, yet on account of her great simplicity and her reverence and obedience toward her parents, who urged her to it, she allowed it to be done. That St. Catherine was drawn to these nuptials by her parents our anonymous biographer writes below, in number 10, in order that, the discords which had long been most grievous between the families of Fieschi and Adorno having not long before been laid to rest, peace might be more fully established by that conjugal bond: Parpera also, among other weighty reasons by which the Saint was drawn to marriage, reports the same reason. That the reader may judge concerning the dissensions between the two families, it will suffice to have observed from book 4 of the Annals of Genoa of Agostino Giustiniani, at the year 1394, that the Adorni followed the party of the Ghibellines, and the Fieschi that of the Guelphs.

[43] that it might be more firmly established, Another seed of discords Uberto Foglietta records in these words, writing in book 9 of the History of the Genoese, at the year of Christ 1393: Such, he says, was the state of affairs at Genoa, that, since four very powerful families of the popular body — the Adorni, the Fregosi, the Guarchi, the Montalti — had drawn everything to themselves, and had comprised the whole city and all Liguria within their factions, which were called by the same name as the family, the four more powerful families of the nobles were plainly excluded from the government, namely the Fieschi, the Grimaldi, the Doria and the Spinola, which four Genoese families all acknowledge to be of the first rank: whoever desires more concerning the civil disturbances which for several centuries agitated the Genoese republic and stirred up the former families against the latter, and both more than once against one another, let him consult the aforesaid chronologists. As concerns the dissensions between the Fieschi and the Adorni, laid to rest not long before St. Catherine entered upon marriage, recorded by our anonymous biographer, since both he and Parpera place that marriage as celebrated at the beginning of the year 1463, that reconciliation must be earlier than that time.

[44] she is betrothed, though unwilling, to Giuliano In Uberto Foglietta's History of the Genoese, book XI, at the year 1460, I read some things to our purpose, which I summarily take up: when in that year men were being inclined to peace of mind, suddenly Paolo Fregoso and Prospero Adorno entered the city; presently there was a rush of their factions to each of them, when the nobility and the chief men of the city (among whom assuredly the Fieschi), fearing the fiery temper of Paolo, strove to attach Prospero to themselves, who by more numerous votes than any man up to that day was proclaimed doge of the Genoese. Perhaps the favour of the Fieschi family contributed not a little to that exaltation of the Adorno, and that was the origin of peace between the two families: whether it was long-lasting I do not inquire; certainly in the aforesaid Foglietta I read that about the year 1462 the Adorni were driven from Genoa by Paolo Fregoso, and in the year 1464 I find Ibleto Fieschi adhering to Paolo, and the same Ibleto standing against Paolo on the side of Francesco Sforza. Content to have said these things in passing, I leave them to be more accurately examined by others whom they more concern.

[45] Whether therefore for the sake of more firmly establishing a peace obtained in the manner said above, or otherwise, born of the most noble family of the Adorni, the Saint was compelled to marry Giuliano about the sixteenth year of her age, as the older biographers write, and in the year of Christ 1463, as Parpera and our Life below, number 10, report. Further, concerning the Adorno family Francesco Sansovino, in his Italian book on the Origin and deeds of the illustrious families of Italy, printed at Venice in the year 1609, writes thus on folio 141 verso: At Genoa … there are several illustrious families, among which the Adorno has rendered itself distinguished, conspicuous and in great honour for its wealth and for its men most renowned in peace and war. He asserts in the same place that its origin is unknown to him, nor is it of our design to trace it further back: let it suffice to have said with Sansovino that already from the year 1346 Meliaduce Adorno is numbered among the commanders of the triremes armed for the defence of the republic. From the same family Gabriele in the year 1363 held the supreme magistracy of the republic. The rest of the Adorni's honours and excellent deeds I pass over, which the curious reader will be able to read in Sansovino and others. Observe meanwhile that by some it is written Adorno, by others Adornio; I, following Clement XII in the Bull of canonization, and the Martyrology

Roman, reprinted by order of Benedict XIV, have preferred to write Adorno.

[46] The disagreement of Giuliano's morals with those of his Bride the Life below describes accurately in number 11; but of dissolute morals: hence the Saint is vehemently take besides these things from the more extended Life of Thanner, chapter 45: She was joined in matrimony to a certain Giuliano Adorno, sprung indeed from a noble family, but of a malignant and harsh disposition, and moreover managing his household affairs very ill and squandering his resources: to whom nevertheless she was always obedient, and most patient in enduring his perverse and wicked ways. And she endured so much that she scarcely remained in health, etc. Consult also the Life below, number 71. That is to say, as the more extended Life writes in chapter 1, the Goodness of God, lest that Elect one of His should transfer her love to earth and the flesh, suffered her to obtain a husband very much opposed to her … at length, when he had squandered everything, both were reduced to poverty; which poverty I understand, with the biographer below in number 72, as a condition at least of middling fortune, the greater part of their goods having been dissipated. In the Dialogue, part 1, chapter 19, it is indeed read: He reduced her to such want that, had not God provided for her through the alms of others, she could by no means have supported herself: but the discourse there is of voluntary poverty, with which the spirit willed humanity to struggle; and although in the Life below, number 35, she is said to have lived by the labour of her hands and on the alms of others, this was done out of humility, since in the same place it is asserted that she paid at her own expense, for the space of many years, the rent of a garden and of houses belonging to the hospital, in whose services, as the more extended Life testifies in chapter 8, she was wholly engaged, yet was unwilling to use the least thing from it for her own sustenance.

[47] The dissolute morals of her husband and his harsh and rude disposition could not but afflict Catherine vehemently, so that, as the more extended Life testifies in chapter 1, she passed ten years of her life in the greatest straits; and in the first five years she was overwhelmed with a grief so keen afflicted, and, probably at the urging of friends, that nothing at all could bring her a remedy, however much she applied herself to outward things: see the Life below, number 12. In the last five years of the decade already mentioned, says the more extended Life, chapter 1, she turned to outward and secular things, loosening the reins to the delights and vanities of the world, as women for the most part are wont to do, in order to mitigate the troubles with which she was harassed. Baillet ascribes that turning of Catherine to earthly things to the grief perceived from her husband's squandering of their goods, of the superfluous part of which he writes that she was willing to make use for soothing her weariness. But our Life below, in number 13, asserts that Catherine departed from her former habit of life, in which she used to lead a solitary life, shunning the assemblies of men, on account of the very frequent and importunate entreaties of friends, who impelled her to it by many arguments.

[48] leaving her first fervour, she follows worldly things. However it may be, it cannot be doubted that she entered upon that new manner of life to relieve the straits of her mind; but the latter reason certainly judges more piously concerning St. Catherine and agrees better with those things which she herself writes in her Dialogue, part 1; I set before the reader a very few: in chapter 3 self-love, having premised God's precept concerning love of neighbour, addresses these words among others to the soul: Therefore, O soul, thou must temper thy vehement impulse, and bestow what is necessary upon thy neighbour, that is, upon thy body and upon me: and a little below: If thou wilt use the body's service, thou must needs grant it what it needs. In the same chapter the body thus addresses the soul: As concerns thy business, O soul, thou thyself canst consider that, if created things were to bring destruction upon souls, God would never have made them. In chapter 9 of the same part the body speaks thus: I would have thee (the soul) warned that upon the love of God follows the love of neighbour, which in bodily things begins from thy own body, whose not only life but also health must necessarily, wilt thou or nilt thou, be preserved, if thou desirest to attain to that which thou hast proposed. That life must necessarily be safeguarded is clear from this, that, if I were extinguished, neither would a way remain of increasing thy glory, nor time to expiate all thy imperfections as thou desirest; it will therefore have to be done by the fire of purgatory, to be burned in which is assuredly a heavier affliction than to bear about and endure a mortal body in this world. As concerns the preservation of health, there is no doubt that, when the body is sound and firm, the powers of the soul and the senses of the body are fitter for receiving divine lights and inspirations, etc.

[49] The Saint's words, describing her own unhappiness at that time Many other things like these I pass over, since what has been said suffices, so that the prudent reader, if he will compare them with what is said in number 13 of the Life below, may discern that St. Catherine, drawn on by a certain appearance of necessity and propriety, fell away from her former manner of life and entered upon the ways of a freer worldliness. And how pernicious it is to desert the way of virtue once entered upon and to bend the mind upon perishable delights, the Saint herself, having experienced it, sets forth graphically in the same part of the Dialogue, chapter 6: I see, she says, that God, as soon as we determine to range through the world and to delight ourselves in its cheap and fleeting things, has shut against us the gates of His grace and has permitted us to indulge our depraved appetites. Now, after we bring back from our pasturings — which we have so busily and anxiously hunted — despair together with confusion, we would fain run back to Him, not out of that pure and true charity which His divine Majesty requires of us, and by which He always works in us, but for our own advantage.

[50] Then in the same place she goes on to describe the state of her soul, which had followed after delights, in this manner: and her own excesses, When I consider what I have done for your sake, and what I have justly lost, I see that I have deserved that God should abhor me, that you yourselves should detest me, that the world should turn from me and hell swallow me up. I am not far from despairing for confusion, when I attend to how, under your leading, I slipped down to earthly things, by which I hoped to succour your necessity and my own. Then, after some things interposed, she thus continues: For consenting to you (the body and self-love), when I gave place to certain excesses of the body under the shadow of necessity (which superfluity afterwards followed), I was entangled in sin, and, bound in this snare, I lost grace, incurred blindness, and from being nimble became heavy, from being spiritual became wholly earthly. Many things are to be read heaped together in the same place, by which she explains the unhappiness of a soul following earthly things and resisting divine grace: In a short time, she says, she burdened herself with so vast a mass of sins and ingratitude, seeing meanwhile no remedy, that she fell from the hope of unburdening herself and of vindicating herself into her former liberty.

[51] From these and other things which St. Catherine writes of herself in her Dialogue, proceeding from humility of mind; someone might easily judge that she had more than once stained her soul with grave offences also: for she says that she lost grace, incurred blindness of soul, and was worthy that God should abhor her and hell swallow her up: but if we shall be willing to look more deeply into the matter, we shall confess that these and like expressions proceeded only from the profoundest humility of mind, and from that most intense light by which she most clearly perceived the malice of any lighter sin whatever, as committed against the supreme majesty of God. Consult, if you please, the Life below, number 56, where she says that from a vision offered her of the foulness of venial sin she was almost extinguished, although that vision lasted only a short time. And if to this humility and most clear light we add the most ardent love of God with which she burned throughout the rest of her life, we shall not with difficulty recognize that these expressions were made by way of exaggeration: for it is the property of one who loves to reckon grave everything by which the beloved is offended.

[52] That the excesses into which Catherine fell were not grave is gathered also from the Dialogue, part 1, chapter 1, nor indeed did she grievously offend: her conversion, where the soul, girding itself with the body for the journey to seek their delights on either side, always excepts sin: Yet without offence, says the soul, to our Creator, which so long as I shall live I shall dread and flee: and below, — these are the words of the soul to the body — Nor will I desert thee, especially since it has been settled by the consent of us all that God must never be offended. It is established finally from our Life below, number 14, where these things are read: But although the fervour of her spirit was somewhat diminished, yet she perpetually shuddered at offending God, who even in the time of her more lukewarm life never suffered her to fall into grave fault, as her confessor left attested. Whence what is read at the end of chapter 5 of the more extended Life concerning the conversion of St. Catherine compared with the conversion of St. Mary Magdalen must either be taken as proceeding from Catherine's remarkable humility, or the comparison must be understood as not in all respects: certainly the biographer in the same Life, chapter 24, compares Catherine's conversion to the vocation of St. Paul, but not as to all points.

[53] It will be useful to transcribe the words: This blessed soul, called by God, straightway (as of old the most glorious apostle Paul) consented to Him who called, obeyed, and faithfully co-operated with His grace, who also suddenly (as is narrated at the beginning, namely in chapter 2) rendered her perfect. in which matter it was like the conversion of Paul and of the Magdalen. Where you see that the comparison is made as to the alacrity of obeying God who calls, yet not as to her past life: each conversion may also be compared with the other from the greatness of the light by which God wrought both, and from the sudden change of Catherine as well as of Paul. And so, if the words be taken in all strictness, Parpera wrote not quite accurately concerning St. Catherine's conversion in chapter 29 of his later lucubration, asserting that it was made from one extreme of vanity to another of true piety, which on account of what has already been said concerning St. Catherine cannot be affirmed, although it is true of St. Paul, before his conversion a persecutor of Christ. I said, if the words be taken in all strictness: for as Parpera by the extreme of true piety, to which Catherine was raised immediately after her conversion, denotes a lofty perfection, so he seems by the other extreme to hint at a notable malice. But it is wrong to believe that Parpera, who so religiously consecrated his labours and vigils to the increase of her veneration, thought otherwise of St. Catherine than we do: whence I judge that his words are to be taken more mildly, of a pursuit indeed of secular things, but short of any grave offence against the divine Godhead; and the rest must be reckoned as added for a greater elegance of comparison.

[54] The Saint, in no way satisfied with earthly things, by a mighty light Catherine, snatching at the delights of this life to relieve the straits of her mind, perceived from them a bitterer grief rather than any relief: for the kindness of God, as Clement XII says in the Bull of canonization, had sprinkled everything with the gall of bitterness, so that the soul of His Handmaid, loathing the false delights of the world, might hunger after heavenly sweetnesses.

Before I narrate the Saint's conversion, I premise a few things. The more extended Life says that, ten years having elapsed after she entered upon marriage, she was wonderfully called by God, and that for three months before her conversion she was oppressed with such affliction and such nausea for worldly things that she was intolerable to herself. And to that decade there must probably be added two months and some days: for the conversion took place only on the XXII day of March, while the dotal contract, as Parpera and our Life below, number 10, testify, was entered upon on the XIII day of January, after which the celebration of the nuptials does not seem to have been deferred, at least for any notable time. Now let us hear the Saint herself speaking of her conversion. Dialogue, part 1, chapter 7: After the goodness of God had for some time permitted this soul to wander among worldly things, and she was afflicted with grievous trouble because she had learned by frequent experience that all of them did not suffice to satisfy her appetite, but daily bred greater afflictions for her, that most merciful God imparted to her such a light that by its benefit the mist of her blinded understanding was dispelled, and a knowledge of all the errors and dangers in which she was engaged was granted her… The soul, knowing the misery of her state, … turned to God and burst forth, full of sighs and tears, into these words: O wretched me, who will ever deliver me from these evils? God alone can do this. Lord, grant that I may see the light by which I may extricate myself from so many snares.

[55] and roused by the fire of love, and endowed also with visions Then at length in the same and the following chapter she describes the mighty lights with which she was gifted by God: but as to the manner in which she was converted, take these things summarily. Catherine, for the sake of soothing the straits of her mind, about the 27th year of her age, in the year of Christ 1474, on the XX day of March went to her sister Limbania, a religious woman in the monastery of St. Mary of the Graces: she urged her to go to the presbyter who in the said convent directed the consciences of the nuns, a man, as the more extended Life testifies, exceedingly religious and truly holy: Catherine obeyed, who, says the same Life in chapter 2, As she fell at his knees, suddenly there was fixed in her heart a wound of the immense love of God, together with a most clear knowledge of her own miseries and defects and of the goodness of God. Concerning that ray of love the Saint writes among other things these things in the Dialogue, part 1, chapter 8: She saw such workings and effects of love toward this soul that no tongue could suffice to relate them. That same ray of love wounded this soul in a moment of time, in which she saw and felt a certain fire of love proceeding from the divine fountain-head, which presently, rapt out of herself, deprived her in a manner of understanding, speech and sense: and a little below: Whence she conceived such contempt of herself that she would not have blushed to proclaim all her sins publicly through the whole city (in Italian it reads she would have been ready to say), nor could she say anything else besides these words: O Lord, no more commerce for me with the world, none with sins! The rest concerning her conversion see in the Life below, number 16 and following.

[56] The sorrow for her sins conceived from so many lights Catherine sets forth in the same part of the Dialogue, she conceives a most vehement sorrow for her sins, chapter XI, in these words: She perceived that she alone had committed all these evils, and therefore she alone, without the help of any man, purposed to make satisfaction with all her strength, saying: I see that hell is my place, which nevertheless, unless death intervene, I cannot attain. Alas for me, Lord, what shall I do with myself? I know not where to hide myself; I cry out and find no place, since I who am so unclean dare not appear before Thee, who nevertheless art everywhere, whence I am intolerable to myself. What then shall I do, clothed in a garment most foully defiled? Tears profit nothing, sighs do not help me, my contrition is not acceptable, the works of penance are fruitless; for all these are unequal to the punishment which I have deserved by my sins, unless God shall use His clemency toward me. It belongs indeed to holy minds endowed with a lofty knowledge of God to fear all their own works, and always to reckon themselves an unprofitable servant, when they have performed everything: whence these words, proceeding from a most vehement sorrow, are so to be taken that she meant to indicate that the fruit of penance is to be ascribed not to human strength but to the mercy and kindness of God.

[57] That it may be more fully established that this was really the sense of the Saint's words, and ascribes the fruit of penance I transfer hither some things: in chapter 39 of the more extended Life I read thus: Wherefore this loving soul said: What thinkest thou I should accomplish, or of what worth would it be, even if I were to pour forth as many tears of blood as there are drops in the sea, to make satisfaction to God for my sins? Dost thou reckon it a sufficient satisfaction for the least sin? By no means, for if I were to suffer as much and as long as the devil himself, and moreover to endure in this body as many torments and martyrdoms as could be comprehended in thought, thou wouldst not believe that love could reckon these with God in the place of satisfaction, nor find a word fitting for this business, such as, "thou hast made satisfaction for the injuries." Indeed, from the contemplation of human infirmity and nothingness, which she had most thoroughly perceived, these and other like words flowed forth: let the Saint be heard again in part 2 of her Dialogue, chapter 10, speaking of the poverty and nakedness of man: Who, she says, has nothing good save so far as Thou deignest to bestow it upon him by grace, and therefore we must acknowledge that all grace flows forth from Thee, and pour the same back into Thee, otherwise we are thieves… But in what manner shall I make satisfaction for so grave and so subtle a sin? Many things like these occur frequently both in the Saint's Works and in the Life.

[58] to the grace of God alone. To the vision of her sins the more extended Life appends another, in chapter 2, where it has thus: But the Lord, willing to kindle His love yet more vehemently in the depth of her soul, and to increase the sorrow conceived for her sins, etc. That vision the Saint narrates in the Dialogue, part 1, chapter XI, in these words: On a certain day there appeared to her, while she was at home, our Lord Jesus Christ all dripping with blood from head to foot, so that wherever she walked, streams of blood leaping forth from His most sacred body seemed to water the ground, and she heard herself addressed secretly with these words: "Behold, all this blood has been shed for love of thee and to expiate thy offences." By which words a mighty wound of love toward our Lord Jesus Christ was inflicted upon her, and she was animated with such confidence that that first vision (of her sins), which furnished fuel for despair, disappeared, and she was now somewhat refreshed and gladdened in her Lord. Here indeed the Saint signifies that her sorrow for her sins was somewhat diminished by that vision, but probably only for a short time: for presently in chapter 12 she subjoins another vision, in which she beheld both the malice of man and the goodness of God's love, and from which she says she was driven almost to despair: whence it does not conflict with what the Saint says, asserting that she was a little refreshed — that which we have given from the more extended Life at the beginning of this number; for the love of God displayed could bring some solace, but, when her thought was turned to the malice of sin, her sorrow necessarily had to be increased still further on both heads.

§ V. Baillet's statements concerning the penance undergone by the Saint according to the rigour of the canons, concerning frequent reception of the Eucharist, and concerning communion under both species, are examined and refuted.

[ ] Baillet wrongly thinks that penance St. Catherine, as all the editions of the older Life testify in chapter 2, and ours below in number 19, being prepared even publicly, if there were need, to confess her sins, made a general confession of the offences of her whole past life, which is not to be deferred beyond the third day from her conversion, for reasons to be given below: the more extended Life adds: And although the Lord God at that time (on the day following the feast of St. Benedict, when she was prostrate at the feet of the minister of the Sacrament of penance), when He inflicted upon her that loving and sweet wound, had forgiven her all her sins, yet for the preserving of justice He willed her to enter upon the way of satisfaction. Baillet in the Life of St. Catherine subjoins to her general confession and her readiness of mind to declare her sins publicly that she indulged her sorrow for a further space of fourteen months, in which time God commanded her — these are Baillet's words — to walk by the canonical ways of satisfaction in the sight of the Church, to which by the laws of her ancient discipline this act of justice was owed: a little below he again calls St. Catherine's penance canonical, or according to the prescriptions of the canons.

[60] I do not sufficiently grasp whence it came into Baillet's mind to write thus: was performed by the Saint for if by canonical penance it was his intention to persuade the reader that certain public works of penance for public sins were enjoined upon St. Catherine by the ministers of the Church, it lay upon him to bring forward documents which would give credit to his assertion: for the fact that it is read both in the Life and in the Dialogue of the Saint that she was so disposed in mind that, if she understood it to be needful, or pleasing to the divine Majesty, she would not refuse to publish her sins openly, is too weak an argument for anyone to conclude from it that this was done. But it is established from Thomassin, On the ancient and new Discipline of the Church, part 1, book 2, chapter 7, number 14, that public penance as regards hidden crimes had already ceased in the West from the seventh century: and Clement III, who ruled the Church at the close of the eleventh century, to the question Whether public penance is to be imposed, answered, Yet a public penance ought not to be imposed unless the matter come into the public. See Thomassin, of the same part and book, chapter 16, number 5. Therefore, in order that Baillet's assertion concerning penance of this kind may find credit among the prudent, it must first be shown that St. Catherine's offences were public.

[61] But even granting gratuitously that Catherine, in order to be despised by men, confessed her sins publicly, according to the rigour of the canons, though perhaps she herself sought it. what place, I pray, is there for public penance of this sort, which by the custom of the Church is wont to be inflicted not for all offences, but for certain graver ones? For we have it from the testimony of him who lent his ears to Catherine's confession that not even in the time of her more lukewarm life did she ever fall into grave fault: they were therefore only venial blemishes with which she stained her soul, when by the counsel of friends she frequented the gatherings of matrons of her own rank and followed the delights of the world short of deadly guilt: what cause, then, was there for which she should have been reduced to the rigour of such a penance? For although, from the Saint's hatred of sins, it is highly credible that she did not refuse public penances, and those most grievous, nay perhaps even sought them, yet who would think that a prudent man, such as our biographer depicts him who lent his ears to Catherine's confession, or other ministers of the Church,

would have imposed them for light offences.

[62] This doubt having been discussed, let us weigh another which the same Baillet raises more or less thus: It is uncertain at what time the Saint began What we have said concerning satisfaction according to the rigour of the canons in no way hindered her, on the third day after her conversion, which was sacred to the Annunciation of the Virgin, and on which it is more probable that she made her confession, from asking to be admitted to the Eucharistic table, and that leave should be given her to continue this daily. The priests of the place were so easy in this matter that afterwards, even when she herself was not thinking of it, and judged that her desire could be somewhat restrained, of their own accord they summoned her to the sacred Table: and she by no means refused, etc. Before I sift this censure of Baillet's, it is useful to set before the reader the biographer's words which gave him occasion for it, from the more extended Life. It has thus in chapter 3: On the very Feast of the Annunciation of the most glorious Virgin Mary after her conversion, the Lord God conferred upon her a burning desire of holy Communion, which afterwards she never again lacked through her whole life; and her Love (God, for so Catherine called Him) so disposed matters that, without her procuring anything at all, the venerable Sacrament was offered her. Always, either in this or in another way, she found herself wonderfully provided for; for without any effort of hers the priests, moved by God, summoned her to Communion.

[63] to receive the Eucharist almost daily: What the biographer records seems to me indeed different from what Baillet writes: the biographer says that the desire of the sacred Food was infused into her on the feast-day of the Annunciation; Baillet says that that desire was fulfilled on that very day: in which matter, although I agree with him on account of our Life below, number 20, judging that the reception of the Eucharist is by no means to be deferred to the following year, yet I cannot but disagree with him when he tacitly carps at that use of the sacred Table: for from what has been said above there fall to the ground the things which Baillet has concerning the penance of St. Catherine to be undergone according to the rigour of the canons: and indeed, if he had been willing to observe more attentively what the biographer had premised concerning St. Catherine's singular and most fervent sorrow for her sins — which were certainly not grave — that ease with which she was admitted to the Eucharist could not have seemed to Baillet excessive; nor do I find anything on account of which a prudent director of souls ought to have kept her from it: on the contrary there are many things on account of which, without any delay, already from the third day after her conversion, she was even to be invited to the sacred Table, as the reader not at all infatuated with the novel errors of our time will easily recognize.

[64] yet that this practice in the holy woman That afterwards the divine Table was frequented by St. Catherine on every day Baillet intimates, if we except a few days on which, either by the counsel of her director or for other causes, she prudently abstained. Let us even grant Baillet that from that very third day Catherine communicated daily in the Body of the Lord — since it is certain that she did this for a sufficiently long time, though it is doubtful whether she always continued that pious work from that day of the Annunciation; for from the holy hunger for the angelic Bread with which, by the biographer's testimony, she burned from that day through the rest of her life thereafter, a daily reception of the Eucharist from that day cannot be hammered out; but, as I said, let us grant this very thing gratuitously: what absurdity shall we find, such that Baillet may deservedly seem to have been able to carp at the priests and to brand them with the mark of rashness? I confess that daily reception of the Eucharist is not easily to be permitted to lay persons, nor without discretion and a testing of the spirit by which they are borne to it: but, whatever in the end Baillet may have judged, it is manifest to me that this was applied.

[65] was praiseworthy, and that the ministers of the Church For there were not wanting those who cast a scruple upon her concerning the Saint's frequent approach to the divine Food: among others a certain religious man, whom, as we saw above, Parpera thinks to have been Angelo of Chivasso, affirmed that a fault might lie hidden in so frequent a reception of the Eucharist; and she, fearing this, as the Life below testifies in number 51, abstained for some days, until He Himself, when she was oppressed with the greatest sorrows and torments thereby, bade her resume the interrupted practice. Nor do I judge it necessary to heap up more here upon that subject: whoever shall have perused the Life of St. Catherine even cursorily will find so many evident indications by which God seemed to signify that the Saint's frequent reception of the Eucharist was pleasing to Him, that I judge that the priests are not only to be absolved by any prudent man from the censure of rashness, but are even to be praised for their pious zeal in fulfilling the most just wishes of the Saint. That it may be more fully established both that the priests who daily offered the Eucharist to Catherine were by no means rash, and that she is in no way to be reprehended for her daily reception, I subjoin a few things from the most erudite Work of Prospero Lambertini On the Beatification of the servants of God and the Canonization of the Blessed.

[66] In book 3, chapter 27, whose title is this: On the frequency of the Sacraments, namely of Penance and of the Eucharist, required in Servants of God to be beatified and canonized, immediately at the beginning he lays down this as it were the basis of what is to be said: permitting it, are in no way For the use of these Sacraments is a mark of love and of inward sweetness, and consequently from that use there arises the virtue of religion in a heroic degree. Then he subjoins some things from Scacchi's Treatise On the Notes and signs of sanctity, section 5, chapter 3, where he takes an argument for sanctity from frequent reception of the Eucharist, if it be attended with the due accompaniments of piety and preparation. The aforesaid most eminent man confirms what has been said, in number 2, from the Bulls of canonizations: I transfer some hither: Concerning St. Catherine of Siena, Pius II in the Bull of canonization says: "To the Communion of the altar, which was almost daily with her, she set out with the greatest alacrity, as though she had been invited to a heavenly marriage-feast." Concerning St. Felix of Cantalice, a Capuchin lay brother, it is thus read in the Bull of his canonization: "The directors of the conscience of this Man of God, who was accustomed to perform the reception of the Lord's Body three times each week, judged it holy, for the whole fifteen years before his falling asleep, on account of his most burning fervour of charity, to grant him a daily reception of the divine Table, to which he never approached without a most abundant shower of tears."

[67] To these he adds certain things from the second report of the auditors of the Rota concerning the virtues of St. Teresa; it is shown are in no way to be reprehended. in article 14, on the virtue of religion, they lay down thus: "Sixthly, to confirm the same, we were led by the wonderful increases in the soul of that blessed virgin arising from the increase of the worship of Christ, caused by the daily Communion of about twenty-three years, by the counsel of most learned men and with the leave of her confessors… By which divine pasture, marvellously strengthened in the worship and faith of Jesus Christ existing in the Sacrament, she made the greatest progress, so that for several years by a living faith she approached to receive the Eucharist no otherwise than if she beheld Christ Himself with bodily eyes." More things I knowingly and willingly pass over, content to have observed this one thing: if the Roman Pontiffs and the auditors of the Roman Rota did not disapprove, nay praised, in the Saints already mentioned the frequent and daily reception of the Eucharist; if they did not reprehend as rash those who permitted it, by what right does Baillet tacitly carp at it in our Saint? Under what appearance of equity does he accuse the priests of Genoa of rashness? I conclude this controversy raised by Baillet with the words of St. Thomas, part 3, question 80, article 10, which are read in Lambertini, number 5 of the said chapter: among other things the holy Doctor has these: Therefore it is useful to receive it (the Sacrament of the Eucharist) daily, that a man may daily perceive its fruit: and again: Therefore, if anyone finds himself daily prepared for this, it is praiseworthy that he should receive daily.

[68] It remains that we dispose of the third difficulty which Baillet stirs up in this matter, Baillet's assertion that the Eucharist was offered to the Saint if indeed it ought to come under that name and not rather be called an odious cavil. Both the more extended Life in chapter 3, and ours below in chapter 5, number 53, while they set forth the most ardent love and desire with which the Saint burned, immediately after she had resumed the path of a more fervent life, toward Jesus hidden under the Eucharistic species, add that she was more than once heard to say that she was affected with a certain holy envy toward priests, because it was permitted them daily to feed upon the divine banquet without anyone's wonder, and to handle it with their hands; they say moreover that she wished it were lawful for her to celebrate those three Masses which the presbyters say on the most sacred Nativity of our Lord. It pleased Baillet so to interpret these things, as if St. Catherine had most ardently desired to receive the Body and Blood of the Lord under both species: certainly in the desire, of which the biographer speaks, of celebrating three Masses on the Nativity of Christ, if we should wish to interpret the words strictly, there is involved a desire of receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord under both species; but what forbids us from taking these words, proceeding from a burning love of the Eucharistic bread, with Parpera in the Life of the Saint published in the year 1682, not of a threefold celebration of Mass, which she assuredly knew belonged to priests alone, but of a threefold reception of the Sacrament? What forbids us to assert that the Saint said these things out of a certain anguish of mind, because more than once she saw obstacles set in the way of her love and her wish to frequent the Eucharist, while she saw the Sacrament freely received daily by the priests, whose happy condition she therefore holily envied? However it may be, if ever there was in St. Catherine a desire of receiving Christ under the twofold species, it could not but be joined with the due submission to the Church which forbids it, and in such a desire attended by these conditions I do not see what is so greatly to be reprehended.

[69] under both species, Baillet goes on, and against the words under both species writes in the margin: The chalice also was offered to her, and he cites for his assertion chapter 3 of the Life: I subjoin the words from Thanner's Latin translation: Having on one occasion received the sacred Communion, God imparted to her such consolation that it rapt her out of herself. The priest, about to offer the chalice, found her without sense, whence he had to recall her to himself by force. Either Baillet is doing nothing, or he wishes to persuade the reader that the Body and Blood of the Lord were offered to St. Catherine not only under the species of bread, but also under those of wine: for his note upon these words under both species must signify this, or it is ridiculous. But we shall openly contradict the biographer if we should be willing to agree with Baillet and to understand by the chalice, which the Saint's Life writes was offered, the Blood of the Lord. For in the same chapter 3 Thanner's Latin Life has these words: During the Sacrifice of the Mass she was often so taken up by her Lord that she heard not a word, but when the time of Communion drew near she wonderfully awoke and said: O Lord, even dead, as I think, I should come to life again to receive Thee. Our Life below, number 53, writes that, into whatever excess of mind she was rapt, she was never not restored to herself when the time of the sacred Refreshment drew near. Since therefore the priest, about to offer the chalice, found her without sense, and had to recall her by force, by the chalice offered the Blood of the Lord cannot be understood.

[70] asserting it without foundation, Moreover the biographer writes that the chalice was offered to the Saint when she had received the sacred communion: by the chalice therefore I judge that wine is altogether to be understood, which would help toward more easily swallowing the sacred Host: which was perhaps the custom at Genoa, as it still flourishes in some regions, and is wont, at least at certain fixed times, to be always offered to all who approach the Eucharist. But, someone will perhaps say, both the Latin and the French Lives write chalice, and the Italian copies too have il calice: I confess that the Italian word calice can be taken for the sacred vessel in which the priest confects the divine Mysteries: but it is used not in that signification alone, but in others besides: let the curious reader look at the Lexicon of the Florentine academy which bears the name of the Crusca, and besides the signification already mentioned he will find the word calice employed also for a mere cup or beaker, at times for the drink itself, or the content of the beaker; and he will easily perceive that a word of doubtful signification was too greedily seized upon by Baillet, and that he did not sufficiently consider how injurious he was by his assertion to St. Catherine, and how much odium he was procuring for the clergy of Genoa.

[71] For since John of Ragusa, in his Oration on Communion under both species, delivered in the council of Basel in the year 1433, the censure is blunted. beating back the objections of the Hussites, speaks among other things thus: In the fourth place principally it is proved from the custom of the Church, which from most ancient times and for many hundreds of years was universally introduced in the Church: for it is more than two hundred and three hundred years, or at least nearly so, in which Catholic doctors in their books and writings began to praise and approve the universal custom of the Church in Communion under one species; who would bring himself to believe that the clergy of Genoa were so forgetful of that universal decree of the Church? Who would think the presbyters who administered the Eucharist to St. Catherine so obstinate, so refractory? How was it that Angelo of Chivasso, a man full of Apostolic fervour, and who was probably the one who disapproved of the Saint's frequent approach to the divine Table, did not most justly reprehend that abuse? Indeed, even if all else were wanting, the sanctity of our Catherine — in whom we read that there was nothing not submissive to the divine will, and who knew how to moderate her lawful desires and to bear their privation patiently — forbids us even to suspect that this abuse had any place in her.

§ VI. The Saint's prodigious fasting; the works of penance she undertook; the service bestowed upon the sick: her ecstasies and the other marvellous operations of God in her.

[ ] It is uncertain in what year the Saint began Our Life below, in numbers 27 and 28, reviews the admirable and prodigious fast practised by St. Catherine for many years over a long period, when she had been invited to it by God her sweet love. Parpera in the Life of the Saint published in the year 1682, chapter 42, treating of that fast of Catherine's, writes these characters in the margin: MCCCCLXXIV, on the XXV day of March, at about the XXVII year of her age; by which without doubt he meant to designate that the beginnings of that fast are to be referred to that year: this is certain, that they are to be placed not long after the Saint's conversion; for the more extended Italian Life, printed at Venice in the year 1615, writes that some time after her conversion, on the feast of the Annunciation of Mary, she was called by God by an inward address to keep the Lenten fast. Thanner reports that that desire was inspired in her when she was newly converted, but our Life that it happened in a certain year after her wonderful vocation; Clement XII in the Bull of canonization, one or two years from the day of her admirable conversion: from all which, since other instruments are wanting, I cannot safely choose a determined year to which to attach the beginnings of that fast: I therefore leave it doubtful whether the Saint is to be said to have begun her long-continued abstinence in that very year 1474, to which Parpera binds both the Saint's conversion and the beginning of her fast, or one or two years after her conversion; the latter, however, I think more probable, so that at least some greater latitude than of two or three days may be given to the words some time after used by the older biographer.

[73] her long-continued and wonderful fast, Now take the narrative itself in Thanner's words, chapter 4: Her Love, on the very feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, signified in spirit to her, newly converted, that He wished her to complete the Lenten fast with Him in the desert. Then the power of eating was so taken from her that she used no bodily food until the solemnity of Easter; and when its three Feast-days (on which she was able to take food) were past, she again lost the power of eating, until as many days had gone by as are appointed for the annual sacred fast. Then she was able, after the manner of others, to take food without any repugnance of the stomach. In this way, namely abstaining from all food, she passed twenty-three Lents and as many Advents, only now and then drinking a cup of water mixed with vinegar and pounded salt… An unwonted and stupendous thing, etc. Many things are read in the same place, in which the author sets forth the efforts vainly applied by the Saint, who feared illusion, toward eating, and the experiments uselessly undertaken by others, since the Saint could retain no food, even when forced upon her for obedience' sake; whence Catherine, making light of this abstinence of hers, says in the same place: If … we should wish to admire the works of God, we ought rather to admire the internal than the external ones: this abstinence of mine God works without my will; therefore I cannot glory in it, nor is it so greatly to be looked up to, since in respect of the divine power it is as nothing.

[74] kept for many years without harm. This abstinence did no harm to the Saint's health; nay, as the biographer testifies in the same place, at that very time she applied herself more diligently to works of charity, took a longer sleep more easily, and was more robust in body. This whole history Baillet in the Life of the Saint takes up thus: We know not what to think of what they add, that she for twenty-three years lived on nothing else than the sacred Host during the time of two Lents, that is, from the feast of St. Martin to the Nativity of the Lord, and from Quinquagesima, or the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, to Easter. Then, after summarily reporting these things which we have just recorded, he concludes in this manner: But let us return to more plausible matters. I confess that it cannot rightly be required of Baillet that he give undoubted credence to this history, since it was written by men liable to error: nevertheless I seem to myself able deservedly to require this, that he should not presume to blow away this history with a single breath, as it were, by saying, let us return to more plausible matters; this I judge fair, that he should bring forward more solid arguments, if he desires to withdraw all credence from a matter, however admirable, especially since, by the testimony of Agostino Giustiniani, bishop of Nebbio, contemporary with St. Catherine, her Life was written by men her contemporaries and worthy of credit, as we saw in number 3.

[75] Against Baillet it is shown from Ecclesiastical histories Certainly in the Ecclesiastical Histories many examples occur of a fast protracted by other Saints no less wonderfully and no less long than by Catherine. Let the excellent work of Pope Benedict XIV be seen, book 4, part 1, chapter 27, number 5, from which I transfer some things hither: Among the Bollandist continuators, he says, in the Acts of the Saints for March, volume 1 (page 387, number 14), it is narrated that St. Gerasimus the abbot lived forty days without food, having received the Eucharist alone; and in volume 2 of the same month (page 544, number 14), that St. Patrick, apostle of Ireland, lest he should feed on foods sacrificed to idols, for twenty continuous days, nourished by no earthly food, protracted a wonderful fast. Theodoret in the History of the Religious, chapter XXXVI, testifies that Simeon Stylites often fasted forty days without food and drink, and ate something only on the day of Easter, having received the body of Christ. To these he adds other examples; it will suffice to have narrated some here summarily. A girl, in Odorico Rinaldi at the year 1225, of a regular institute, enclosed for seven years, lived taking no food save the sacred Eucharist on Sundays. By Bosio's testimony, Mary of Oignies was for thirty days nourished on the Divine food alone: the examples of St. Catherine of Siena, Bl. Angela of Foligno, and others refreshed for a very long time by the dish of the Lord's Body alone I pass over, which the curious reader will find in the aforesaid most Holy Lord.

[76] I do not think that any prudent man will pronounce with Baillet upon these histories in general, and from other sources, that a prudent human credence Let us return to more plausible matters; for if this liberty of censuring whatever contains something wonderful, even though proved by the testimony of men worthy of credit, either can or ought to have place, all human credence seems altogether to be done away with. Let the aforesaid Benedict XIV also be seen, in the same chapter 27, number 10, where he draws from profane histories many testimonies by which some are reported to have protracted a fast even for a longer time than St. Catherine: in the same place he indeed notes that by some these histories are relegated to fables, but he adds at the end that by Gaspar de los Reyes, in his Elysian field of pleasant questions, question 58, numbers 7 and 28, those are sharply reprehended who withdraw credence from the said narratives, since learned men worthy of credit, and even magistrates, have given testimony concerning them. But — and this makes not a little to our purpose — the history of the Saint's fast, which did not seem to Baillet even plausible, deserved to have a place in the most erudite Work of Benedict XIV among the examples reported in the preceding number, in these words: In the Life of saint Catherine Adorno of Genoa the historian narrates that during the whole time of Lent and Advent for twenty-three years she was nourished by the Eucharist alone.

[77] But by what has thus far been disputed it is not my mind to add any greater weight to the history reported by the biographer, may prudently be given to that fast, since that is neither within my power, nor does the plan of our design require it: my purpose here is only to leave it to the fair reader to discern whether Baillet could deservedly speak so contemptuously of this history: for he knew without doubt the rule usual among critics in weighing wonderful things, by which they are bidden to receive the more remarkable prodigies, if they are reported by those whose testimony cannot be repudiated save rashly and imprudently, with the greater veneration, as indications of divine omnipotence; but to reject them if they are recorded by those whose authority is slight or none: and that the biographers of St. Catherine are to be reckoned among the former, or those whose credibility is unblemished, is plainly established from the often-praised testimony of Agostino Giustiniani; it would therefore have been expedient that Baillet had here been mindful of what he himself said in the Life of St. Felix of Nola, where, after reporting certain stupendous things, he speaks thus: It must be remembered that the author of those miracles was always the same God, that supreme Lord of nature, who had put forth such remarkable testimonies of His omnipotence in the Old and New law; and that Christ Jesus promised even greater things to His true disciples, who should perfectly believe in Him: it would have been expedient, I say, that Baillet had here recalled that that same God who preserved Moses and Elijah and so many others long unfed,

could impart the same benefit to St. Catherine.

[78] however prodigious it must seem. Yet observe here again, reader, that I do not wish by what has just been said to compare, as to the authority of the history, the fast of St. Catherine with the fast of Moses and Elijah; for I acknowledge the immense difference that lies between them: nor do I desire to persuade anyone for certain that the aforesaid fast of St. Catherine exceeded the limits of nature; for it is not ours to inquire whether that long-continued abstinence of hers is to be ascribed to a miracle or not: yet I subjoin a few things, from which a fair arbiter may judge as he pleases, from Benedict XIV praised above, in the same book and chapter, where, setting forth his opinion concerning a long fast to be reckoned among miracles and submitting it to the judgment of the sacred Congregation, he lays down in number 14 the following conditions, which it will be enough to have reported in summary. The first is that a diligent investigation be made into the knowledge of the fact, namely of abstinence from all food and drink through the whole time for which the fast is said to have been protracted. The second, whether the one so fasting was meanwhile of sound and vigorous body. The third, with what end the fast was undertaken, where he illustrates this by the examples of Christ, Moses and Elijah and some others. The fourth, whether the one fasting did not omit, during the time of the fast, to exercise himself in pious works, because a fast is not praiseworthy by which we are hindered from the exercise of charity and the virtues. In number 15 the aforesaid most Holy Lord concludes that, if all these concur, it will have to be judged that the Fast exceeds nature. If we believe St. Catherine's biographer, she protracted her fasts with a sound and vigorous body; she also seems to have undertaken them in imitation of Christ fasting; thirdly, she did not cease at that time from works of charity, but performed them much more fervently: she also admitted no food in all that time, nay could not admit it, only now and then taking a draught of water: Which drink (these are the biographer's words in the place praised above) the vehemence of the fire burning within her at once consumed, just as if it had been poured upon a red-hot stone.

[79] Rigid works of penance undertaken, From St. Catherine's fast I proceed to the very harsh afflictions by which she happily strove to reduce her body into servitude and to subject every affection of the soul to reason. Of her austere works of penance our Life below treats in number 21 and following; some things likewise are had in number 29 and following, where it is set forth how the Saint, ministering both to the poor scattered through the city and to the sick in the greater hospital, which bears the name of Pammatone, a remarkable conqueror of herself, swallowed filth and put the foulness of ulcers into her mouth, to break her natural repugnance. Like things are read in the more extended Life, chapters 5 and 8. From this affliction of all her senses it came about, as the aforesaid chapter 5 testifies, that four years having elapsed from her conversion all her inclinations were destroyed, there being left to her (the Saint) a virtuous habit affording readiness and facility in all things. A little above the biographer had premised: At the end of four years all her mortifications were at once so taken away from her mind that, even if she had wished to practise them, she could by no means have done so any longer. To these things which are read in the Life concerning the Saint's austerities and the struggle undertaken against depraved affections I subjoin some things from the Saint's Dialogue.

[80] war declared by the Saint upon all the affections, The spirit, addressing humanity in part 1, chapter 18, has it thus: I declare to thee that I wish above all that thou learn what it is to obey, that thou mayest become humble and subject to every creature, and that thou mayest have exercise, thou shalt seek thy living by assiduous labour. Then, as often as thou shalt be summoned to perform works of mercy, hasten without delay or any excuse to the sick and poor of every kind, and perform whatever I shall suggest to thee, that is, cleanse away all the filth of the sick, and as often as thou shalt be called for this, setting aside all other things, even holy colloquies with God, fly the more swiftly to him who calls thee and to the place whither he calls thee, taking no account either of the person calling or of the business to be performed; for I will have all choice forbidden thee, and let the will of any other rather be thy own will, but never comply with thine own will. In these exercises I will detain thee as long as I shall see necessary, since I have determined to extinguish in thee every vicious delight and sorrow with which thou canst be affected in this life, and to remove from thee every imperfection, so that, as though dead, glad things may never gladden thee, nor sad things disturb thee.

[81] And this I shall know by experience: for so shall I exercise and prove thee enjoined, and undertaken as shall seem to me necessary that thou mayest attain thereto. And when I shall have enjoined some work upon thee which brings horror and nausea, and shall have noticed that thou dost feel or see it, I shall detain thee in that work so long until thou neither feelest nor seest it any more. The same also shall be observed in all things from which thou wouldst perceive any solace; for I shall compel thee to do the contrary, until thou lookest upon or feelest nothing further which pleases or delights thee. And that thy testing in things of this kind may be more efficacious and thy self-denial more bitter, I shall from time to time suggest a thing which pleases or displeases, and shall send in an appetite for the one and a horror of the other. Thereafter I will not that thou contract familiarity with anyone, nor that thou retain a singular affection toward thy parents, but that thou love all without love and affection, the poor equally with the rich, friends just as parents, and that thou distinguish not within thyself one from another. Besides, I will not that thou enter into friendship with any person, however religious or spiritual, nor go to anyone for friendship's sake; it is enough if thou go when called.

[82] With what heroic actions of self-affliction this generous disposition of soul was followed, the Saint herself goes on to declare in the same place in what follows; happily. She serves the sick, together with her husband, with wonderful charity which, because they are abundantly explained in the Life below, receive only these few things from the Dialogue: in chapter 20 these things are read: For doing violence to herself (humanity) in order to obey the spirit, without further reasoning or deliberation she took worms and other filth as though it were a kind of medicine, which so drove anguish and nausea from her that she no more shrank from putting filth into her mouth than if they had been precious pearls. And a little below: In these functions, at the spirit's command, she toiled about three years … and it detained her so long until, being accustomed and hardened, she cared no more. Those three years in which the Saint applied herself to works so nauseating are probably to be reckoned from the time when she began to minister to the poor; but to what determined year that itself is to be attached is unknown to me. Parpera in the Life published in the year 1682, chapter 54, which has this Italian title: Catherine with her husband betakes herself to the greater hospital to serve the sick, writes in the margin these years, MCCCCLXXIX, at about the XXXII year of her age; but since it is established from all the Lives that, before she devoted herself to the service of the hospital, the Saint also ministered to the poor throughout the city, I should not dare to ascribe with certainty to this year 1479 above any other the beginnings of such heroic actions.

[83] and with self-denial. Yet the Saint does not seem to have dwelt in the hospital itself, as the title of Parpera just reported might be said to intimate, but in a certain other house near the hospital, as the same writer asserts in number 2 of the aforesaid chapter, saying: And so Catherine went with her husband Giuliano, and rented a house with a garden adjoining the hospital; this is certain from the Saint's Dialogue, part 1, chapter 21, that not she alone, but Giuliano also was appointed to the service of the sick, for it has thus: She was, together with her husband, required to serve the sick in the hospital, which also she did; and a little lower: She scarcely dared to speak, dwelling in the chamber assigned to her and to her husband. Concerning Giuliano, converted to better things by Catherine's prayers, Baillet in the Saint's Life speaks thus: He himself (Giuliano) gave himself to piety, and, not leaving his own house, embraced the third Order of St. Francis; by which words, if he only meant to exclude an entrance into some regular house, I shall not object; for at least it does not seem possible to deny that he lived for the service of the sick either in the hospital or in a house not far distant and rented for that purpose.

[84] Often alienated from her senses and deprived The fruit of so severe a penance and self-denial was an ever greater increase in the love of God, as the Saint herself sets forth in the aforesaid chapter 21. In the second part of the Dialogue, chapter 1, she explains the wonderful operations of God which He employed toward her. Take these very few things. After this creature had been drawn away from the world and the flesh, and moreover stripped of her faculties, exercises, affections, and finally of all things save God alone, God willed besides to strip her of herself and to separate the soul from the spirit in a certain terrible manner and with a torment very subtle, hard to be told and understood by one who had not proved it by experience, nor been illuminated by the divine light. God infused into her heart a new love so subtle and vehement that it drew the soul with all its powers into itself, so much indeed that she was removed from her natural being. Because of the continual occupation of this new love she could not delight herself in anything, nor look upon heaven or earth. The body, perceiving no vigour or relief from the soul, almost lost its natural functions; it was confused and stupefied, not knowing where it was, nor what it should do or say. From this new manner of life, as yet perceived by no one, there followed at that time new and unknown operations. Whoever desires more on this head, let him go to the aforesaid place of the Dialogue: I have reported these things here that it may be seen how conformably to what the Saint writes of herself the more extended Life among other things asserts these words in chapter 5: For the greater part of the time she was so disposed that she seemed out of her mind; she did not speak, did not hear, did not taste, looked upon nothing at all, much less cared for it. But the deeper explanation of these things we leave to the masters of a life devoted to contemplation and to divine things.

[85] of her natural powers, her ecstasies I add a few things concerning the Saint's frequent ecstasies. The more extended Life in chapter 6 hands down these things: After the aforesaid four years there was granted her a mind pure, free and full of God, so that never thereafter did anything else enter into her. During sermons and the sacrifice of the Mass she was so occupied about that which she felt within, that she neither heard nor saw what was said or done without, the sweet divine light showing her other things within and offering them to be tasted, nor was it in her power to act otherwise. Like things are read in chapter 44 of the same Life. But Baillet takes these things up more or less thus: At least this is what serves to excuse in her those aberrations of mind which we could not but reprehend in others as wanderings of the mind and

vices of a negligent mind. I make no account of this criticism, and prefer to look up to the wonderful operations of God in the Saint, and to transfer hither her own words from the Dialogue, part 2, chapter 1: But, she says, this singular work (namely that by which the soul, being purged, becomes pure spirit, and the body is stripped of depraved habits and inclinations) God performs without the soul in this manner. He fills the soul with a certain secret love, which utterly strips her of her natural being … for it overcomes the understanding, the memory and the will: and when these powers are submerged in this ocean of divine love, all other things which should present themselves to them would be hell, etc. He adds again below: She can apply neither understanding, nor memory, nor will to worldly things, nor take delight in spiritual things.

[86] But when these words of Catherine have been considered, the statements of the biographers just reported ought to have become less suspect to Baillet, she suffers, God working wonderfully in her. and not to have been traduced as though studiously sought out to excuse wanderings of mind which in others would never fail to be reproved: for he himself, as we saw in number 16, referred us to the Dialogue, that those things might be explained which seem to him in the Life to bear the appearance of a paradox. But however much the Saint was alienated from her senses, yet, as the biographer testifies in chapter 6 of the more extended Life, As often as there was need, she was so restored to herself that she answered anyone who interrupted her; and in the same place below: At one time she remained for the space of six hours as though lifeless; but hearing herself addressed, she at once rose and, giving an answer, leaving her repose and contemplation, betook herself to whatever was needful. Yet it sometimes happened, as is read in the same chapter, that she was carried away by such vehemence of ecstasy that she was found lying on the ground, her face covered with her hands, suffering an excess of mind with an ineffable, nay incomprehensible sweetness, and not hearing one who called to her however loudly. But of these things enough.

§ VII. The admirable operations of divine love in the Saint: Baillet's censure of these is discussed and overturned.

[ ] The stupendous operations of divine love in the Saint, Concerning Catherine, Agostino Oldoini in his Athenæum Ligusticum has among other things these words: So that, kindled with the love of God, she has always deservedly been called by the mouth of all the Seraphic woman of Genoa. Indeed, if besides those things which are reported in chapter 5 of our Life below concerning the most ardent love of the holy Widow toward God, I should wish to review all the rest which both she herself treats in the Dialogue and the more extended Life reports concerning the Saint's pure and clean love toward God, I should easily fill several pages. Baillet in the Saint's Life speaks more or less in this manner: We shall not undertake to describe the various impressions which the spirit of pure love imparted to her: the operations of that spirit in her, and the states of acting and suffering through which He willed her to pass, in order to purify her and render her worthy of Himself. These things cannot be felt save by elect souls, and by those which are called to a state surpassing the bounds of nature; and these souls alone are able to express them. Thus far rightly enough Baillet, who continues in the same place: We remit to the doctors of mystical science the care of discerning whether those who wished to represent the interior state of Catherine of Genoa in the History of her Life were sufficiently perspicacious and faithful, and whether they did not lack words proper and apt for expressing it. There is no fitter means of extricating ourselves hence than to be ignorant, etc. So again, more or less, he.

[88] asserted by the biographer and censured by Baillet, are vindicated. Then he produces some texts from various chapters of the Life, cited in the margin, at the end of which he writes, likewise in the margin, the following words: The authors of her Life are often compelled to contradict themselves upon these matters; and at last Baillet concludes his criticism: A readier way, and without doubt more salutary for us, is to be ignorant of so many paradoxes than to strive to unravel them; it is better for us to persuade ourselves that, since God had placed our Saint in so sublime and inaccessible a station, it must be thought that God does not wish to bind us to imitate her, etc. Baillet has forgotten to bring forward those places in which, by his own judgment, the biographers often contradict themselves; whence I do not think it necessary that we examine any others than those which Baillet reported from the Life: but I wish the reader forewarned that I shall only adduce the words which Baillet carps at, and compare them both with the words of the biographer and with the sayings of the Saint in the Dialogue; not that I think that the true sense of these sublime sayings is altogether to be uncovered by me, but because it suffices for excusing the biographers and vindicating their sincerity if either they have not spoken as Baillet will have it, or the Saint herself has attested things like those which they wrote: for Baillet himself laid down this law, advising in the critical Table that the Dialogue is to be consulted, that by its help those things may be explained which seem to him paradoxes in the Life.

[89] From the Saint's Dialogue it is shown The first passage brought forward by Baillet is this: She was so possessed and filled with her love that she felt neither body, nor soul, nor spirit, nor will, nor light, nor operation: by this love she was applied to all things, and acted, noticing nothing: although he does not note the place from which he drew these words, yet I suppose chapter 6 is designated, in which toward the end these things are read: She lived as though devoid of all sense, so that she knew that she had neither soul nor body, since her senses were so greatly burnt up in that furnace of divine love and drawn out of themselves by a continual abstraction and union, that neither did her eyes see nor her ears hear what might bring them pleasure in this world. Her nostrils had lost almost all sense of smell, that is, for their own delight; her taste she scarcely had for necessity. And a little below these words are had: And sitting for some time thus deprived of her senses, she was like one dead; which she suffered more or less according as her purged soul was full of God: concerning which she sometimes asserted that she felt nothing within herself except that she was most full of God her love, whence she neither knew nor could know anything else besides God, without herself, as though she lacked soul and body.

[90] that she was almost always alienated from her senses, Things like these asserted by the biographer I have already given in number 85 toward the end from the Saint's Dialogue, part 2, chapter 1, where she says that, her soul being filled with divine love and stripped of its natural being, neither memory nor understanding nor will can be applied to worldly things, nay that she cannot take delight even in things concerning the spirit and piety. Receive again a few things from the Dialogue, the same part and chapter: For a thing so great and sublime cannot be comprehended, since it exceeds the capacity of the powers of the soul, which nevertheless will not attend to anything else, but rest and are submerged in that subtle love: and when mention is made of created things, they are almost stupid, without vigour and strength, not knowing where they are; for this whole work is hidden in God and ever grows: the spirit also daily perceives itself readier and firmer to endure all things which God shall have disposed concerning it, yet not on that account does it understand anything else, for the soul, just as though dead, does not mingle itself with this work, nor knows anything of it.

[91] In the same part of the Dialogue, chapter 2, the Saint writes these things: that she was as it were submerged in love alone. But how shall forsaken and desolate humanity live? Being dry, naked and destitute of vigour, it has eyes, and cannot see; ears, and cannot hear; nostrils, and cannot smell; a mouth, and cannot taste; a heart, and cannot love; all the modes of living are shut up and buried in that hidden love: but she who cannot live from this love, nay to whom it rather brings death, how shall she live, especially having all her senses whole and sound, but not able to use them after the manner of others? Wherefore humanity uttered these sad complaints: What shall I do, unhappy that I am, seeing myself alone in the world and unlike the rest of mortals? I am to live as one despairing, and there will be none to pity me; for no one will recognize this work as divine, nor ascribe it to God its author, since I must almost always live differently from others, both religious and secular, and do such things as will be judged foolish. My life now lacks order and form, etc. More things I knowingly and willingly pass over, and observe this one thing, that either Baillet never read these words of the Saint and others like them, or at least did not compare them accurately enough with the sayings of the biographer, whom no one will assert to have here spoken paradoxes, incredible things and trifles, unless he has not blushed to affirm the same of the Saint herself.

[92] The second point adduced by Baillet is taken from chapter 22 of the Life, The things which Baillet carps at concerning faith and hope lost, and the where it is thus written: This holy soul, wholly transformed into God by an excess, spoke so abstrusely of God her sweet love that the human understanding scarcely grasped it: "By the grace of God", she said, "I find satiety in myself without nourishment, love without any fear of ever lacking it; faith seems to me altogether lost, hope dead, for now I think I have and possess what before I believed and hoped for." The last two points, concerning faith and hope, alone does Baillet carp at in this manner: Submerged in her love she had lost faith, and abode in it without hope of any good either in heaven or on earth. These things which Baillet says are certainly different from the biographer's words: for he says that, from the delights perceived from love, in the person of the Saint faith seemed to be lost and hope dead; but Baillet writes that faith had been lost. It is useful to bring some light to the biographer's words from another place, in chapter 20 of the Life, where, discoursing in the person of the Saint concerning the greatness of the heavenly reward, he speaks thus: But God, willing that faith should have merit, and that man should not work good out of self-seeking, leads him little by little, always granting him as much knowledge as his faith can hold, afterwards bestowing upon him so copious a light concerning divine things that, on account of the clear and certain knowledge which he receives even in this world, the faith of a man thus illuminated, filled with heavenly delights, almost fails, etc.

[93] I now transfer hither a few things from the Saint's own Dialogue: in part 3, chapter 8, these things are read: O love, the heart possessed by thee is so magnanimous and generous by reason of its inward peace security, that it would rather endure with this a bitter torment than receive without it any other good in heaven or on earth; even though it be little esteemed, save by him who experiences and tastes it. The heart raised up into God beholds all created things beneath itself, not by reason of pride or greatness, but by reason of union,

which it has with God, whereby it counts all that is God's as its own, nor sees or knows anything else besides God. The heart wounded with the love of God is unconquerable: for God is its strength; it is not terrified by the punishments of hell, nor gladdened by the joys of the heavenly kingdom, since it is so ordered that whatever befalls it, it receives from the hand of God, with whom it is at peace in all things, and almost free from any disturbance toward its neighbour, being thus ordered and established in itself by God. From these words, further, it clearly appears that the heart of St. Catherine, wounded with divine love, sought no good in heaven, much less on earth, outside of love.

[94] are elucidated by the Saint's words. But the security of the soul which had experienced within herself the inexplicable operation of divine love the Saint describes in the Dialogue, part 3, chapter 14, in these words: I feel in myself a will so strong, and a liberty so great and living, that I do not fear that anything will hinder me from my object, in which I rest. The understanding is greatly illuminated and daily obtains a greater quiet; daily new things are shown to it, and operations so pleasant and loving that it is always most gladly occupied with them, and, finding its rest in them, cannot search out anything else, but it cannot express the nature and condition of this love. The memory is most quiet, since it is wholly immersed in spiritual things, and can scarcely remember anything else, yet knows not the mode and form. The affection, that is, the natural love of man, confesses itself so pressed down by another supernatural love that it can no longer occupy itself with anything else, but is fully tranquillized, and neither desires nor seeks other food, and seems to itself to have whatever it could desire, but neither can it explain the form, etc. Satiety also without nourishment, which we saw from the biographer above in number 92 that the Saint experienced, I find handed down in the Dialogue in these words, part 3, chapter 3: By this drop the soul is immersed in the sweetness of love, … she is occupied with this drop of love, which perfectly satisfies her without nourishment, whence, inflamed, the soul cries out: O nourishment without savour, O savour without taste, O taste without food, O banquet of love! etc. The pious reader will find more things in the same place.

[95] Baillet, constantly asserting that the biographer Baillet goes on in the place praised, and, having noted chapter 24 of the Life, says more or less thus: Pure love hindered her from suffering either in soul or in body, nay from even understanding what pain or punishment is, both of the hell that really exists and of all conceivable hells which God could yet create. Before we weigh these things, it is useful to hear the biographer: he has thus in the chapter just praised: She (the Saint) attested that, after she had been called and wounded by her love, she never knew what it was to suffer within or without, from the world, from demons and the flesh, or from any other thing. In the same place the biographer subjoins the reason, omitted by Baillet: And this, he says, by reason of a transformation of herself into God so perfect that, although she suffered many adversities, nevertheless in her will she did not reckon those adversities as adversities, nay received them as sent to her by her love, so that, mingled with that love itself, they brought her great delight. For nothing, as the Life sets forth in the same place, did she count as torment, nothing as hell, save only the offending of God.

[96] That all the pains of hell, when compared with an offence against God, are to be counted as nothing, handed down that nothing was ever endured by the Saint the biographer again declares in the Saint's words in chapter 15: For all the pains of hell, he says, however grievous, are nothing compared with the privation of the blessed vision of God, which one incurs by resisting Him of one's own accord. This truth divine love proves, which dictates that the smallest imperfection is more to be feared than all the hells that can be imagined. From both the passages of the biographer just reported Baillet without doubt drew his censure: but I ask the fair reader whether this critic has interpreted the author of the Life sincerely enough: for where does he report that the Saint was hindered by her love, when he expressly writes: Although she suffered many adversities, nevertheless in her will she did not reckon those adversities as adversities. The biographer's aim therefore was — as Baillet could not but understand, if only he looked upon his words with sound eyes — to show that Catherine's love toward God was so magnanimous that she did not reckon the sorrows and torments sent by God as sorrows, but held them as delights, which is the property of those who truly love.

[97] Although these things abundantly suffice to remove from the biographer all sinister suspicion, of torment, is refuted from the Saint's Works it will nevertheless not be beside the purpose to demonstrate the conformity of his words with the Saint's sayings. In the Dialogue, part 2, chapter 4, I read these things: In this state (in which the soul is joined to her love) martyrdom is not feared, nor hell, nor any resistance and adversity, for this love renders all things tolerable. Part 3, chapter 6: But thou, Lord, says the Saint, hast brought from heaven this sweet manna and pleasant banquet, containing in itself such virtue and efficacy that it renders all punishments tolerable. In the Treatise on Purgatory, in which, as the Saint herself testifies at the beginning of chapter 1, she perceived from the fire of divine love with which she burned the condition of the expiatory souls, plainly similar things are read. I set forth the words rendered into Latin from Parpera's Italian edition: chapter 2 has thus: And as concerns the will, they can never say that those pains are pains, so much do they acquiesce in the disposition of God, with which their will (that of the souls) is joined in pure charity. In chapter 16 of the same Treatise she writes thus: The first (operation) is that they gladly suffer these torments, and seem to themselves to see that God has imparted a great mercy. And in chapter 17 the Saint attests that she experienced in her own soul this manner in which the souls detained in the expiatory fire are purged: consult this Treatise, reader, if you desire more of the kind.

[98] From all these things, further, which we have adduced both from the Saint's Works and from the biographer's words. and from the Life, it is altogether clear that Catherine was not seldom harassed by sorrows and torments, and those most grievous: yet so constantly does Baillet adhere to his blunder that, writing of the holy Widow's last illness, of which she departed this life, he does not hesitate to affirm again that the biographer was of the opinion that the Saint never felt any pain. He has more or less thus: The pains which she then endured were so acute and so long-continued that it cannot be understood by what reasoning those forgot them who wished it to be believed that Catherine was hindered by pure love from suffering any torment either in soul or in body, nay from even perceiving what pain is, what torment; and again he writes in the margin chapter 24 of the Life. But this censure, from what has already been said and from the biographer's words adduced from that chapter above in number 96, falls to the ground of itself, and so ought by no means to detain us: certainly in chapters 49 and 50 of the Life, where the Saint's last illness is described at length, the biographer very often asserts that she experienced the bitterest pains, yet so that she received them with a willing and great mind, and took delight in them. See our Life below, number 98.

§ VIII. The discussion and refutation of Baillet's censure is continued.

[ ] The Saint, as fully consenting to the divine will, It remains that we discern whether five other texts are subjected to Baillet's criticism with any greater right and foundation than the rest examined in the preceding §. The first is taken from chapter 38 of the Life, and is expressed by Baillet more or less thus: She desired nothing, because every desire is a defect of perfection. Let us compare these words with the sayings of the biographer in the aforesaid chapter: This holy and illuminated Soul knew, he says, that every desire falls short of perfection, because the desiring soul lacks that which it desires, namely God, who is all things; and therefore the soul united to God finds all things in Him, and can desire nothing else. A little above he had premised: She was made so quiet that thereafter in her, until the end of her life, every desire was always extinguished, nor did she ever have any will save the most pure will of her sweet love; the last words in Italian are expressed a little differently, but in substance are the same. From these words, further, as also from those preceding in the same place, it is clear that the Saint strove not to be affected with even the slightest desire of any created thing, whether heavenly or earthly, and willed to leave all things to the divine disposition.

[100] is affected with the desire of nothing. I acknowledge here indeed a remarkable holiness and a sublime degree of perfection, yet I detect nothing either incredible or such as ought so greatly to be wondered at in the Saint: the biographer attaches that fact to the year 1507, as is established from the beginning of chapter 38, and so about three years before the Saint's happy departure: now if we consider with how great zeal and for how many continuous years she laboured to subdue all the affections of her soul and to conquer the repugnance of nature, as we saw in number 80 and following, what, I pray, forbids us to believe that God rewarded her heroic actions with this reward, that she should be affected with no desire, at least no deliberate desire, of anything? Let us now consult the Saint's Dialogue: in part 3, chapter 4, the Lord addresses the soul with these words: Knowest thou, dearest soul, who finds my love? He who has a heart clean and pure from every other love, and, having found it, desires nothing else, but is wholly tranquillized. And the Saint in chapter 7 of the same part thus addresses God: O love, into thee thou absorbest that heart. And so I judge it better here also to look up to God working wonderfully in St. Catherine than at once to call a paradox whatever exceeds common usage.

[101] What Baillet thinks concerning the Saint's divine love To this text now sifted Baillet subjoins another in this manner: She thought that the love toward God of no one existing on earth could be greater than her own, and he cites chapter 19 of the Life. There a certain incident is reported which is recorded in our Life below, numbers 39 and following. This history I here compress into a few words. A certain man of a regular institute, hearing the holy Widow discoursing of love, asserted to her that he, as bound to the service of God by the bonds of religion, was fitter and readier to love God than she would be, living in the world and in the conjugal state. This speech the Saint took up, among other things, with these words: But that I cannot love equally with thee, thou wilt never by any reasoning persuade me… Love cannot be hindered, and when it is hindered, that love is not wholly pure and clean. And a little afterwards, addressing God, she says: O love, who shall hinder me from loving thee? Even if I were not in such a state, … but

if I were living in a camp of soldiers, I could not be hindered. Besides these things I find nothing in the whole of the aforesaid chapter which makes to the present purpose; but from the words adduced that which Baillet asserts in his censure will not easily be hammered out.

[102] What of this, that the biographer subjoins: Here it must be known that she (the Saint) did not deny that the way of attaining to perfect love is more difficult in the world the biographers handed down concerning its greatness, than in religion. Whence, if I rightly grasp the Saint's mind, the aim of her words here was to show that, just as the habit alone does not make a religious man, so neither does the bare profession of a regular institute of itself confer upon anyone a greater aptitude for loving, and that it is open to a man, even living in the world, to pursue God with a most intense love, provided he will constantly and bravely remove all obstacles which can hinder cleanness of heart; which disposition of soul the Saint without doubt experienced in herself on account of the remarkable confidence in the kindness and mercy of God with which she was endowed. In chapter 18 of the same more extended Life the biographer writes that the Saint asserted that she did not perceive by what means the love with which she burned could grow: but he adds: This is so to be understood, that, since she always abounded in love, she could not see nor desire more than that which at that time satisfied her; yet it does not follow that love ceased to wash and cleanse and also to enlarge that precious and chosen Vessel, and ever more to fill it.

[103] From these things it is gathered that, although at times some words considered by themselves might cast some scruple, it is inquired: by reason of her clear knowledge of human malice yet taken together with what precedes and what follows they are free from all sinister suspicion. The same must be said of that which Baillet carps at, and which is taken from chapter 10 of the Life, where I read thus: There lay no entrance for vainglory into her soul; for Baillet passed over in silence the reason added by the biographer. I therefore append it here: Inasmuch as she, he says, being full of truth and remarkably endowed with distrust of herself, trusted in God alone, her sweetest love, to whom she resigned herself wholly in soul and body, saying, Lord, do with me whatsoever thou wilt. Many things are read in the same chapter, from which it is established that the Saint never attributed anything to herself, but poured back all things into the grace of God, so much so that she would rather have undergone a thousand hells than see in herself (which very thing, however, she affirmed to be impossible, as indeed it is) an act supernaturally good not proceeding from grace. She was unwilling, says the biographer toward the end of the aforesaid chapter, that anyone should bring himself to believe that any good exists save in God, but that all evil proceeds from man alone through vainglory.

[104] Certainly he who has clearly perceived human vileness and malice, the Saint was free from empty glory. and often sets it before his eyes, will not easily allow himself to be seduced by vainglory: and it is clear both from the words premised and from others throughout the whole Life, and from the Saint's own Works, how mean an estimation of herself she always had. Let the biographer be heard again, speaking in the person of the Saint, in chapter 40 toward the end: And so it is established that all glory is God's, and all malice man's, so that if God in His mercy did not restrain the latter, man would presently commit all the evils that can fall upon a creature, from which he could never extricate himself, if God by His power and goodness did not free him. This is the one thing in which I glory, that I see nothing in myself of which I could glory; and if anyone should see something in himself, his glory would be empty, since he does not know that the glory is and ought to be God's and not his own; and therefore vainglory is born of ignorance. Let the Saint also be heard in the Dialogue, part 1, chapter 13: That same love also incited her to such contempt of herself that on her own account she held all things that are under heaven at no greater worth than if they were not at all: in chapter 12 she had premised: From which vision (of her own malice) she came to such despair of herself that whatever is of man she could thereafter never look upon otherwise than as she looked upon the devil himself with all his malice.

[105] that Catherine fled consolations and heavenly favours Two things still remain to be examined, which I wonder could have displeased Baillet, if only he read the Saint's Dialogue: the first concerns the flight from and refusal of consolations, of which the more extended Life writes thus in chapter 17: The same is true of her affection, which straightway at the beginning was taken from her by her love, so that she could have no affection toward anything created or uncreated, nor even toward God Himself as regards consolations, visions and spiritual savours, which she noticed that others esteemed so highly, but she shrank from them and fled them so far as she could. Baillet in the Life of the Saint, number 5, had already before carped at these words from chapter 6 of the more extended Life: I will not that which proceeds from thee, O sweet Love, but I will thee alone; already, I say, Baillet had before carped at these things, saying, Is it credible that she said what they will have her say to God, under the pretext of her alienation from the senses? Let those whom it concerns discuss and unravel the Saint's words, and inquire whether the state of a soul dwelling in aridity of spirit is better and more perfect than that of one abounding in heavenly delights; it will suffice me to have adduced some things from the Saint's own works to show that the biographers in this part also handed down things altogether agreeing with what Catherine left written of herself.

[106] the author of the Life attests, which is confirmed In the Dialogue, part 1, chapter 14, toward the end, I read thus: But when that moment had passed, pure love, noticing this unwonted thing, began to cry out to God: O Lord, Lord, I will not the experience of thee, I seek not the taste, but I flee all these things as demons, since they hinder pure love, which ought to be naked. For a man can, under the appearance of perfection, cling to those same things in spirit and humanity. Wherefore, my Lord, I pray that thou bestow no more such things hereafter, which profit neither me nor any other who seeks the naked divine love. In chapter 15 the Saint writes these things: For spiritual things draw a man under the appearance of good, nor can he be persuaded, save with great difficulty, that there is anything else in them but good, and thus a man refreshes and feeds himself upon those things which proceed from God, that is, upon His gifts; but I tell thee the truth, that he who would enjoy God as nakedly and simply as may be must needs flee such things, since to the pure love of God they are poison. Certainly that spiritual savour is more to be guarded against than the devil, since where it clings it breeds an incurable disease, the man being unaware, etc. But these things I judge are to be taken in a sound sense.

[107] from the Saint's own Works. Again in chapter 17 she speaks thus: He (God) instilled into her (the Saint) a great divine sweetness of a most delightful love, with which body and soul so overflowed that she could scarcely any longer stand on her feet. But because the eye of love beholds all things, as soon as this Soul noticed such great things she cried out and protested that she did not wish such sweetnesses and tastes in this life, nor cared for the experience of love, since experience corrupts love. "I", she said, "shall resist so far as I can, and shall not cling to them, nor give any place to them; far be it from me to feed upon delights of this sort, which are poison to pure love." Yet God did not permit it, etc. I omit other things like these, content to have shown that the biographer's words cannot be called paradoxical and incredible unless the Saint's sayings be branded with the same mark. I append a very few words of the great Augustine from his exposition on Psalm 72, number 32: The heart is made chaste, he says, God is now loved freely, no other reward is sought from Him. He who seeks another reward from God holds dearer what he wishes to receive than Him from whom he wishes to receive it. What then, is there no reward of God? None besides Himself. The reward of God is God Himself. This it loves, this it esteems: if it shall esteem anything else, the love will not be chaste.

[108] Baillet's last censure in this part attacks chapter 18 of the more extended Life: A certain more difficult passage, I transfer the words hither. She (the Saint) said: I will not a love which is for the sake of God, or in God: I cannot look upon these little words "For the sake of" and "In" without their denoting a certain medium between God and me, which pure and clean love, by reason of its supreme cleanness and purity, cannot endure. Thanner in his Explanation of difficult passages, commenting on these words, says that it is not without doubt why the Saint refused a love in and for the sake of God, since one who truly loves God must also necessarily love his neighbour, and she herself practised such heroic works of charity toward her neighbour: but neither, he says, does the reason adduced by the Saint, that for the sake of and in denote a certain medium, swallow up the difficulty: For the pure love of God (these are Thanner's words) rejects not every medium, but only that which is opposed to pure love, of which sort the ordered and spiritual love of the neighbour is not; nor does the union of the soul with God refuse any medium whatever, but only that which hinders this union; but pure love of the neighbour does not hinder it, nay rather promotes it. Thus he, and rightly.

[109] After these things Thanner argues so as to restrict these works of charity toward the neighbour to the Saint's active life, concerning the love of God without any medium, which the Saint, but afterwards, when she had been called by God to give herself to contemplation alone, then, he says, although that charity persevered in her, yet she could not exercise its works, her mind being so raised into God that she could take thought neither of herself nor of her neighbour, nor turn herself elsewhere than whither God turned her; and if she had then wished to think of loving her neighbour in or for the sake of God, she would have set something as a medium between herself and God, and would have hindered that close union. However it may be, I suppose that the biographer's words may conveniently be so taken that by a medium between herself and God the Saint meant to exclude only all that which would place an obstacle to her pure love toward God, conformably to what the Saint writes in the Dialogue, part 1, chapter 12: God showed her the love with which He had suffered for her sake. The soul, having beheld that pure and strong love of God toward her, was so vehemently wounded within that she utterly despised any other love, and whatever should set a medium and obstacle between herself and God.

[110] Let us hear also what the Saint hands down concerning the different operations of love in the Dialogue, part 3, as the biographer testifies, sought alone, chapter 5: Works, she says, are done through love, when a man performs all his actions through love

of God, granted him by God Himself, with an instinct of working for his own advantage or his neighbour's. And in this first state of love God impels a man to do many and diverse works, useful and necessary, with a signal affection of piety. The works of the second state of love are done in God, and are those which one performs without regard to his own advantage or his neighbour's, having no object to move him to work save God, and he works perseveringly by reason of the acquired habit of doing well, and God has taken from him his own proper part, which regards and delights itself; and this work is more perfect than the first, in which he had many objects on which he fed soul and body. Works done from love are more perfect than the rest, as performed without any part of man's own, but love has so overcome the man that he is wholly submerged in the ocean of love, and knows not where he is; he is lost in himself, unable to work anything; but it is love itself that works in the man, and these works are works of perfection, since they are performed without man's own part.

[111] is elucidated from other passages, and especially from the Dialogue. But when the Saint is said by the biographer to have refused a love in and for the sake of God, she seems only to have intended that her works should be done from love, in the third manner just explained, but she is by no means to be judged to have wished love of the neighbour excluded: for after the words already reported, with a few others interposed, she adds: O Love, thy bond is so sweet and strong that it binds together angels and Saints, and is perpetual and indissoluble; and men bound by this chain are so united that they are wholly of one will, and have one object, but also all things seem to them common, both temporal and spiritual. In this bond there is no distinction between rich and poor, between this nation or that; every repugnance is excluded where this love is, which makes all crooked things straight and unites all contraries. Whence wrongly does Baillet, treating of the works of charity practised by the Saint in the service of the poor and the sick, write so as to conclude from these offices of charity that there flourished in her a love which would admit a medium between herself and God, whatever others have written and however unwilling the Saint herself was.

[112] is elucidated. But perhaps, as also seemed to Baillet in number 5 in the Life of St. Catherine, someone will say: if her manner of loving was conformable to her love, or to Him about whom she was engaged, it could not but be most simple and without such great subtlety []. But this censure does not detain me; for it is certain that God works wonderfully in His Saints in whatever way He wills: yet let us hear the Saint again. In the Dialogue, part 3, in the last chapter, she speaks thus: Whatever can be said of love is nothing; for the further thou advancest, the less thou knowest: but the heart is full and at peace, it seeks nothing else, nor would it desire to find anything besides what it feels. All its words are inward, savoury, sweet, and so subtle, secret and uniting with Him who inspires them, that the heart alone perceives them within itself, as being united with God. But God alone understands them; the heart feels and does not understand, and thus the work exists in God and the profit in man: but this inward loving manner which God observes with the heart of man is secret between them, God and the heart.* And let these things said concerning the Saint's remarkable love, and its stupendous effects in her, suffice.

In French, Rafinement*.

§ IX. The wonderful innocence of the Saint's life, directed for a long time by God alone, asserted by the biographer, is weighed.

[ ] The Saint, without the help of any man, Our Life below, in number 24 and following, testifies that the Saint was directed to the way of perfection by God alone, and reviews the rules delivered to her by God for obtaining this sublime end: the same rules the more extended Life records in chapter 6; but in chapter 44 it writes thus: This Soul was inwardly led by her sweet Love alone through His divine and inward address, and taught whatever she needed without any religious or secular person; and when she wished to attach herself to anyone, presently love so afflicted her in spirit that she was compelled to leave that person, and she said, Lord, I understand thee. And when it was said to her that it would be advisable, for greater security, that she should submit herself to another's obedience, as she hesitated what she ought to do in this matter, she was thus answered in spirit by her Lord: Trust me, and be not distracted with doubtful thought… In this manner the lady Catherine persisted in the way of God for about twenty-five years, instructed, directed and led by a wonderful operation not by any man at all, but by God alone.

[114] After Baillet has reported these things in number 8, he pronounces more or less in this manner. is directed by God alone. Baillet Without doubt the way was very ambiguous and subject to illusions, especially since it thus departed from that which is deservedly held in the Church to be more beaten and safe. Certainly it cannot be denied that it is safer for him who wishes to walk by straight ways to use the counsel of some prudent director; yet it is also certain that God formerly granted to some of His elect a certain singular privilege in this respect, with which this holy Widow also, as the biographer testifies, was gifted: and that we may perceive that the Saint followed not her own leading, exposed to the danger of error, but that of the Holy Spirit, it may be useful to transfer hither the words of St. Gregory the Great, Dialogues, book 1, chapter 1. There are some who are so taught inwardly by the mastership of the spirit that, although the discipline of human mastership be wanting to them outwardly, the judgment of the inward master is not wanting: yet their liberty of life is not to be taken as an example by the weak, lest, while each presumes that he is likewise filled with the Holy Spirit, he should scorn to be a man's disciple and should become a master of error. But the mind which is filled with the divine Spirit has its own most evident signs, namely virtues and humility, which if both perfectly meet in one mind, it is clear that they bear witness to the presence of the Holy Spirit.

[115] Whoever shall now be willing to peruse the things we have reported concerning St. Catherine in this Commentary, holding this rule of life suspect and those which are read in the Life below, will evidently perceive the admirable conjunction of heroic virtues with humility, and so no place for doubting concerning the good spirit in Catherine will remain: but what I chiefly aim at here is to show that in this part also the biographer handed down nothing which the Saint herself had not first attested in her Dialogue: let us therefore consult it. In part 1, chapter 13, I read thus: The author of all these instincts was God alone, the soul having therein no choice or object; for God willed to govern her own part, and to pluck from her all the instincts drawing their origin from the flesh and the world, and therefore He implanted contrary ones. Part 2, chapter 1: But God, says the Saint, who had undertaken this care, was unwilling that anyone else besides Himself should intrude, and observed this manner.

[116] is refuted from Catherine's Dialogue and from other sources. Again in part 2, chapter 10, when God had foretold to the Saint the great torments by which she was to be oppressed for about the last ten years before her death, she thus prays to the Lord: Appoint for me, Lord God, at least a person who may understand me, and who may console me in the torments that are at hand, as is done for those condemned to death, lest they despair. And a little below she says: He (God) joined to her (the Saint) outwardly also a certain religious according to her need, who understood the work of God and brought her great consolation. But after some things interposed, she complains in this manner concerning the absence of the director of her conscience: Outwardly also I see my confessor taken from me, so that I scarcely have the pleasure (in Italian it reads the leave, or the power) of looking upon him any more; through excessive weakness the strength fails me to turn myself anywhere, etc. From these things, further, gather, prudent reader, that no censure can be applied to what is said in the Life concerning Marabotto and the Saint's torment arising from his absence, unless we fasten the same upon the Saint's Works also.

[117] The biographer did not contradict himself, The remaining things which might need either some elucidation or exposition will have their place in the Notes to the Life below: one thing, however, I cannot here pass over. In chapter 2 of the more extended Life the biographer says: And although the Lord God at that time, in which He inflicted upon her the loving and sweet wound, had forgiven her all her sins, yet for the preserving of justice He willed her to enter upon the way of satisfaction. And this contrition, light and conversion lasted only about fourteen months; but after she had made satisfaction, the aforesaid vision was so withdrawn from her mind that never thereafter did even the least spark of her sins flit before her eyes, just as if all of them had been sunk into the depth of the sea. These things Baillet takes up thus: She retained nothing but a sorrow which clung to her as a companion even to the tomb, and which nevertheless was not without all fear lest that terrible vision of her sins should return; and he adduces the Saint's words from chapter 20 of the more extended Life, which I subjoin: Being able in no way to look upon an offence against God, she said: O my love, all other things are tolerable to me, but to have offended thee is so horrible and intolerable that thou shouldst rather inflict upon me anything hard and bitter than show me that I have offended thee. I call back the offences done to thee by me, nor can I approve that thou wert ever offended by me. I do not refuse that thou shouldst show me all the demons with all their terrors and torments as I lie dying, for I count them as nothing when set beside the sight of an offence against thee, though the least, which nevertheless cannot be least, because thy most exalted Majesty is offended.

[118] when he asserted that the Saint was freed These things displeased Baillet, who tacitly accuses the biographer of contradiction, when he speaks thus in French: But it is hard to understand how, so often frequenting thereafter the Sacrament of penance, as often as she is said to have done, especially in the last years of her life, she did not as often undergo, seeing her sin, the pain which she desired to avoid. But although the author of the Life asserts that, the space of fourteen months having elapsed, God withdrew from St. Catherine every vision of her sins whatsoever, this certainly is not so to be understood as if for all the remaining time of her life she had no longer any knowledge of certain defects, whether committed before or anew, which is necessary for the Sacrament of penance; but rather of a certain clearer vision of the foulness of sin, by which she was most vehemently tormented, and which for making satisfaction for the sins committed, and for a greater abhorrence of them,

was granted her by God. Let us hear the biographer in chapter 20 praised above; after he had premised some things concerning the greatness both of the heavenly reward and of the infernal punishment, and concerning the unhappiness of the man who indulges his desires and neglects grace, he adds: The visions which she had concerning all these things were not so faintly represented to her inwardly as is generally wont to be the case; but so manifestly and expressly that she beheld them as it were with her eyes and handled them with her hands. Nor is there any doubt that (in the Italian editions the word a man is added) one receiving such visions would rather choose death than a voluntary offence against God, though the least.

[119] Again the biographer in chapter 12 evidently signifies that it is a question of a far different vision or knowledge of sins from the vision of her sins, than that which is required for the Sacrament of penance; for he speaks thus in the person of St. Catherine: Hold it for certain that, if anyone were to discern how enormous even one sin is, the soul would rather choose to stand alive in soul and body in a kindled furnace than to endure sin in itself; and if the whole sea were fire, to escape sin it would plunge into the midst of it down to the bottom, nor ever come forth thence, if it knew that in coming forth it would behold sin. This will seem great to many, as indeed it is, but the aforesaid things were shown to her as they are in truth, and she judged this example far unequal to declaring the matter. Here without doubt it is a question of a very clear and evident vision or knowledge of the foulness and enormity of sin, which God granted to St. Catherine, and which stirred up in her so great a horror of sin that she would rather have seen all the demons with all their torments than the offences committed by her against God — certainly not grave ones, as we saw in numbers 51 and 52.

[120] Further, how dreadful the Saint's vision of even a lighter sin was certainly clearer and more evident, is more expressly declared in chapter 24, where these things are read: When it was granted me to understand how fearful is the shadow of the least act which is done against God, I know not why I did not depart this life. Then I said: I no longer wonder that hell is so horrible, since it was made on account of sin; yet, recalling to mind what was shown me, I do not think it equal to the horror of sin: nay, it seems to me that God has imparted to it a far less horror, so terrible does even the shadow at least of venial sin appear to me. And what in comparison with this will mortal sin be? See the Life below, number 56. In chapter 27 of the more extended Life I observe again these things: By way of an answer it was shown her (the Saint) in spirit that an offence against God, however slight, is far more intolerable than the very hell of Lucifer. The vision of this Blessed one was not, as is generally the case, without torment; therefore, seeing how grave it is, so great a fire blazed in her heart that she fell into sickness and was almost extinguished. And so, when the biographer in chapter 2 affirms that every knowledge of her sins was taken from the Saint, he must be understood of that clear and evident vision or knowledge of the foulness of sin, from which she asked to be freed, God kindly granting her pious desires.

[121] as is shown from the Saint's own Works. When he writes that a knowledge of this kind was wholly taken from the Saint, he builds up nothing further than what she herself had first affirmed in her Dialogue: since in part 1, chapter 12, when, having perceived her own malignity, she wished to consign it wholly into the hands of God, to be so covered by the divine goodness that nothing of the malice should any longer appear, she adds: Her most sweet Lord answered that He approved this exchange, and at the same moment that malignant part of hers was so removed from her memory that thereafter she had no care of it. But in chapter 17 of the same part 1 the Saint writes of herself: At times He gave her a knowledge of herself, that is, of her depraved inclinations opposed to pure love, and by this knowledge the great flame (of love) was mitigated; for she saw that it were better (which also she desired) not to exist at all than to have offended her Love by not merely the least sin, but even the least defect. Unless we should wish to assert that the Saint's latter words conflict with the former, we must understand in the second place a certain simple and bare knowledge of her sins, but in the former a clearer one with great torment; and that this indeed was wholly taken away, but that the former remained in the Saint. But that a simple knowledge of her sins was extinguished in the Saint the biographer nowhere reports; nay, the contrary seems to be gathered from chapter 27, where he says: Whence, when a doubt fell upon her, she was compelled at once to seek its decision, otherwise, as though placed in fire, she could not rest: hearing that this had been wrongly done, she at once answered: Lord, if it was ill done, I would not have done it, etc.

[122] The Saint's admirable innocence of life, Yet some difficulty is apt to be raised by what the biographer writes in chapter 44 of the more extended Life; for it teaches that St. Catherine in her last years — nay, if they be compared with what we gave in number 117 from chapter 2, for a whole thirty years and more before her death — was gifted with such innocence that she was not unlike a child not yet using reason. She did not know, by his testimony, how she should make her confession, or where she was as to soul and body; she could not see that she had offended God, nor look upon the sins which she recounted as sins committed in thought, word or deed; But, says the biographer in the chapter 44 just praised, like the works of a little boy, doing childish things and not understanding, who, when it is said to him, Thou hast done ill, is suffused with a blush, yet not because he knows that he has done wrong. He adds that she said: I do not wish to omit confession, but I know not to whom I should ascribe the guilt of my sins; I desire to accuse myself, and I cannot. That is to say, as is read in chapter 5 of the same Life, So vehement and continual was the ardour of her soul that, apart from her natural inclinations, no temptation could approach her, and thus she persevered to the end of her life.

[123] illustrated by Thanner's reasonings, Thanner in the before-praised Explanation of difficult passages says that this immunity of the Saint from every propensity to evil is hard to believe on account of the tinder of sin, which clings even to a holy man until death: yet in the same place he thinks it can be proved without difficulty that it is by no means incredible, and then produces some examples of several Saints, by which it is shown that it was granted by a singular benefit of God that, although they were not without the tinder of sin, yet they remained free either from some particular vice or even from every depraved affection for a long time. Then, turning to consider the state of the holy Widow, he records her frequent ecstasies and the elevations of all the powers of her soul into God, so much so that she lived in a manner full of God and occupied in Him alone, unable to turn herself elsewhere than whither God willed; and he subjoins some things from chapter 32 of the more extended Life, by which it is declared in what manner God purges and consumes all the instincts toward evil in a man; and at last he writes thus: When she was about to make her confession she could not detect that she had offended God, because she did not feel her outward and inward part to be in vigour in such a way that she could affirm she had committed any evil: she wished to accuse the part rebellious to God, and did not find it. He wrote in the margin chapter 44, from which we reported the chief points in the preceding number.

[124] Thanner continues in the same place to speak thus: It is not to be supposed seems to be drawn from the Saint's own Dialogue. that this proceeded from ignorance or lack of the divine light, which indeed was so copious in her that she noticed even the smallest blemishes, and even saw through the hearts of others; but by reason of the vehement divine operation which she sustained in soul and body, the tinder could not act according to its malice. And these things are rightly applied by Thanner, if he meant to signify that no offence was committed by the Saint, and so that she could not detect any blemishes in herself. Further, he refers the reader in the same place to part 2 of St. Catherine's Dialogue, and in chapter 1 I read these things to the present purpose: In this way (God drawing the Spirit) all animal imperfections are little by little consumed, and this purged soul becomes pure spirit, and the body, stripped of its depraved habits and inclinations, becomes clean and fit to be united at the opportune time with its spirit without hindrance. Many other things are read in the Dialogue in which she declares that all vices were extinguished in her, and that she was stripped bare by divine love and despoiled of herself. But those things which could be objected on the other side, especially from chapter 26 of the more extended Life, where the malice of private love is treated, and the Saint is said sometimes to have had instincts which she herself thought good, but afterwards, being more illuminated by divine love, detected as evil — these things, I say, Thanner endeavours to resolve by saying that they were not vices or sins, but certain defects from pure love; or, if those instincts were truly depraved, that they are to be referred to the four years after her conversion, not to later times. For me it suffices to have reported these things; nevertheless I here append the Saint's words from the Dialogue, part 3, chapter 14. Although, she says, it may seem hard to avoid every appearance of evil, yet if anyone were to behold God's most ready zeal and loving and unwearied care to help man and to defend him against all his adversaries, nothing would be so harsh and troublesome as to hold him back from accomplishing all things for the love of God.

§ X. Some things are reported from the older Life concerning the Saint's last illness: the day of her death is inquired into.

[ ] The time of the Saint's last illness, The last illness of the holy Widow, the great torments endured at that time in her weakened and almost exhausted body, the visions and heavenly favours by which she was at times refreshed, at times made a partaker of the Lord's Passion and most vehemently afflicted, the Life below describes in chapters 7 and 8. That the Saint was harassed by that illness for about nine years before her death the more extended Life writes in chapter 47, and so according to it its beginnings are to be referred to about the year of Christ 1501; about, I say; for in the Dialogue, part 2, chapter 10, the Saint, discoursing of the sickness of her body and the pains she endured, says: In this state she remained about ten years; and therefore perhaps Parpera in chapter 92 of his last Lucubration, speaking of the Saint's martyrdom, by which she was at length consumed by divine love, writes in the margin the year MD, at the LIII year of her age; and it may have happened that the older biographer wished to use a round number, neglecting some months by which the Saint's illness exceeded nine years: the Life below also says in number 88 that nine years before her death Catherine's body was reduced to a wretched state, yet in number 90 it speaks in such a way as to seem to build up some excess beyond nine years: but this difference seems to me so slight that I judge there is by no means need here of a fuller discussion.

[126] curable by no natural remedy. That this illness of Catherine's exceeded the bounds of nature many things recorded in the Life below show, several physicians twice coming to the same opinion, so that they acknowledged that this infirmity bore something divine and was therefore not to be cured by human remedies. The more extended Life in chapter 49 writes the following, which, because they are omitted in our Life, I here subjoin: After these things there came from England a certain excellent Genoese physician, Master Giovanni Battista Boerio, who for many years had acted as physician to the king of that island. When he had heard the fame of this holy Lady and of her infirmity, he greatly wondered that they affirmed it was not natural, nor curable by natural medicine, which he himself could not believe; whence he was moved to visit her, and to address her in this manner. I greatly wonder, Lady, that thou, who art of great esteem in this city, dost not guard against the scandal of men by asserting that thou dost not labour under a natural illness, and therefore canst not be cured by medicines; consider that this bears the appearance of hypocrisy.

[127] Catherine's remarkable obedience at that time. She humbly answered: It greatly displeases me that anyone should take scandal from me; if a remedy suitable to my affliction could be found, I should by no means reject it; and she offered to do whatever he should prescribe, if he had hope of healing her. Then the physician said: Provided thou offer thyself to be cured, thou wilt find, I hope, something efficacious by which thou mayest be healed. Therefore he prepared several and various medicines which he thought more suitable to such an affliction, and she, as a true daughter of obedience, took them all most readily: yet although for many days he applied one after another, they profited her nothing, but she remained always in the same state. When for about twenty days she had tried those superfluous and useless remedies, she thus addressed Boerio: Do I not seem to thee, sir, to have observed all that was ordered by thee? Thou seest that I am nothing the better; thus far I have obeyed thee to remove scandal from thee and from others; hereafter leave to me the care of my soul. God willed, that is, as the biographer continues in the same place, both to confound the physician's confidence and more openly to declare the higher character of the holy Widow's illness. Another specimen of St. Catherine's obedience the same more extended Life hands down in chapter 50 in these words: On the twenty-fifth of August (the last before her death) it seemed good to offer her a broth by which she might be sustained, which she took with such violence done to herself and with such cries uttered that everyone was terrified. And she so forced herself lest she should comply with her own will, exposing herself for obedience' sake to the danger of death, which she esteemed so highly that to fulfil it she cared not whatever might befall her.

[128] Although the pains with which the Saint was harassed in her last illness were most bitter and intolerable, She is said to have been inwardly marked yet never, as the author of the more extended Life testifies in chapter 50, did she indicate their cause, from which they proceeded. He continues in the same place to speak thus: Nevertheless, some time before her last infirmity she foretold that she would suffer a grave sickness which would not be natural, nay would be unlike other illnesses, and that she would die of it, and that before her death she would have the stigmata and mysteries of the Lord's Passion in herself; which Argentina, of whom mention has just been made, afterwards related to many persons. The biographer had discoursed in the same chapter a little above in this manner: On the following day, afflicted with great torment and anguish, she so stretched out her arms that her body seemed fastened to a cross, and so displayed outwardly how she was set or crucified within. Whence I judge it by no means to depart from the truth that spiritual stigmata were impressed upon her body, so greatly afflicted and tortured, by her Love, although they did not appear outwardly; and yet by reason of the torment which she suffered they could easily be recognized, and that she sustained in her body that pain which her Love endured on the Cross, even as we read of the Apostle, who bore the stigmata of our Lord Jesus Christ in his body not outwardly but inwardly, on account of the great love and desire of his Lord with which he burned.

[129] That the Saint was spiritually fastened with Christ to the Cross with the sacred stigmata of Christ. is by no means to be doubted, inasmuch as she had wholly subdued the flesh with its vices and concupiscences amid dreadful torments and the harshest macerations of the body. The Saint herself also in part 1 of her Dialogue, chapter 12, speaks thus: She retained this ray of love impressed upon her together with the five fountains of the Saviour, sending forth drops of fiery blood and of a most burning love toward man. But these things are not to be referred to Catherine's last illness, but to her conversion, according to the order of the narrative, and they can easily be understood of an impression made upon the memory alone, and arising from the vision offered her, recorded in number 19 of our Life. The inward impression of the sacred Stigmata, which did not appear outwardly, the older biographer proves from this, that when her hands were placed in water offered to cool them, that water began to boil and to heat the whole vessel: see the Life below, number 97. Then the more extended Life in chapter 50 reports that Argentina, widow of Marco Sale, who waited upon Catherine in her illness, observed that on a certain night the Saint suffered a most grievous torment in one arm, and that that arm was stretched out more than half a palm longer than usual. This favour, as I do not dare to assert without hesitation, so neither can I prudently deny it, on account of the testimony of the biographers and of Argentina, contemporaries of the Saint. Let these things therefore be reported upon their credit.

[130] And these are the chief things which I have judged should here be reviewed from the more extended Life concerning the Saint's last illness. Some have referred the Saint's death Now let us investigate more closely the time of her death; and as concerns the year indeed, there is no doubt that the happy passage of that blessed Soul to the Heavenly ones took place in the year 1510; so constantly do all who have written the Saint's deeds attach her death to the said year. Concerning the day some doubt may arise, which must here be discussed. Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology announces the Saint on the XIV day, and adorns her only with the title of venerable, inasmuch as she was then not yet enrolled among the heavenly ones by lawful authority. Arthur in the Gynæceum at the XIV of September weaves a lengthy eulogy of Catherine, taken from the Acts, to which he subjoins: She happily fell asleep in the Lord on this day, in the year MDX. Baillet also in the Saint's Life without hesitation records her death on the XIV day of September.

[131] to the 14th day of September, Before all these went the older biographer, who in the editions both Italian and Latin and French which have come into our hands writes that the Saint died on the XIV day of September. Let us hear Thanner's Latin translation; chapter 51 has thus: At length on the fourteenth day of the aforesaid month of September Bl. Catherine vomited so great a quantity of blood that it was probable that her body was emptied of all its humour… And that night she spoke not a few things, and received the Body of Christ, as she had hitherto. She remained in the same state all that day and the following night until the sixth hour. And a little below he writes again thus: She died in the year of Salvation MDX, on the fourteenth of September, at the sixth hour of the night, a little before the hour at which she was accustomed to receive the sacred Communion. Parpera's narrative, in the Life of the Saint published in the year 1681, is altogether consonant with the former words; the latter, rendered into Latin, do not differ in substance, and are these: This her most happy passage was in the year one thousand five hundred and ten, on the fourteenth day of September, at the sixth hour of the night of Saturday, the Sunday coming on (as has been said), a little before the hour at which she was accustomed to be refreshed by the sacred Banquet. In the Factum also, prefixed to the examination of the miracles and printed at Rome from the press of the reverend Apostolic Chamber in the year 1737, I read thus: At length on the XIV day of September MDX she closed her last day there (in the hospital called Pammatone), full of merits and renowned for sanctity and miracles.

[132] but wrongly, since she departed only But the anonymous author of the shorter Life to be given below, in number 100, attaches the blessed death of St. Catherine to the XV day of September, and he must be said to have spoken more accurately than the other writers hitherto mentioned. That we may show this, it must here be noted in passing that among various nations the beginning of the civil day, comprising 24 hours, is one thing and another. Those beyond the Alps, imitating the ancient Romans, begin the day at midnight and end it at the following midnight, and thus have always a fixed beginning of the day. But the Romans of today and the rest of the Italians generally have now a shifting commencement of the day, beginning it about half an hour from sunset, from which they begin to count the hours to the twenty-fourth, yet in such a way that what happened between sunset and the following midnight some writers ascribe to the preceding day, others to the following, as Janning observed in §3 of the preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, number 34, whom, if he please, let the curious reader consult, and there he will find Janning's assertion illustrated with several examples.

[133] on the 15th day of the same month, To the civil day Janning adds in the same place, number 35, the Ecclesiastical day, and that twofold (I transcribe his words) festal or fasting, and ceremonial or official. The festal and the fasting begin at midnight and end at the following midnight, in which intervening space one must abstain by ecclesiastical laws from servile work or forbidden food. I call ceremonial or official that which comprises the space of time within which the whole ecclesiastical Office of some more solemn feast must be completed, namely one that is of double rite or of even greater solemnity, and which takes its beginning from the first Vespers of the preceding day; and in this manner the aforesaid Janning reconciles the various writers, of whom some ascribe the death of St. Aloysius to the XX, others to the XXI day of June, since the former reckoned the civil day, following the custom of the ancient Romans and of the modern peoples beyond the Alps; but the latter either took the ecclesiastical ceremonial day, or held to the custom prevailing today among the Romans.

[134] But in whatever way one may please to take the day, as is shown. The older the Saint's death does not seem able by any reasoning to be attached to the XIV day of September: for the sixth hour of the night by Roman reckoning, at which all the biographers report that she died, in the middle of September is after midnight, about a quarter before our first hour: and so, as is clear from what has been said before, the Saint's death can be recorded on the XIV neither according to the reckoning of the civil day generally used today among the Romans and Italians, nor according to the computation of those beyond the Alps or of the ancient Romans: nor even if we understand the ecclesiastical day taken in any way whatever, as is manifest. It remains therefore that we assert without hesitation that Catherine passed to the Heavenly ones on the XV day of September. So also Clement XII reports in the Bull of canonization: She fell asleep in the Lord, he says, most peacefully on the seventeenth of the Kalends of October. In the same Bull he writes thus: Decreeing that by the universal Church … her memory should each year on the fifteenth day of the month of September be kept with pious devotion among the holy women neither virgins nor martyrs.

[135] But as concerns the older biographers of the Saint

the words of the older biographer are explained. I think they are so to be understood that they only meant to accommodate themselves to the common manner of speaking, which indeed, as I have said, is less accurate, yet not altogether liable to error, since we can easily interpret it by saying that they recorded her death in the night falling between the XIV and XV day of September, although, strictly speaking, the hour of St. Catherine's death belonged in every way to the XV day and not to the XIV. Those who, following the bare words of the biographers, referred the Saint's death to the XIV day, could easily have detected that it in fact belongs to the XV: for at the beginning of the aforesaid chapter 51 the Saint is said on the XIV day of September to have been refreshed with the sacred Body of Christ, and it is added: She remained in the same state all that day and the following night until the sixth hour. There were present several persons devoted to her, eyewitnesses of the things which are written above and shall be written a little later. At the sixth hour of the night they asked whether she wished to be refreshed with the sacred Communion. Where you see that, since the Saint had already been said to have received the Eucharist on the XIV day, that question whether she wished to receive it again must be referred to the following XV day, unless one should wish to suppose that the first reception, actually made, belonged to the XIII, and the invitation to the XIV: but our milder interpretation seems to strain the biographers' words less. Now I subjoin the Saint's Life, illustrated after our manner with Notes.

LIFE

by an anonymous author,

Written in Italian from the processes of canonization and rendered into Latin

From the Roman edition of the year 1737

Translated by U. S.

Catherine Fieschi Adorno, widow, at Genoa (St.)

By an anonymous writer.

PROLOGUE.

The author's aim in publishing As many writers as have consecrated their labours to bringing to light the Life of St. Catherine Fieschi Adorno [a] have either closely striven to walk in the footsteps of those two distinguished disciples of hers [b], who, having long conversed with her, wrote of her in a simple but truthful style: or they have set themselves another rule, and, drawing out from ancient monuments a fuller knowledge, and taking nothing away [c] from the instructions and heavenly visions recorded in her Life, have striven in various ways to adorn it and to enrich it in a greater degree. Nevertheless both these and those have fallen into that lot which is wont to be unwelcome to those who publish the hidden and recondite senses of that most distinguished mystical theology, which, being not sufficiently understood save by those minds which, inwardly led by God along the path of perfection, have sharpened their palate for the taste of pious things, proves little pleasing to the multitude, which in turning over a history desires rather to be delighted than to learn and admire a heavenly doctrine.

[2] this shorter Life of the Saint. I sufficiently grasp also that, if in these pages I strive to attain both ends, by arranging in them the heroic actions and excellent virtues of this holy Matron, with only a few of her sacred instructions sprinkled here and there, when I shall have endeavoured to avoid the fault of other writers, I shall fall into another and greater one, by departing perhaps too far from the former and accommodating myself perhaps too little to the latter. Yet I have continually urged myself to accomplish this, that a brief narrative of her Life, written out according to the order of her deeds as collected in the Summary printed for the cause of her canonization, might be fitted to the more common taste; for I am persuaded that he who shall wish thoroughly to know the excellent and admirable doctrine of this great Saint will peruse the Treatise on Purgatory and the Dialogue between the soul and the body composed by her. It remains therefore, kind reader, that you take up these pages to be turned over, not indeed with the aim of finding here little flowers adorned by the laws of art, from which I have abstained, so that my style also might be conformable to that which the Saint used in the Lucubrations just praised; but assuredly with the intention of receiving some fruit for your soul, which is the sole aim to be set before those who read the Lives of the Saints. Live happily.

ANNOTATA.

The ancient division of chapters.

Chapter I. The birth of Saint Catherine and her upbringing.

Chapter II. She desires to put on the religious habit in the monastery of Our Lady of the Graces in the city of Genoa.

Chapter III. Against her will she is betrothed by her parents to Giuliano Adorno: the tenor of the life led with her husband in the first ten years.

Chapter IV. Changed in a moment of time by an unlooked-for vocation of God, Catherine with a new and admirable fervour gathers up again the old path of perfection.

Chapter V. The works of penance and maceration of the body undertaken by Catherine after her divine vocation.

Chapter VI. Taught the rule of living by God alone, she is led into solitude to keep the Lenten fast with Him.

Chapter VII. She is invited to undertake the care of the poor sick of the city, and eagerly hastens to it.

Chapter VIII. Being asked to undertake the office of ministering to the sick in the greater hospital of Genoa, she accepts the charge, and in the course of time is appointed directress of the hospital.

Chapter IX. On the remarkable love by which the Saint was borne toward God.

Chapter X. On Catherine's admirable conjunction with God.

Chapter XI. On the singular love with which the Saint was affected toward Jesus veiled under the Eucharistic species.

Chapter XII. On the holy hatred with which she utterly abhorred whatever hinders conjunction with God.

Chapter XIII. On Catherine's love toward her neighbour.

Chapter XIV. On her charity toward an impatient sick man, for whom she obtained from the Lord a perfect conformity with the divine will and the salvation of his soul.

Chapter XV. On her charity toward her husband, whose conversion and holy death she obtained from God.

Chapter XVI. On her profound humility.

Chapter XVII. On the supreme conformity of her will with the divine.

Chapter XVIII. The ecstasies, visions and other heavenly favours which the Saint enjoyed.

Chapter XIX. The Saint's last illness and precious death: the beginning and progress of the cult paid to her.

Chapter XX. The miracles lately wrought by God through the Saint's intercession: her solemn canonization.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's birth and upbringing: she desires the religious habit: she is given in marriage by her parents: the life led in the first ten years of her marriage.

Chapter I

Among the more noble and more conspicuous families of the renowned city of Genoa is numbered that of the Fieschi [a], The Saint's parents and pious upbringing. which, besides the great number of Cardinals who through several centuries down to our own times have made it illustrious, moreover deservedly glories that it gave to the Church two supreme Pontiffs, Innocent IV and Adrian V. The brother of the former was Roberto Fieschi, from whom descended Giacomo, who at Naples held the place of king Rainerius [b], where [c], performing the office of viceroy and administering that kingdom, he gloriously ended his days, praised for his prudent manner of acting in transacting the affairs of the kingdom: but much more to be esteemed because he gave to the light of life the Saint whose Life we undertake succinctly to write. Of such a father and of Francesca, of the most noble family de Nigro [d], Catherine was born at Genoa in the year of our salvation one thousand four hundred and forty-seven [e]; who, after she had been regenerated to grace by the help of most sacred Baptism, was with all diligence brought up by her progenitors in the holy fear and love of God.

[2] The wonderful progress of the tender soul in virtue: her desire They perceived the fruit of their labours at once from the first specimens by which from her tender age Catherine gave a foretaste of her future sanctity: for she had scarcely reached the eighth year of her age when, shrinking from childish amusements and displaying an admirable modesty in all her actions, she strove with greater zeal to learn the mysteries of our holy faith, taking pains to grasp their sense, and frequently exercising herself in pious and fervent prayers upon them with a special consolation of soul, so that, taught in the school of perfection by God, she soon made stupendous progress in the exercise of a blind obedience toward her parents and in the observance of a severe silence, abstaining from all speech which was not of God. On the wall of her chamber there hung a panel representing the image of our Lord Jesus Christ dead, reclining in the lap of His most Holy Mother, which commonly bears the name of the Pietà.

[3] of imitating Christ suffering; the austerity of her life, Upon this pious likeness Catherine often hung with fixed eyes, and contemplated it with so attentive a mind that she seemed to wish to express in herself all the sorrows and all the bitterness of Christ which were set before her mind at the sight of it: whence, feeling herself moved with a tender love toward her suffering Lord, she began to experience in all her limbs a most lively trembling, so that all of them seemed about to be destroyed for love and compassion toward her Good. Thereupon there kindled in her heart a vehement desire of suffering for the love of Jesus: and therefore, despising the comforts of her father's house and intent upon afflicting her tender body, she passed the nights lying upon bare straw, and putting a hard and rough piece of wood under her head in place of a pillow; and by an industrious sagacity she took care that the practice of her austerities should not fall under the eyes of the servants to whom her care had been committed.

[4] But if the holy Girl succeeded in hiding the harshness with which she macerated her little body, her frequent consideration of the Lord's passion. yet that flame of love with which she burned, ever intent upon pious prayers, she could not conceal: whence she was not seldom found hidden in the most secret places of her house, and there exercising herself for no small space of time in meditating upon the most sacred mysteries of the Lord's Passion. On a certain day it happened that, when, moved by an extraordinary fervour of spirit, she was indulging in the consideration of the torments endured by Christ our Lord, she suddenly felt her heart pierced by a heavenly flame, which, since it kindled in her an ever greater desire of imitating Jesus afflicted with torments, and filled her with compassion and love, at last she herself burst forth into most abundant weeping.

II.

[5] The impulses of divine grace grew daily in Catherine, to which, responding eagerly, she advanced the holy fervour within her according to their measure: The regular institute, but, anxious lest at some time the world should be able to be an obstacle to the liberty of her spirit, at thirteen years of age she determined to bid farewell to the world and to embrace a regular institute in some monastery, where it should be permitted her to give free rein to the flame of love toward God, to whom from that time she had consecrated her whole heart. Among the several which in these times flourished in regular observance in the city of Genoa

as houses of asceticism, Catherine's wishes aimed at that which has been given the name of St. Mary of the Graces, in which the sacred virgins, called Canonesses regular, professed with singular fervour the Rule of St. Augustine; and to such a choice she was especially impelled by the example of a certain sister of hers, called Limbania, who among these pious nuns added by her particular piety a great splendour to the integrity of their observances.

[6] Wherefore the prudent Virgin, according to her pious custom of communicating with the director of her conscience everything which concerned her soul, terrified by no difficulties, declared to him her holy desire, most earnestly beseeching him to interpose his good offices with the superior and the nuns of the aforesaid monastery, that they might deign to receive her and to admit her into their society. Which he would not with difficulty have obtained, since the directress of this venerable house of asceticism, whose confessor he was, depended upon his nod as the director of her soul. The pious priest was in no way astonished at seeing the anxious cares with which so tender a Virgin sought of her own accord to devote herself to the cloister, since he well knew what Catherine's spirit was, and what were the graces which the Lord daily bestowed upon her: nevertheless, that he might with greater certainty test the firmness of her purpose, he at first endeavoured to resist, setting before her mind the grave troubles which he who desires to embrace the state of religious life is wont to incur, the rigour and harshness of the regular life, the frailty of her nature, she being still a young girl, the temptations of the demon to which whoever enters the path of perfection is subject, and all the weighty reasons which his own prudence dictated to him, to the end that a resolve of such moment might be exactly tested.

[7] she desires to embrace: But Catherine, answering each point with spirited modesty, accurately dissolved all the objections, and, confirmed in a greater degree in her holy purpose, pressed her conscience's director with prayers more fervent than before, beseeching him to strive in every way to console her by bringing it about that she be admitted into that monastery to which above all others she had directed her wishes. By prayers so strong the prudent religious man could not but be bent, and at length pledged his good offices: and on the following day he betook himself to the monastery, set forth to the superior and the nuns the suppliant prayers of the young Maiden whose conscience he directed, and, having clearly declared the excellent virtues which adorned her soul, earnestly asked that they would deign to console her by permitting her to assume the religious habit in their monastery, which was exact in every regular observance.

[8] but disappointed of her wish on account of her tender age, The nuns would eagerly have satisfied the desire both of this venerable priest and of the fervent Girl, since they abundantly foresaw the great advantage which would redound to their whole society from the sight of the virtues shining in that soul, gifted by God with such favours. But since custom required that virgins of so tender an age [f] as St. Catherine was should not be admitted into that convent for the religious habit, they, alleging an excuse why it was not permitted them to receive her, preferred to be without so great a treasure than to transgress the custom. Wherefore the repeated prayers of the director of the nuns' conscience availed nothing, however much he strove to add weight to them with strong reasons, suggesting to the religious women that the defect of age in the Girl offered for the novitiate would be abundantly supplied by the endowments of a lofty soul, endued with singular piety and fervour.

[9] she acquiesces in the divine will. The refusal she had suffered struck Catherine's heart so vehemently that it rendered her afflicted beyond what can be told: but she did not long delay to soothe the bitterness of her mind, receiving this event, most bitter to her above every other, from the hands of her beloved Lord, who had justly so disposed it, with a humble conformity of her will: since He had destined His Handmaid that the graces which He had determined to pour out abundantly upon her might shine forth more fully and might prove more profitable to the world. Therefore the virtue-loving Girl, pursuing her pious works with a remarkable confidence in God, committed all care to Him, that she might be led by those ways which His supreme Wisdom knew to be most apt for bringing her to that end of perfection which she so greatly longed for, so that from that time she regarded nothing else than to pass her life perfectly conformed to the will of God and of her parents.

III.

[10] Catherine's father being now dead, her mother and brothers, Given in marriage by her parents, when they saw that she had reached the sixteenth year of her age, relying upon her compliant obedience, and taking no account at all of the inclination of her mind, which was wholly borne toward heavenly things and in no wise toward earthly, determined to settle her in marriage, on this ground, that, providing for the honour and tranquillity of their house and family, they might not omit to have before their eyes that which would be fitting for a prudent Girl. For a long time now the noble and wealthy family of the Adorni [g] had flourished, of great esteem and authority in the republic, at whose helm it had more than once sat: but between this family and that of the Fieschi no light dissensions had blazed up, not long since laid to rest [h]; when Catherine's parents, that peace between the two families might be more fully established, resolved to betroth her to Giuliano Adorno, taking care that a dotal contract [i] should be entered upon with a promise of matrimony on the thirteenth day of January in the year one thousand four hundred and sixty-three.

[11] Beyond measure grievous to Catherine's mind was the resolve of her family, [most vehemently afflicted by the discordant morals of her husband, who soon turned from his bride,] as being directly opposed to the desire which she had kept perpetually fixed in her inmost marrow, of bidding farewell to the world and consecrating herself to God: yet, lest she should admit anything contrary to the reverence toward her elders and to the subjection in which she had been reared, she patiently complied with their will, recognizing in it the counsel of the Most High, who had prepared for her in these nuptials a most grievous cross, laden with which she must follow the footsteps of her divine Redeemer. She was therefore betrothed to Giuliano Adorno, a man as much abounding in wealth as renowned for nobility: but endowed with a disposition so rough and insolent, and with morals so alien from the morals of his Bride, that from the first days he began to spurn her, as too effectually disapproving his manner of life. He was of a harsh and restless temper, eager to please the world, ambitious to frequent the assemblies of men, and wholly given to gaming, pleasures and display: whereas Catherine, although God had gifted her with a lofty mind and singular comeliness, humble and courteous in her dealings, abhorred worldly delights, loved retirement, was assiduous in prayer, and despised luxury.

[12] In such a way the affections of St. Catherine's mind fought against the affections of her husband, by the counsel of her family that, as she set them before herself, it wanted little that her heart should be crushed. For, since she perceived that, if she should wish to accommodate herself to her consort's temper, detriment must be brought upon her soul, but that if on the contrary she struggled against him, nothing would come to her thence save injuries and insults, she suffered herself to be carried away by so deeply fixed a grief that for the space of five years she led a solitary life, refusing all conversation with men, and inwardly experiencing the most grievous troubles, which, although prostrate at the feet of the Lord, to whom she ceased not to pay fervent service, she strove to soothe, yet they so consumed her from day to day that, besides wasting her notably with leanness, they reduced her also to such a state that she no longer appeared like herself, as though she had been bereft of her senses.

[13] This unwonted manner of life brought it about that her parents, moved by an affection of compassion toward Catherine, employed every effort to recall her from it: she follows the honourable amusements of the world: on which account they now reprehended the solitude she frequented as unworthy of a matron of her condition and like the rusticity of a mean way of life, now accused her as morose, now as unjust to herself, casting a scruple upon her besides concerning the grave detriment she would bring upon her own salvation, in that by shortening her life she would incur the crime of self-slaughter. At length by reasonings of this kind [k] they so far prevailed that the most afflicted Matron, that she might at some time free herself from the too troublesome importunity of her family and friends, and find some relief for the troubles of her mind, at last yielded to their most troublesome assaults, and determined thenceforth to temper her rule of life, so given to prayer and solitude. Thereupon she began to use her liberty honourably, mingling herself in the society of matrons of her own rank, and indulging in all lawful amusements, from which she had before lived apart.

[14] The world, seeing her walking along the path of its pleasures, but she is in no way refreshed by these, and still more congratulated itself upon that noble soul as now acquired for itself: and therefore thought it its part so strongly to bind Catherine's heart with the enticements it sent in that she should no longer be able to detect the way of extricating herself from them. But it fell very far short of attaining what it hoped: for however various and frequent were the occasions of beguiling the time, however pleasant the gatherings to which she was allured, just as she found in them no pleasure [l], so from them Catherine perceived not a jot of solace for her inward sorrow: nay rather it increased [m] daily the more on account of her husband's disorderly ways. But although the fervour of her spirit was somewhat diminished, yet she perpetually shuddered at offending God, who even in the time of her more lukewarm life never suffered her to fall into grave fault [n], as her confessor [o] left attested.

[15] the straits of her mind grow. Catherine's anguish of mind so increased in this manner that not only was it a hindrance to her receiving any solace from the delights of the world, but it brought upon her besides a nausea of all worldly things not easily to be explained in words, and rendered her almost intolerable to herself, until, toward the end of another five years of troubled life, the most afflicted Matron, on the day on which fell the Vigil of St. Benedict, betook herself to the church erected for the veneration of that same Saint, and there, giving herself to prayer, earnestly besought him that he would deign to obtain from God a long sickness of three months, hoping that by the help of bodily pains she might obtain some relief for the intolerable straits of her mind.

ANNOTATA.

volume 4, page 834, asserts among the convents of virgins existing at Genoa that five profess the Rule of St. Augustine, and that three are of Canonesses regular.

CHAPTER II.

She gathers up again the path of perfection: works of penance and maceration of the body undertaken: the long-continued and admirable fast of the Saint, taught by God.

IV.

Catherine was experiencing a greater heap added to her straits, Suffused with divine light and inflamed from which, the more she took pains to extricate herself, the more vehemently she felt herself overwhelmed, when she went to the monastery of the Graces to soothe her mind in the company of her sister, a nun there. This woman persuaded her to open her heart to the confessor of that same convent, a man of piety [a] and of great counsel, who without doubt would show by what means she might recover her lost tranquillity. Therefore on the day following that sacred to St. Benedict she betook herself to the church of St. Mary of the Graces, where, giving herself piously to prayer, after some interval of time she bade it be signified to the confessor of the religious women that it was her wish to confess her sins. The pious priest came eagerly; but Catherine, casting herself at his feet, had scarcely bent her knees when she felt her mind illuminated by a ray of divine light [b], and her heart pierced by the fiery dart of divine love, so that, her understanding thereby being illuminated and her will inflamed, in a single instant she saw most clearly on the one hand the infinite goodness of God, on the other all the defects committed by her; and, perceiving how great an evil is one single sin, however light, in respect of that immense goodness, there arose in her mind a sorrow so vehement beyond what can be told that it wanted little that, rapt out of herself, she should fall to the ground and faint away [c].

[17] with love, she renounces worldly things At the feet of the sacred minister Catherine remained in that state as though alienated from her senses, unable for sorrow to utter a single word, and proclaiming this alone from her inmost heart [d]: "No more the world, no more sins." At that time the confessor did not particularly notice Catherine's silence, thinking perhaps that it proceeded from an inward disposition by which she was preparing herself devoutly to receive the Sacrament of penance. Therefore, being meanwhile called away elsewhere, having asked leave, he left his seat, intending to return a little later to lend his ears to her confession. When he had returned, since he observed that Catherine nevertheless continued to keep silence, he thought it should be suggested to her that she might now begin her confession. Then the Penitent, breathing a little and stirred with sorrow, brought forth these words with great difficulty: "Father, if it should please thee, I would gladly reserve this confession to another time."

[18] and, bitterly bewailing her sins, The confessor acquiesced in her request, and Catherine, presently withdrawing thence, sought her home: when she had entered under her roof, she anxiously hid herself in a more secret chamber, and there, holily impatient of delay, cast away all vain feminine adornment. While a shower of tears flowed from her eyes, and her heart darted forth fiery sighs, she could utter only this: "O love, can it be that thou hast called me with so great love, and in the twinkling of an eye hast shown me what the tongue cannot bring forth?" Then, when she had applied her mind to considering the immense goodness of her merciful God, who had so liberally done well to her, and had never turned His eyes from her, even at that time in which she had rashly striven to find some rest for her afflicted mind outside of Him, the one centre of the human heart, her sorrow [e] was so far increased that it seemed shortly about to snatch away her life.

[19] she is gifted with a vision of Christ fastened to the cross. While her mind was agitated with cares of this kind, lo, straightway there presented itself to the eyes of her mind her love Jesus, who, bearing a most heavy cross upon His shoulders, poured forth from His wounds such abundant streams of blood that the whole house seemed dyed with it. Overwhelmed by such a vision [f], Catherine felt so vehement a fire of love kindled within her that presently, through its violence, her heart seemed about to be torn from her breast: and this remained so deeply impressed upon her mind that, whithersoever she turned, the body of her Jesus hanging from the cross floated before her eyes, and there seemed to gush forth on every side that most precious blood, once poured out by Him with so intense a love. Thereupon, when she had turned to consider the injury which guilt, however light, brings upon a God so worthy to be loved, there was stirred in her mind an immoderate sorrow, which compelled her to cry out with a loud voice: "O Love, never again, never again any sins!" And having conceived an implacable hatred against herself, she was unequal to bearing the vice of an ungrateful mind which she had shown toward her Love in the time of her more lukewarm life: whence she often broke out into bitter reproaches [g] against herself, and, searching out every way by which she might be able to make satisfaction to the divine Justice, she cried out, saying: "O Love, if there be need, I am ready to confess my sins openly."

[20] After Catherine had exercised herself for some time in mitigating the straits of her mind, now by acts of love toward the Goodness fastened to the cross, Having duly confessed her sins and been refreshed with the Eucharist, to harsh now by indulging her sorrow for the defects committed by her, she made a confession of her whole past life, with such evident signs [h] of inward sorrow that her confessor was deservedly rapt in admiration. Then on the feast-day consecrated to the Annunciation of the Most Holy Virgin Mary [i] she approached the sacred table of the Eucharist, at which point of time God infused into her a holy hunger for the angelic Bread, which endured in her insatiable through all the remaining course of her life. Nevertheless the defects committed perpetually met her eyes, and, bearing them graven upon her mind as a continual incentive of sorrow and of holy hatred against herself, she applied herself to severe works of penance, and persisted in them for four years, although, only fourteen months having elapsed, it had been revealed to her by God that abundant satisfaction had been made to the divine Justice, and by divine power all recollection of her past lapses had been taken from her, just as if they had been sunk in the deep sea [k].

[21] She did not suffer her eyes to stray to wonderful things, keeping them always fixed upon the ground, works of outward penance she gave herself: so that she did not recognize those passing close by her. She withdrew from her tongue all useless speech, and moreover tormented it by frequently rubbing it against the ground. Content with a slender diet, she abstained from eating flesh and from any other food which might prove pleasing to the palate; and since by a natural desire she was fond of fruits, she would never again taste any at all: on the contrary, as often as some delicate dish was set before her, she at once made it bitter with wormwood and pounded aloes, which she secretly mixed with it. To her abstinence in food she joined another in sleeping, taking a very brief sleep, and disturbing it with sharp thorns which she frequently threw into her bed. She macerated her body with harsh hair-shirts and long fasting, and, bending upon her bare knees to the ground, spent six [l] hours daily in the exercise of prayer.

[22] Yet Catherine did not stop at the use of outward austerities alone, she subdues the affections of her mind, but exercised herself far more fervently in inward ones, bending her strength to root out the affections of her mind and to extinguish her own will; for she knew excellently well that the affliction of the body profits little or nothing while it has not self-denial for its companion. Therefore it cannot be set forth with what skill she strove to detect all the least affections and inclinations of her own will, that without delay she might subdue them and subject them to virtue and to the divine will. As soon as she experienced her natural appetite carried away by the desire of anything, she at once hindered herself from obtaining it, nay rather impelled herself to embrace the opposite [m]: and if at any time something was set before the concupiscence of her senses which of itself would bring nausea, she strove in every way to overcome the repugnance which she felt, that the desires of the lower appetite might be the more subjected to the spirit.

[23] and, subject to all, she breaks the repugnance of her senses. To every person, of whatever condition, she submitted herself, and when anything was enjoined or suggested by such persons contrary to the affections of the senses, she carried it out with wonderful alacrity. By this assiduous affliction of herself, toward the end of the fourth year [n], the holy Matron carried off a perfect victory over every natural appetite, so that none of them any longer endured to set itself against any hard thing whatever which Catherine's victorious spirit enjoined upon it. Nay rather, the affections of her own will being subdued by the power of divine grace, she obtained a perfect strength, so that she carried out in fact with alacrity and pleasure all that which is wont to be shunned by our humanity's

worse part, so great a clarity and purity of mind having been infused into her by God, that by its help she was ignorant of no blemish of soul, however slight, nor did any temptation thereafter assail her. ^o

VI.

[24] God, who in coming desired above all else to send fire upon the earth, that it might be the more kindled, lest through sloth it should die down, laid flames beneath this holy woman's heart in such a manner Advancing briskly in the divine service that she could not comprehend by what reasoning a soul that loves God could be capable of walking with slow step [p] through the degrees of divine love. Hence, when she observed that Thomasina Fieschi [q] — who likewise, being joined in marriage, had at the same time taken up flight from the world — was bidding farewell to the world slowly and timidly, out of fear lest she should prove unstable if, as she herself had done, she were to abandon it utterly in a single instant of time, she frequently said that she could not grasp how a true love of God and sluggishness in his service could be joined together. And indeed this most exalted estimate of perfection, by no means usual among others, suited Catherine perfectly, inasmuch as God had taken special care of her, willing himself to govern her spirit without the help of any creature, whether religious or secular, who might lead her to the summit of perfection. And in very fact, throughout an interval of twenty-five years Catherine acknowledged no other master [r] in the divine service save God most high, who by his divine inspirations ordered all her actions, that he might make her like unto himself.

[25] the rules necessary for perfection, The first rules for perfection, in which the divine Teacher instructed this chosen Soul in secret converse, were the three following, namely: the first, "Let it never be heard from you, I will or I will not"; the second, "Never say mine, but ours"; the third, "Never excuse yourself in any matter, but be always ready to accuse yourself." To these laws St. Catherine conformed exactly, as will plainly appear throughout the course of this brief History. On another occasion the supreme Governor conversed inwardly with his Disciple, and enjoined upon her that, as the foundation of a life consecrated to divine things, she should take these words from the Lord's Prayer: "Thy will be done" — that is, that in all affairs, whether pertaining to soul or to body, whether to parents or to friends, and in everything whatsoever, prosperous or adverse, that might befall her, she should conform herself to the divine will; and that from the Angelic Salutation she should seize upon this one word, JESUS, imprinting it deeply upon the marrow of her heart, since it behoved that Jesus alone should cleave to her as her faithful guide in all the chances of life.

[26] And finally, that out of all the sacred Pages she should choose, as a summary of them, this single word, Love, she is taught by her divine Master. because by its help there must be preserved whole and entire the integrity of soul, its purity, cleanness, alacrity, skill, and enlightenment, without error and without need of any creature by whom she might be directed, since love needs no help, being of itself abundantly sufficient, so that any matter whatsoever, however arduous [s], may be brought to its issue without labour; and therefore love would consume within her all the affections and all the senses alike of soul and of body. With what diligence Catherine, imbued with these divine precepts, strove to fulfil them in deed can scarcely be set forth; hence she pleased her divine Master so greatly that he enriched her with favours most singular, among which was that which we now proceed to relate.

[27] In a certain year [t] after the wonderful calling by which God drew Catherine to himself, A prodigious fast for many years on the day sacred to the most holy Annunciation, she was inwardly invited by her beloved Lord to fast with him in solitude. She, gladly accepting so sweet an invitation, from that day began to be unable to digest food of any kind whatever, sustaining herself until Easter on the Bread of Angels alone, on which she fed daily. Then, when the three days of this solemnity had passed, during which God granted her the faculty of eating, she at once resumed the fast she had begun, until the number of forty days was completed. When St. Catherine began that prodigious fast, the repugnance which she felt in eating stirred up in her a certain fear and poured confusion into her mind, as she doubted whether she were not being deluded by the common adversary; and therefore she did all violence to herself to eat in the accustomed manner, and to that end did not omit to come daily to the common table with the others. But however much industry and force she employed in eating, scarcely had the food passed into her stomach when, being in no way able to retain it, she was compelled with great torment to vomit it up.

[28] The sight of a thing so extraordinary astonished the household beyond measure; continued by the Saint for a long time. hence, after they had often, but always in vain, attempted in various ways to compel her to retain a little food, they finally saw to it that her confessor should enjoin her to eat. She obeyed his command briskly, and, using the greatest force upon herself that she could, took in, not without great difficulty, some of the food prepared for her. But to the astonishment of all who stood by, on that occasion too she was the less able to retain the food, so that she was suddenly compelled to cast it up, just as had always happened before; moreover a violent faintness came upon her, sufficient to take away life itself, so that, seeing this, the confessor never again dared to make such an experiment upon her, acknowledging that the whole thing proceeded from a divine operation [u]. Thereafter Catherine went on to pass Lent in this same fashion, and Advent besides, over a space of twenty-three years, in which she began the Lenten fast on the Monday after Quinquagesima, continuing it until the day of Easter; and the fast of Advent she began on the day following the feast-day of St. Martin, and ended it on the Vigil of the Nativity of Christ our Lord, admitting no food at all during all that time — although, desirous of afflicting her taste, and in no wise transgressing in that which God had forbidden, she was accustomed to take a draught of water mixed with salt and vinegar, in memory of that bitter drink by which the thirst of her Redeemer, as he hung from the cross, was tormented.

ANNOTATA.

p. The longer Life writes thus in chapter 45: But Blessed Catherine wondered far more that she (Thomasa Fieschi) should doubt of her own constancy and happy progress, nor could she grasp this; saying, If I were to fall back from what I had begun, I should wish not only that my eyes be torn out, but that my whole body be rent limb from limb and broken into fragments, and that I be subjected to any other mockery and disgrace whatsoever.

q. The same longer Life reports a eulogy of Thomasa Fieschi, embracing her virtues and her deeds in the two monasteries of the Observants of St. Dominic which she inhabited after her husband's death: it hands down that, for the restoration of regular discipline, she was transferred from the convent of St. Sylvester to a monastery of the same institute, called the New one, which Oldoinus in his Athenæum, treating of Thomasa Fieschi, calls that of SS. James and Philip. The deeds of this matron are there to be read, more fully set down. At the end of the chapter he adds this: In these two married matrons there appears the wonderful providence and disposition of God, in that at one and the same time the one (our Saint) was converted by infused grace and suddenly carried up to perfection, while the other (Thomasa Fieschi) had to attain the same by degrees through acquired virtues.

r. See what we discussed in the Commentary at number 113 and following.

s. Consult what we gave from the Saint's Dialogue concerning the fortitude of love at numbers 93 and 94 of the preliminary Commentary.

t. Concerning the year in which she first instituted that Lenten fast we spoke doubtfully in the Commentary at number 72. But, although the longer Life in chapter 4 says that she was invited to it when newly converted, it seems that it must be deferred at least beyond the four years after her conversion, on account of what was said at note n about her insatiable hunger during four years; for when she instituted the Lenten fast, the longer Life asserts that the faculty of eating was taken from her.

u. Consult what was said in the Commentary from number 72 to 78, where we illustrated what the biographers handed down concerning this prodigious fast of the Saint, partly by examples drawn from elsewhere, partly by the reasonings of Pope Benedict XIV, and defended it against Baillet's censure.

CHAPTER III.

She serves the poor scattered through the city, and thereafter the sick in the hospital: the heroic virtues in which the Saint shone in both offices.

VII.

There already flourished at Genoa a praiseworthy custom, which persists to this day, She serves with wondrous charity the poor sick scattered through the city that by the magistracy ^a which is named from Mercy there should be deputed some noble matrons for the help of the poor, especially of those who blush to beg their food from door to door through the city. Those matrons, seeing the light which the charity of Catherine shed abroad, though she led a hidden and solitary life, invited her to discharge with them this office of mercy by relieving the poor sick dispersed here and there through the city, supplying to this end both money and other necessaries. It cannot be set forth with how great an exultation of soul St. Catherine embraced a charge so pleasing to her, understanding by a heavenly enlightenment that this counsel had been inspired by God into these matrons for this reason, that she, obeying another's will without fear of her own, might minister to God in the person of the poor. In this exercise she found not only nourishment for the fire of her most ardent charity, but besides an occasion of practising the most heroic acts of self-affliction which a soul burning with the love of God can undertake.

[30] cleanses their filth She began therefore, with divine love always as her guide, to go about the city, tracking out the poor sick; and truly it was a thing greatly worthy of admiration to see a Matron of the first families of Genoa, in the flower of her age, in a wholly common dress, her eyes always fixed upon the ground, walking through the public streets in careful silence, visiting now this sick person and now that, and consecrating herself wholly to their service, even in the foulest tasks. Then she enjoyed the greatest sweetness of spirit, when she came upon lepers, beset with gangrene and with ulcers; and if she understood that they had need of a bed, or of a dwelling, or of anything else, she provided it for them with all speed, partly from the alms which the matrons her partners in the pious work supplied, partly from her own purse. She made their beds, she cleansed their uncleanness and filth with her own hands; frequently she carried home with her the wretched cloaks of these miserable people, and carefully cleansed them of the foul little creatures with which they sometimes swarmed, and restored them clean and bright to those same poor; and by a special providence of God never did any of these unclean vermin cleave to her garments.

[31] and their impurities, and that with fruit for souls; Frequently she went to the hospice which takes its name from St. Lazarus ^b, where lay the sick covered from head to heel with the most loathsome diseases, striking horror by their aspect alone. But she, with an inexpressible charity, offered them food, tended their wounds, and discharged the most abject of all offices in their service. Sometimes she found some who, overcome by the weariness of their sickness, bore their calamities ill, breaking out into words of despair, and, having become intolerable to themselves, savaged with insults whoever came near. Catherine received their reproaches with a serene countenance, and, gently reproving their impatience, animated them with holy words to bear the bitterness of their disease, conforming their will to the divine — so that there was not a sick man there who did not by her help carry away relief for his body and strength for his soul at once.

[32] As soon as Catherine applied herself to exercises so holy, she breaks the resistance of a nature that shrinks from filth. she felt within her a most hard struggle between flesh and spirit, as she looked upon the miseries of the poor who lay there; for, naturally abhorring human infirmities, she experienced a most vehement repugnance at thrusting herself into filth so abominable as that in which those wretched people were entangled. On the other hand, so vehement were the impulses of her most ardent love that they goaded her to overcome every horror of nature and to immolate to charity the struggling of sense. Whence, to conquer the nausea which she experienced in tending so many and such various kinds of the foulest diseases, she frequently put into her mouth — nay rather swallowed — the putrid matter of the ulcers, and chewed some of those filthy little creatures at that very point of time at which she felt her stomach the more violently stirred by the force of nature. With a spirit generous beyond measure she repeated such acts so often, until she triumphed over every resistance of her own softness, and, from exercises of this kind, undertaken by her over a space of about three years ^c, thereafter perceived as much delight as she had at the beginning experienced trouble.

VIII.

[33] That Catherine's charity toward the poor sick might become continually more illustrious, God inspired the nobles under whose protection and governance was the greater hospital of the city of Genoa, With like love and lowliness of mind commonly called the Pammatone, to promote the service of the sick by the help of this Matron, endowed with heroic charity — being sure that, as much solace as she would bring to the sick, both as to body and as to soul, so much of example and of incitement would she afford to all the ministers of that place to discharge their offices with due care; besides that no small honour would accrue to that place from having a Matron most illustrious both by her birth and by her own merit, who should take up the care of those lying there. Therefore the holy Matron was asked ^d that, for the benefit of the diseased dwelling in the said hospital, she would deign to extend those services of charity which she had practised toward the poor scattered through the city. Nothing delayed the Saint from embracing the offered province with gladness, inasmuch as the Lord had forestalled her mind with a precept of this kind: "I will that, as often as you are asked to perform works of piety, such as to serve the sick and to succour the poor, you never excuse yourself, and that you always carry out another's will."

[34] Hence it is not easy to set forth with how great attention, she ministers to the sick in the greater hospital, and with how great fervour of soul, she discharged this office of charity in that place, renewing for the solace of those wretched people all those heroic actions which up to that time she had practised toward others. There was no one there who did not stand fixed in astonishment, beholding a Matron of exalted condition, flourishing in age, abounding in inherited wealth ^e, and married into a most opulent family, setting all earthly things at nought, clothed in a mean garment, and all but making herself like the poor — and at that very time undertaking every labour in their service with the greater vigour of soul, when, destitute of all bodily comfort, she was keeping those rigid fasts of which we made mention above. To her heroic charity there seemed joined a most exact obedience toward all the ministers of the hospital, whose commands, even the inconsiderate ones, she carried out with admirable alacrity, never opening her mouth — so that she showed them a greater subjection than any maidservant of theirs would have rendered ^f.

[35] of which she is afterwards appointed governess The rebukes with which she was very frequently chidden, now by this one and now by that one among the ministers, she bore with a wonderful consent of will, God permitting that she should be accounted as nothing, and that for this cause she should the more often be held cheap by them, who found fault with her manner of acting, which for the rest reproved sharply enough their own too lukewarm charity, because it was mercenary. To render her contemptible to them there worked besides that poverty ^g into which her spirit had cast her, that she might be raised to the supreme degree of profound humility; at whose prompting she lived upon her own labours and upon the alms of others, until, having become exceedingly vile and despised in her own eyes, she kept her humble estimate of herself whole and entire from the assaults of vanity ^h. She went on thereafter, even to the end of her life, to pay from her own expenses the rent for the house and garden belonging to the hospital itself.

[36] and after her appointment exercises exact care. But as much reverence as was lacking toward our Saint among the ministers, so much veneration did the noble protectors of the hospital ⁱ bestow upon her, who, being diligent observers of her virtues, willed to confer upon her the governance of that pious place, appointing her governess ^k there. Catherine, having accepted this honourable office, did not depart even a nail's breadth from the tenor of her humble and abject life, and knew how so rightly to join the occupations of the charge laid upon her with the accustomed exercises of her perpetual charity, that, never omitting any of these, she fulfilled them all constantly. All were astonished, seeing how many hours of every day she spent in prayer, and the long and frequent ecstasies which invaded her mind, and at the same time the singular exactness with which she rendered a most precise account of all things committed to her care, even the least; nor did it ever happen that she forgot to attend to what her office required ^l; and all rightly ascribed it to a singular help of God that, though over a space of many years vast sums of money were handed into her hands, which were daily expended for the maintenance of the hospital, no error, not even the least, was ever detected in her accounts. The exact care which Catherine bore for the affairs of the hospital became even more wonderful beyond measure when compared with her utter forgetfulness of her own private affairs; for during all the time of the life which she passed there to the very end she would never admit any thought about herself, but left the care of herself always to God, who ordained that no thought either of her husband or of anyone else should enter her mind, lest she should be called away from the office of charity, which seeks not the things that are its own, but only those which

are her Lord's.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER IV.

On the Saint's remarkable love toward God, and her wonderful union with him.

IX.

To wish to sketch in a few sentences the love with which St. Catherine pursued her God Her kindled love toward God, while she dwelt in this world among mortals would be as much as to wish to enclose the waves of the vast sea in a tiny vessel; since from that point of time at which, at her confessor's feet, God most great drew her sweetly and at the same time strongly to love him, not only did the fire of divine love never fail in her soul, but it grew to such a degree that she seemed not to live save from pure love. That love was forgetful of its own advantages, having nothing of self-love mixed with it, and utterly torn away from every created thing. Hence, although God frequently offered this soul the greatest sweetness of spirit to taste, granting her by its help to have some foretaste of that immense torrent of consolations with which the heart of the Blessed overflows, nevertheless Catherine strove as much as she could to avoid it ^a. In the earlier years of her more fervent life, after she had been refreshed by the sacred Banquet, she felt her soul filled with such sweetness that already from thence she seemed to herself to be experiencing the delights of paradise; but she, suddenly turning to her most lovable God, said: "O Love, would you perhaps by the help of these sweetnesses draw me to yourself? Ah, how little do I wish for anything outside you, nor do I desire anything that proceeds ^b from you, but I desire you alone, nor do I count it of any moment to come to you by such helps."

[38] Then she besought him as a suppliant that he would thenceforth never again impart to her consolations of that kind — which nevertheless God poured out upon that soul the more abundantly ^c the more clearly he recognized that they were refused by her. seeking no reward or solace, She would have wished that all creatures might love God and serve him without hope ^d of any reward, whether earthly or heavenly; whence she was accustomed to say: "Can it be, my sweet Love, that love and service are not to be rendered you without consolation and without hope of good, whether in heaven or on earth?" Sometimes, turning over that saying of Christ, "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me," she seemed to herself to be bound above all others to show love toward God, by observing his commandments with greater solicitude; hence she cried out: "Love, if others are bound by one bond to obey your commandments, I wish to be bound by ten, since all of them are sweet and full of love, nor do you command those things which turn to the harm of those who observe them, but rather those which bring in peace, love, and union; but no one can understand that except he who experiences it."

[39] Her enkindled heart, however, experienced this abundantly, not easily to be explained: by a fervent answer as she herself often attested to those standing by, saying: "Ah! if you could but tell what my heart feels!" And being asked that she would deign to bring forth something for their consolation and instruction, she answered: "I find no words ^e fit for so kindled a love: this only can I tell you, that if a single spark of that which this heart feels were to slip down into hell, the whole of it would become eternal life; because so great a love would be there that the demons would become angels, and the punishments consolations, for punishment cannot stand together with the love of God." These and other inflamed words of the kind kindled inexpressibly the mind of anyone who heard her, and carried away into admiration of this Matron, who loved after the manner of a seraph, innumerable persons — among whom was a certain religious man, a preacher ^f, who, having heard from her mouth various admirable expressions of divine love, whether he desired to make trial of her spirit or to allure her to embrace the Regular state, began to extol the prerogatives of this above the secular state, adding that he, as one consecrated to religion, was fitter to love God than she was; since, having sent word of dismissal to all earthly things, he was more unencumbered and freer to love his God — which freedom she lacked, since she was still bound to the world by the bond of marriage.

[40] Scarcely had Catherine caught his speech when, impatient that bounds should be prescribed to her love, she asserts that pure love can be hindered by nothing she rose up most swiftly; and with kindled countenance, with sparkling eyes, and as though carried out of herself by the love seething in her heart, she broke out into these words: "If I were persuaded that by that cowl of yours even the least spark of love could be added to me, then, since I could not do otherwise, I would drag it down from your shoulders piece by piece. For the rest, as to your asserting that, because of the renunciation you have made and the Regular state in which you are, and in which you continually heap up merits, you have more merits than I, may it be well with you; I do not inquire into those things. But that I cannot pursue ^g God with as great a love as you can, you will never bring into my mind, since love cannot be hindered; and when it is hindered, that love is not wholly clean and purged." These words she uttered with such fervour that all her hair came loose and streamed down upon her shoulders, so that in that instant she seemed reduced to madness.

[41] Leaving all who stood by carried away with astonishment, she withdrew into her chamber, where she poured out her love toward God, crying out: "O Love! being so taught by God. who shall hinder me from loving you? Even if I were living in a camp of soldiers, much more in the state in which I am, I should not fear that anyone would be a hindrance to me from loving you; and if either the world, or the married state, or anything else whatsoever could hinder love, what else would love be but a thing of far too little worth? But I know that love conquers all things." And because there was one who said that she could easily be circumvented by the devil, she met it with this answer: "I cannot believe that a love which is not one's own can ever be subject to deceit." Upon this she was specially enlightened by God, who, addressing her inwardly, made her certain that

pure love, such as God himself ^h is, can neither be conquered, nor hindered, nor retarded by anything whatsoever that might take away the liberty of that love, into which no deceit can fall; and therefore, animating her to pursue such love without interruption, he said to her heart: "I will not that you ever turn your eye except upon love; here I will that you establish yourself, nor depart thence for any chance whatsoever that can befall you or others, whether within or without."

[42] From contemplating the Lord's Passion Catherine, observing this law dictated to her by God, ever the more increased the fire of love, so that frequently she groaned and lamented that among men some were found who did not love him, since it seemed to her wholly impossible that anything else ⁱ outside God should be loved, especially when one looked upon the immense love with which God himself had pursued the human race, for whose salvation, having been made man, he did not refuse to undergo a most cruel passion and a most bitter death. Wherefore at the sight of the grievous torments borne by her Redeemer, and of the ingratitude ^k of men's minds, on account of which nevertheless the most loving God does not cease to pursue ungrateful man with benefits, this flame grew within her, which consumed her heart. And remembering that in the time of her greater lukewarmness of soul she had been called by God with a grace so efficacious that she was accustomed to compare it to the calling ^l of Magdalen and of Paul, marvelling at the divine clemency, wholly carried away into love she would say: "God was made man, that he might make me God; and therefore I wish to strive that I may wholly become God by communication. What do I wish above heaven, O my God, save that through you my heart should burn here on earth? I wish for nothing else but you, my Lord, nor shall I ever be able to rest so long as I do not attain to being wholly hidden in your divine breast, in which all created forms vanish away."

[43] love toward God grows in the Saint, of which In this manner the conflagration of love spread abroad, which nevertheless, taking greater increases day by day, burned up her heart; whence, not content with the love of rational creatures, she was accustomed to summon inanimate things to love her God. Therefore she would sometimes enter the garden of her house, and, looking upon the plants, would say: "Are you not creatures of my God? Love him therefore and bless him." But exhalations of this kind not only brought no relief to her inflamed heart, but rather added increase to the flames of the divine fire; and since she was unequal to resisting them, the motion of her heart was hastened with such force that, leaping most vehemently, it seemed about to go forth from her breast. And because her breast was rendered too narrow to contain ardours of the love of God so intense, they spread out onto the surface of her body, which grew so hot that whoever put a hand to it could not bear the heat. In that part which answers to the region of the heart an ulcer appeared, which reached straight through to the opposite side; wherefore, to protect it, she was accustomed to keep one hand laid upon it, since she could bear no one's touch on that part without a most vehement pain arising ^m.

[44] At other times so vehement were the impulses of divine love with which the soul of this enkindled Lover was assailed that, taking away her breathing, they scarcely allowed her to bring forth some little word in a very subdued voice, saying: "Now my heart has vanished away, which I feel to be consumed with love"; whence it is no wonder if she indicated to those whom she was instructing in virtue that, if after her death they were to inspect her heart, they would find it burned up with love ⁿ. Sometimes she withdrew into her chamber, and there, stretched on the ground, cried out: "Love! I can no more"; and, rolling herself about like a snake, uttered sighs and lamentations, so that the household, running to her, tried in every way, but in vain, to revive her, since there was no one there who could bring any relief, save that same love which sweetly afflicted her. Sometimes, hiding herself in some narrow place, she licked the ground with her tongue, and there, thinking she could not be heard, broke out into the loudest cries. In fine, of such a nature was the love that blazed in her breast that she herself was not able to utter it; whence she was accustomed to say: "Such a sense of love do I experience in my heart that I am certain that, if I had my hand laid upon a material fire, I could more easily endure my hand than my heart in so great an ardour ^o of this true love, which I cannot express with my tongue nor attain with my understanding."

[45] There is no one who does not know that it is peculiarly proper to love to bring it about that the lover be joined to the beloved in such a manner that the two things become but one. Hence it is that the inexplicable love with which Catherine was borne toward God so perfectly tore her away from every created thing, The Saint's wonderful union with God even amid her actions and so singularly joined her to the highest Good, that such a unity cannot better be explained than by using her own words. She frequently said: "Whether I eat, whether I drink, whether I walk, whether I stand; whether I speak or keep silence, whether I sleep or wake; whether I be in church, or at home, or out of the house; whether well or sick; whether I die or live — at every hour and moment of the course of my life I will that all of it be in God and through God." And truly she carried out such sentiments of soul so exactly in deed that anyone would have stood fixed in astonishment, beholding her discharging all the offices of body and of the senses, and at that same time estranged from them. If she entered a church, whether to be present at the solemn sacrifice of the Mass, or at a sermon, or at the divine offices, she stood inwardly so absorbed in God [p] that she saw nothing of what the sacred ministers were doing at the altar, and heard, as it were, nothing of what the sacred orators brought forth from the pulpit; nor was it lawful for her to act otherwise, her sweet love not permitting it to her.

[46] It often happened that, when it behoved her to give her labour to outward occupations, her outward union with God, and it was fitting either to speak with others or to turn her mind to what was asked of her, she used the greatest force she could upon herself to satisfy her neighbour [q] in that outward work; and that she might not fail in her duty here, she prayed the Lord to afford his divine help, whereby she might be able to carry out exactly as much as necessity required. And when she had been heard, she walked, spoke, answered, and so worked that anyone would have judged that she had bent all her thoughts upon such actions; yet in very fact her mind was occupied with a wholly different business, which at the same time enjoyed a perfect union with her love; whence, when the work was finished, she confessed: "Indeed I do not know that anything was said by me." When she sometimes had need to attend to matters pertaining either to the care of her own house or to the direction of the hospital, taking no account of any labour whatsoever, she strove to despatch them as swiftly as she could, her mind nevertheless always estranged from outward things — so that she had scarcely finished any business but she utterly forgot it, no trace of it clinging to her memory.

[47] which she strove so solicitously to preserve, St. Catherine lived so solicitous about this union with God, because, fearing lest some created thing should interpose itself between her soul and her highest Good, it seemed to her all but impossible to love her neighbour together with God. Therefore on a certain occasion, turning to her Love, she said to him: "Lord, you command me to love my neighbour; but I cannot [r] love any other than you, nor do I wish that there ever be mingled with my love toward you a love of any other thing which is not yourself: what then shall I do, O Love?" Wherefore she was at once inwardly instructed by a divine voice, which taught her how whoever loves God ought likewise to love all that which he himself loves, and that consequently she too ought to love her neighbour, whom God pursues with so great a love, and, as often as it should be necessary, to spend both soul and body for his salvation; hence it is that she never shunned any occasion in which she recognized that help could be afforded to her neighbour, whatever troubles were also to be borne, and whatever peril to her own health had to be undergone.

[48] so that nothing could tear her away from God. But always anxious lest the shadow of the creatures whom she approached should be able to obscure the image of the Creator, which she kept indelibly imprinted on her heart, she obtained of God to exercise herself in the service of her neighbour, yet on this condition, that, as soon as the offices of charity were fulfilled, she should lose all remembrance of them. For the strengthening of her most close union with God she was accustomed to employ that saying of St. Paul: "Who shall separate me from the charity of God?" naming one by one all the things which were expressed by the Apostle. And in very fact neither injuries, nor contempts, nor prosperity, nor adversity, nor diseases, nor temptations [s], nor any chance whatsoever that can be imagined in thought, were ever able to tear that chosen soul in the least degree away from her God, to whom she panted to be continually more closely joined — so that in the last years of her life, if it happened that she either saw the dead or heard talk of death, she felt herself struck with an unlooked-for inward joy, which stirred up in her the desire of one day putting off that mortal body, that she might be joined to her eternal Love by an indissoluble bond.

[49] God is all things to her. In this manner grew Catherine's wonderful union with God, so that from that time she neither saw nor recognized herself, being wholly transformed for love into God himself; which thing cannot be more fitly expressed than by her own words, often repeated by her: "God is my being, my fortitude, my good, my delight, my beatitude: but that word 'my' which I use, I say only so far as I cannot express it otherwise; for I do not know that anything more is either mine, or my delight, or my good, or my fortitude, or my firmness, or the least particle of beatitude; nor can I turn my eye to anything that is outside God, whether in heaven or on earth — so that I blush to bring forth words so dissonant from that which is, and which I experience within me." At other times, feeling herself wholly carried away into God, she said with the Apostle: "I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me: I do not know that I have either soul, or body, or heart, or will, or anything else; nor do I see, or feel, or taste anything else save pure love — so that I experience myself so transformed into God that, being made certain by him, I no longer fear that I shall lose him; whence hope [t] fails me, and through the clarity which keeps watch within me I seem to have faith no longer."

ANNOTATA.

a. How

deservedly the author of this Life could write that after the older biographer is gathered from what we disputed against Baillet in the Commentary at number 105 and following.

p. Consult the preliminary Commentary at numbers 85 and 86.

q. From these and other things are confirmed the matters we discussed at number 108 and following of the preliminary Commentary.

r. Since the Saint practised many works of truly heroic charity toward her neighbour, here again, in conformity with what was said in the Commentary, her words must be taken with moderation, so that she wished only to signify that she could not be borne by love toward her neighbour if that love placed an obstacle to her love toward God; and indeed these things may be said to have been brought forth out of the highest vehemence of love toward God, mixed with a certain anxiety, on account of which she feared lest, by spending herself in the love of her neighbour, she should diminish her love toward God.

s. In the Dialogue, part 2, chapter 6, I read thus: And with these enemies (the world, the demons, and nature, full of depraved habits) she had to fight, until she had routed all her vicious habits, inward and outward; for these are they that stir up every kind of war for man; if such things did not exist, no one would ever be tempted, save for the increase of grace, and this temptation is almost wholly free of danger; for God himself sustains the temptation which he sends for our good. See what was said of the fortitude of the Saint's love in the Commentary at number 93 and following.

t. Concerning these and the other matters reviewed throughout this whole number we have discussed enough in the Commentary at number 92 and following, where several testimonies were adduced from the Saint's Dialogue, which see there.

CHAPTER V.

The Saint's love and singular longing toward Jesus hidden in the Eucharist: her horror and hatred of every sin.

XI.

Just as all Catherine's counsels looked to this, [She is fed daily on the Eucharist, as a remedy most useful for being joined to God] that she might obtain the closest union with God that it is permitted to any creature on earth to attain, so, recognizing that the most efficacious help left us by our divine Teacher and Redeemer for obtaining it is the nourishment of his Body veiled under the Eucharistic species, for that very reason it was the allurement of all St. Catherine's desires, since she felt herself carried away by a certain sweet force to feed upon that Bread of Angels — so that, however much in every other matter she strove to conform herself to another's will, desiring nothing of the things that others did not wish, in this alone she was unable to temper her will to the rule of another's judgment. Therefore, when it had been enjoined upon her not to approach the sacred Table, she would indeed have obeyed briskly by abstaining from it, but she could not have laid aside the desire of receiving her Lord hidden under the Eucharistic species, as she herself attested, saying: "If a priest were to say to me, I do not wish you to receive the Eucharist — rightly so indeed; but I cannot say, I do not wish ^a."

[51] Hence it is that, even though the affairs in which she was very frequently entangled were most urgent, and the diseases with which she not seldom long struggled were most grievous, she did not omit to refresh herself daily with the sacred Nourishment; but when deprived of it she suffers intolerable pains and if sometimes she was compelled to abstain from it, she experienced intolerable anguish, and, deprived of the heavenly Food, she seemed able in no way to live. Many times the trial was made whether she had truly been endowed with that instinct by God; but such were the symptoms which assailed her, as often as she was constrained not to feed upon her Lord's Body, that those who observed her, moved with compassion, clearly understood that such trials were opposed to the divine will. A certain religious man ^b, not sufficiently instructed in her spirit, while on a certain occasion he was holding converse with her about the daily reception of the Eucharist, dared to warn her that in that deed a fault might perhaps be involved, which he endeavoured to demonstrate by various authorities and reasonings. These struck terror into that tender conscience, which, fearing a fault, compelled her for some days to defer her approach to the Eucharistic table, since she made more of a fear of that kind than of the consolation and satisfaction of the sacred Banquet.

[52] But this abstinence cost the Saint dear; for so grievous and so extraordinary were the pains which she suffered in those days that her household, made more certain by experience that no other remedy was at hand save by ordering her to take up again the interrupted frequenting of the sacred Table, at once sent a message to the religious man, who immediately commanded her that thereafter she should always go on to feed daily ^c upon her God, and should unload every scruple of the fault which she dreaded upon his own conscience. On a certain day, when by a most grievous illness she had been brought to such a pass that her life was despaired of, and the physicians did not know by what means they might bring relief to the imperilled patient, she, enlightened by God, told her confessor that, if she were refreshed three times with the sacred Eucharist, all the pains by which she was oppressed would cease; and so it happened, since after the third refreshment she remained wholly free and well. Already from thence, after the first, indicating the immense anguish with which her heart was afflicted, she had said: "I have not a heart such as others have: for mine is not delighted save in its Lord, and therefore give him to me." It was exceedingly well known in very fact that only

that nourishment was useful for preserving her life unharmed, since the mere privation of it, consuming her in a wondrous manner, brought on deadly anguish.

[53] On one occasion, when she dreamed that on that day she would not be able to be refreshed with the Eucharist, she drew from it so great a grief that, however hard it was for her to break out into weeping, when she awoke she found her whole pillow soaked with tears. Finally, from that time in which with an unwonted vigour she took up again the first fervour of her life, she began to experience herself carried away by so enkindled a love toward Jesus hidden in the Eucharist that she was affected with a holy envy toward priests, seeing that it was lawful for them to handle this most sacred Body and to feed upon it daily; and she all but complained that it was not lawful for her also to celebrate ^d on the day of the most holy Nativity the three Masses which she saw celebrated by the sacred ministers. It not seldom happened that, when she was present at the unbloody Sacrifice, she was carried away into an ecstasy of mind; but it never came to pass that, as the time of the sacred Refreshment drew near, she was not restored to herself; and in that instant, turning to God, she said: "O Lord, even dead, I think, I should come to life again to receive you; and if an unconsecrated host were held out to me, I should distinguish it by the taste ^e, as wine from water." Therefore every moment seemed long to her in which the priest delayed to receive the consecrated Host; nor could she bear that it should dwell outside her heart, asserting that it was her food.

[54] In the time of an interdict she goes out of the city daily. It happened about the year 1489, from what cause I do not know, that by Innocent VIII, Supreme Pontiff, the city of Genoa was for a few days subjected to the penalty of an Ecclesiastical interdict ^f; whence the Saint, who could not approach the Eucharist after her usual manner, her industrious love suggesting a method by which she might provide for herself, went forth daily one mile outside the city to a certain church, that she might there feed upon the sacred Banquet; and it seemed to her that her body ought to be transported to every place with the same swiftness as the spirit itself, so vehement was the desire that impelled her to be always joined to her beloved Good.

XII.

[55] If it is hard to explain how remarkable was the love with which St. Catherine's heart blazed toward God, The Saint holds every sin in hatred, to whom she was most closely joined in this life, it is no less arduous to set forth of what nature was the hatred with which she perpetually abhorred whatever separates the soul from the highest Good. At the beginning of her renewed fervour her past errors could not be represented to her memory but that, turning with such great indignation against every kind of sin, however slight, she prayed for justice and vengeance upon herself, saying: "I would not have grace or mercy in this life, but justice and retribution"; and to that end she seemed by no means solicitous about gaining plenary indulgences ^g — not that she did not hold them in great price and veneration, and think them most useful, but because she would have wished rather to see her own part punished in the manner in which it deserved than absolved by the help of such satisfaction.

[56] She would have endured any punishment whatsoever and any torment and is nearly extinguished at the sight of a slight fault. rather than suffer the mere sight of an offence against God; whence she was accustomed to say: "My Love! I am able to suffer anything else whatever; but to have offended you is a thing to me so horrible and so intolerable that I beg you to bid me undergo any other penalty than that by which I should see that I had offended you. The injuries I have done you, I would not have done; nor can I approve that I ever transgressed against you; and in the hour of death show me rather all the demons with as many terrors and torments as you please, for I count them as nothing if they be compared with an offence against you, however small — which nevertheless cannot be small, since it wounds your so exalted majesty." That hatred with which the Saint turned away from sin grew in her the more, the clearer became the knowledge by which she discerned its deformity and the penalty due to it. When on a certain occasion God had shown her how great an evil is one single venial sin, she said: "At that time, when I saw what the least act against God brings on, how I did not die I do not know; and if the mere shadow of one venial sin seemed so horrible to me, what will a mortal one be? I judge that whoever were to see it, if he were immortal, would become mortal; since that lightest vision alone, which lasted but a single instant, if it had been drawn out a little longer, would have reduced my body to nothing, even had it been of adamant; and whatever I say seems to me an invention, taking account of that which I am not able to understand. Then I know that I all but fainted, since that brief vision so disturbed me that the blood seethed in my veins and every humour of my body was overturned, and I was left most weak ^h."

[57] Hence arose that supreme horror with which she detested fault not only in herself She turns away from sin not only in herself, but in others also but in others also. Therefore, if it happened that she could not excuse her neighbour's transgressions, still she could not be persuaded that they had been committed by them with deliberate will, since it seemed to her impossible that a creature endowed with reason should be brought so far as to offend God with full advertence; and therefore, turning to the sinner, she cried out: "Whither do you rush, unhappy man! On what do you consume the time of which you will have so great need? On what do you spend the means with which you ought to acquire heaven? To whom do you hand over yourself, who ought to apply yourself to the care of your soul? For whom do you keep the soul which must be joined to God? All these things you have turned into earth, which is nothing else but a seed fit for producing fruits on which you shall feed in hell, in the company of the demons, where you shall live in despair, because you have fallen from the glory for which you were created, and to which you were called by God with such sweet inspirations; and you shall see that it was not he who failed you, but you alone who failed him.

[58] "Wherefore know ⁱ that if a man saw what a single sin brings on, he would cast himself into a burning furnace, choosing rather to pass his life there with body and soul than to endure sin; and if there were a sea of fire, he would plunge himself into the midst of it down to the very bottom; whence, if he were wise, he would never come out, if only he had to look upon the said sin on coming out." Nor did the hatred with which she abominated fault stand still in the bare consideration of it; but observing that our free will and the worse part of man is the fount from which sin gushes forth, she seethed with indignation against them, as things resisting her God, saying that whoever wishes to cleave to his God ought to oppose all these things which are hostile to God; and just as nothing worse and more contrary to God is found than the worse part of humanity and created free will, so she was goaded to hold both in hatred above all else; and both so greatly displeased her that, whenever it was permitted, she held them in contempt, as creatures which, without the grace of God, are fit for one thing only — to offend him ^k.

[59] she deliberately admitted none, even a slight one, after her conversion. From this hatred, so vehement against every shadow of fault, there flowed such a singular caution in her that from the time of her divine calling for as long as she lived she never committed any sin voluntarily, even a slight one ^l; but, as human frailty cannot be free of lighter and involuntary lapses, if it happened that she perceived any of them, even though she was sure that she was free of all guilt of fault because the will had not concurred, nevertheless she was consumed with grief thereat, after the manner of a docile boy ^m of tender age who, having incautiously fallen into some blameworthy act, if it happens that he is reminded of it, covers his face with a modest blush, more because of what others say than because he knows that he has done wrong; and therefore, when she prostrated herself at her confessor's feet to receive sacramental absolution, she said: "I do not know how I am to make my confession, for I feel no part in me that can be accused of having said anything whose sting pricks my conscience: I do not wish to omit confession, and to what I should ascribe the guilt of my sins I do not know: I wish to accuse myself and I cannot."

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER VI.

The Saint's love toward her neighbour: how she obtained from God, for an impatient sick man, and likewise for her own husband, who could not bear the pains of his disease, conformity with the divine will, and the salvation of both.

XIII.

Since all Catherine's affections acknowledged no other leader than God himself, Works of mercy toward her neighbour. she knew how so rightly to join with love of her neighbour a perfect estrangement from created things that, fearing not even the shadow of a stain ^a upon the purity of her love, she poured forth upon all, like the sun, the beneficent influences of her surpassing charity. There is no need to repeat here the admirable works of mercy performed by her toward the poor sick, to whose benefit she devoted in a manner her whole life, partly by aiding them in various places of the city, partly in the greater hospital, as has already been recorded above ^b. It will therefore suffice to turn the eye's edge a little upon the breadth of that charity by which, loving universally every kind of man, she strove chiefly to supply to her neighbour the spiritual goods of which she saw him to be in need.

[61] A demon, through the mouth of a possessed woman whom the Saint was helping, There was in the city of Genoa a certain girl who, by God's permission, was possessed by a malignant spirit, which treated her in ways so cruel that often, throwing her to the ground and dashing her hither and thither, it repeatedly brought her to the last extremity; and, what is more, it afflicted her mind besides with most vehement temptations, casting her into such anguish that she stood thereafter ready to give herself up to despair; so that the unhappy girl, having become intolerable not only to her own people but to herself, did not know whither to turn to receive some relief for her breast, plunged as it was in anguish. Then, drawn by the fame of Catherine's heroic charity, she fled to her, hoping that she would find with her the refuge which she could not find elsewhere. Catherine received her with the greatest affability, granting her lodging in her own house, into which the afflicted girl had scarcely set foot when she at once began to experience that the anguish which overwhelmed her was notably eased. For the holy Matron, understanding that this kind of tribulation had been sent by God upon the girl — who was for the rest of most holy manners ^c — to purify her and to preserve humility in her, ceased not to console her with holy teachings and the best counsels, now instructing her in the holy love of God, now exhorting her to endurance of her pains, until the pious virgin, ordering the rest of her life according to them, flew away to eternal rest.

[62] unwillingly bears witness to Catherine's kindled love. Nor is a memorable event to be passed over here which happened at the time when the aforesaid possessed girl was living with St. Catherine. She, on a certain day, having thrown herself at Catherine's feet, in the presence of the confessor of both, the demon brought forth through the mouth of the possessed girl the following words: "We are both slaves of that pure love which you bear in your heart." But at once repenting of what it had said, driven by rage it dashed that unhappy girl to the ground, where, writhing like a serpent, she struck her hands and feet. Then, when she had been somewhat relieved, the confessor commanded that it should pronounce the name of the Matron standing there; and the demon briskly answered that her name was Catherine. And when he further commanded that it should declare her surname, after various agitations of the wretched possessed girl, driven by the force of the exorcisms it at last broke out into these words: "Catherine the Seraphic ^d"; and such a name fitted her aptly, since she, blazing unceasingly with the love of God, panted for nothing else than to kindle it in the hearts of others.

[63] Among the other sick of the hospital there lay a woman enrolled in the Third Order of St. Francis, [She is seized with the plague from a service rendered to a woman infected with it.] who, having for eight days been deprived of the faculty of speech, was wrestling with death from the violence of a pestilential fever. To her the holy Matron came frequently, and often, though in vain, exhorted her to invoke Jesus; and when at last she noticed her moving her lips at the repeated admonitions, persuading herself that she wished to pronounce the holy name of Jesus and could not accomplish it, counting it as nothing to bring her own life into danger, and despising all fear of contagion, she could not restrain herself from fixing a kiss of most tender affection upon those lips which she judged wished to bring forth that most sweet name. From that act of the best charity peril of life was not far removed, since, having contracted that very disease, she fell into a mortal sickness ^e. But by the divine disposition she was preserved among the living for her neighbour's benefit and restored to health, and took up again with her wonted vigour of soul the accustomed offices of her most ardent charity.

[64] She was so kindly, so sweet, that she carried away to herself the hearts of all with whom St. Catherine conversed, solely to turn them to God. Many run to the Saint from everywhere, who are roused to pious works, There flocked together also from the most remote parts many notable persons, both to admire her sanctity and to receive the teachings of that sublime heavenly doctrine in which God had instructed her, and of which testimony is afforded by the Dialogue between the soul and the body, and the Treatise on Purgatory, composed by her, worthy of the admiration of all ^f, but most of all of the two saints Francis de Sales and Aloysius Gonzaga ^g. Among so many who ran to her there was none who did not carry away from her discourses benefit and consolation for his spirit, since she, satisfying all by the singular affability of her manners, strengthened these in their tribulations, suggested counsels to those in their doubts, and to each one breathed in precepts of the love of God and of eternal life — so that many chose her for their spiritual mother ^h, conferring with her about all matters that had regard to the state of the soul and the benefit of their neighbour.

[65] Among others who showed themselves illustrious in the school of this Mistress of charity but most of all Ettore Vernazza, was the most pious Ettore Vernazza, a man of outstanding repute in the Genoese republic, who, obedient to Catherine's counsels and instructions, made so distinguished a progress in the way of virtue that, having sent word of dismissal to all worldly affairs, he spent himself wholly in promoting the honour of God and the benefit of his neighbour, both bodily and spiritual, building churches, founding hospitals and other pious places, everlasting monuments of whose works of beneficent charity are preserved in the chief cities of Italy. He was among the first of those ⁱ who founded at Rome the hospital of the incurables, having already before erected a like one at Genoa in his own homeland, where likewise he established a twofold monastery, one for the use of converted women, the other called that of St. Joseph, for withdrawing honourable poor youths from the perils of the world. In the city of Naples he founded the society called of the Whites, who discharge the merciful office of strengthening the unhappy condemned to death and accompanying them to the gallows.

[66] of whom a brief eulogy is given. He himself began at Genoa a plague-house ^k for the service of the poor infected with the plague, assigning vast revenues for its maintenance. He provided also for the shamefaced poor of that same city, a certain stipend being bequeathed in perpetuity to some physicians who, receiving no fee from them, should be bound to cure their diseases. And at last, at the time when a contagious disease was raging in the city of Genoa, he offered his life in the service of the poor sick, meeting death, laden with merits, in the hospital of the incurables ^l, having previously written that same hospital heir of his goods. All these and many other admirable works of piety besides were the fruits of that most immense charity which spread itself from Catherine's most ardent heart to inflame the heart of her most obedient spiritual son, as the writer attests of the Life of the venerable handmaid of God, Battista Vernazza, Canoness Regular, daughter of the aforesaid Ettore, whom St. Catherine received — whether from the sacred Font ^m or rather in Confirmation, I do not know — and who had by inheritance, both from her temporal father and from her spiritual Mother, holiness together with learning; of the former the processes instituted for her beatification give evident testimony, and of the latter her distinguished spiritual works, more than once committed to the press.

XIV.

[67] The fame of the charity of this holy Matron, which day by day spread itself more widely in the neighbouring and remote parts, She visits a man almost despairing from the pains of his disease rousing all to seek counsel and help from her, impelled Argentina, wife of Marco Sale, to have recourse to her in a certain most grievous affliction of hers. About the year 1495 her husband lay ill, vehemently tormented by a gangrene which had beset his nostrils. Because of the continual and vehement pains which he suffered, and to which no relief could ever be brought, though every remedy was applied, he fell into the greatest impatience and in a manner into despair, so that his unhappy wife was greatly afflicted thereby, seeing that at one and the same time the health of his body and the salvation of his soul were in peril. Whence, in these straits, not knowing to what quarter she should thereafter turn, she betook herself to the hospital in which the Saint dwelt, the ordinary asylum of all the afflicted; and having reported the unhappy state of her sick husband, she begged her to deign to visit him, in order to supply him with some spiritual strength by her holy words.

[68] consoles him, prays for him, and soon of the changed Having understood the state of the sick man, worthy of compassion, Catherine, always ready to embrace any occasion offered by the Lord for exercising herself in any work of mercy whatsoever, at once went out of the hospital and, in the company of the afflicted woman, sought her house, far distant, in order to visit her husband; and having exhorted him with few but strong words to endurance and to the consent of his will with the divine, she withdrew, that same woman accompanying her, to return to the hospital. And as she was passing through the square near the church which is named St. Mary of the Graces, the Saint felt herself drawn inwardly by her sweet love to commend fervently to God the sick man whom she had visited a little before; whence both, having entered the aforesaid church,

devoutly made prayer there for some space of time; and when this was finished, they returned to the hospital. Thence, dismissed by Catherine, she sought her home again, where she found her husband so far changed that from a demon, such as he had before appeared, he seemed turned into an angel; who, as soon as his wife approached, said with a cheerful countenance and a tender affection of soul: Argentina, tell me, I pray, who is that Saint whom you brought to me a little while ago? And when she had answered that it was Catherine Adorno, a matron of holy life, to whose prayers to God she had commended him, he added: For the love of God I beseech you, bring it about that she visit me a second time also.

[69] The woman, to obey her husband, on the following day went to St. Catherine, for the better, as she had foreknown, and a little after and, having related his wonderful change, begged her that she would again deign to visit him. In no way did the sick man's change come unexpected to Catherine, since she had been inwardly taught of it at that very time in which she was moved to offer her prayers to God for him — and this by a certain hidden accord between herself and her beloved Lord; for, just as she could not make prayer for any particular person unless she first felt herself moved by her love, so, as often as she experienced within herself those sweet impulses, she knew that she would shortly be heard, since God was moving her that he might hear her ⁿ. At Argentina's entreaties the Saint again betook herself, in her company, to the place where the sick man lay; and he, when he saw his Deliverer, could not for joy restrain himself from clasping her most closely in his arms; and after he had drawn most abundant tears from his eyes and kindled sighs from his heart, he addressed her most tenderly in this manner.

[70] Lady, the reason for which I desired to see you when he had died, she takes his wife under her care. is first that I may give you thanks for the love you have shown me, and further that I may ask of you a favour, which I beg you not to deny me. You must know that, after you departed from me, our Lord Christ Jesus appeared to me visibly, in the same likeness in which he showed himself to Magdalen in the garden; and when he had blessed me, he pardoned me all my sins, warning me to stand girded, since on the day of his Ascension he was about to call me to himself. Wherefore I entreat you, sweetest Mother, that it may please you to receive Argentina as your spiritual daughter, that she may always remain with you; and you, Argentina, I ask to comply with me in this. The Saint promised that the sick man's request would be satisfied, and Argentina promised the same; then, having consoled him again, the Saint withdrew. He, however, having summoned a priest to himself, confessed his sins with extraordinary signs of a grieving mind, and, having received the other Sacraments, strove to prepare himself for a happy passage into the other life — until, when the Vigil of the Ascension had dawned and the time of his death was drawing near, having spent the following night in holy discourse and having exhorted his wife to consecrate herself wholly to God's service, and having foretold to her the many afflictions she would suffer, which the event proved true, on that very day of the Ascension, as he had foretold, he peacefully rendered up his spirit to the Lord. St. Catherine did not delay to carry into execution the promise which she had given to the deceased Marco, receiving the widow Argentina into her house as a spiritual daughter, whom she always loved most tenderly and diligently instructed in the exercise of the virtues, having often made an excellent trial of them.

XV.

[71] Charity toward one's neighbour then most of all shines out and is perfected when it meets with troubles, vices, and resistance from the side of that very neighbour; The Saint leads her husband, by whom she had been harshly treated, and then it is far more purified, as often as these things occur in persons joined to one another by a close bond. Hence it is that, if St. Catherine's charity shone admirably when, intent upon the service of strangers, she met with many bitter and troublesome things, it was far more cleansed amid the long-lasting afflictions which, God so permitting, she bore from her own husband. For, paying no heed at all to these, and pursuing every way of humanity and kindness in order to win his soul, she strove for one thing only — to recall him from his perverse manner of life. She obeyed him strenuously in all things, however arduous and difficult, provided that her own conscience did not stand in the way; with no disturbance of mind she received his insults, and strove to quench his anger, now with words full of humility and sweetness, now with silence; and abstaining from every complaint, even the least, she bore with his troublesome temper, avoiding every occasion by which he might be disturbed. She lived solitary in her chamber, far from all company; she went out only to hear a single Mass, and having been present at it returned home at once to watch over the domestic affairs, complying in this too with his disposition, whom longer delays in church displeased; for she judged it better to prefer peace with her husband to her private devotion. And, to sum up all briefly, she always strove to repay evil with good, so that she might at length at some time overcome the harshness of his nature.

[72] to the amendment of his manners: Nor indeed can the complete change of Giuliano, observed in him with the lapse of time, be ascribed to anything else than to Catherine's gentleness and holiness, which was continually a strong and sweet spur to the changing of his manners. Already from the earlier years, obeying his prodigal disposition, he had squandered the greater part of his ample inherited wealth ^o, and was already all but reduced to a state of middling fortune, when on a certain day, sharing the affairs both of his family and of his soul with his holy Wife — whose manner of acting and admirable life he had then for the first time begun to venerate — moved by her holy counsels, he resolved to amend his manners, living with her chastely, as a brother is wont to live with his own sister; and, that he might serve God more fully, he took the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis.

[73] and obtains the salvation of his soul, when in his last illness Yet this resolve of Giuliano's did not suffice to restrain his violent and inconsiderate nature, so that he did not often show himself difficult to his pious Wife — who for the rest, counting for nothing his faults, which of themselves tended to bring trouble, and considering only the reasons for which she ought to love him, reverenced the heavenly disposition, being bowed to God's nod, and patiently bore his actions: now brought to this from the fact that she had been given him in marriage in order that the peace between the Fieschi and the Adorno families might be more solidly preserved; now recalling that from his family there would be born a distinguished servant of God, who would be the author of a new Religious family, as she herself foretold, and as was afterwards proved in the venerable Agostino Adorno, who together with the venerable Francesco Caracciolo founded the Congregation of the Minor Regular Clerks [p]; now cherishing in her mind an undoubted hope that she would one day obtain from God his eternal salvation — which at last she obtained for him, as we shall now see.

[74] he had all but turned to despair, In the year 1497 a most grievous illness assailed Giuliano, arising from difficulties of urine, with which, having long struggled sharply, he led a life exceedingly troublesome because of the most acute pains, which did not allow him to rest. Hence, as he was of a disposition impatient of pain and prone to anger, these torments rendered him so intolerable that, unable to steel himself against their vehemence, he began to be goaded by rage, frequently breaking out into acts of the gravest impatience, by which he showed himself vehemently troublesome to all who ministered to him. Catherine did not omit to practise every service of benevolence, both to lighten the bitterness of the pains with which her sick husband was tormented, and to lead him, by conforming himself to the divine will, to bear the gravity of his disease; but all in vain. Wherefore she, seeing death threatening him, and that he, dwelling upon his furious impatience, was in present peril of losing, together with temporal life, eternal life besides, bent all her cares upon saving his soul, and withdrew into a chamber separate from that which her sick husband occupied, where, giving herself to prayer for the space of half an hour, with tears and sighs she offered her humble prayers to God, often crying out: "Love, this soul I ask of you, I beseech you, give it to me; you can give it to me."

[75] It pleased God that a certain disciple of hers [q], when she saw her withdrawing from the presence of her impatient husband, by pouring out prayers to God presaging what was to come to pass, secretly followed her. She, hidden by help of the stairs by which there is access to the said chamber, listened to the prayers at once tender and efficacious with which Catherine besought God for the sick man's soul; but noticing, when the tears and sighs had ceased, that she was now preparing to return, the prudent disciple, for fear of being caught, withdrew thence swiftly, returning with quick step to the chamber in which she had left the impatient sick man; and there, to the astonishment of all who stood by, and who knew nothing of what she had observed, she found him wholly changed from what he had been a little before; for like the gentlest of lambs, amid the frightful convulsions stirred up by the force of the disease, which was continually growing heavier, he brought forth words of the highest consent with the divine will, and gave signs of true sorrow.

[76] Meanwhile the holy Wife returned thither, she obtains it. How that benefit became known. hiding in her mind the secret of the sudden change obtained by her for the sick man, and declaring in her whole countenance the joy she felt at seeing him enduring and rendered wholly conformable to the divine ordinance; and she went on to animate him with salutary words, until, peacefully meeting death, he rendered up his spirit to God [r]. The Lord, who at the prayers of this holy Matron most kindly drew Giuliano's soul to himself, was unwilling that the power of her intercession should remain hidden — so that it was declared both by the aforesaid disciple, and also because the Saint herself, on the following day, conversing with a certain pious Religious man, her spiritual son, inadvertently broke out into the following words: "Yesterday Giuliano passed to the other life, who, as you know very well, was of a somewhat insolent disposition, whence I bore a grievous torment of soul; but before he departed from this life, my sweet Love made me certain of his salvation."

ANNOTATA.

p. Aubert Le Mire, in his book on the Congregations of Regular Clerks living in common, in his Note on chapter 27 writes thus: This congregation was instituted by the authority of Sixtus V, Supreme Pontiff, who, because he had been of the Order of Friars Minor, willed that this new Congregation should be called by the name of Minor Clerks. Its founder was the Venerable Father Agostino Adorno of Genoa, taking to himself two associates, Father Agostino Caracciolo and Father Francesco Caracciolo, Neapolitans. More things regarding this Congregation are to be read in the same place, as also the Bull of Sixtus V, given on the 1st day of July in the year 1588, by which that new institute was approved.

q. Argentina, widow of Marco Sale, as Parpera reports in the Life published in the year 1682, chapter 74.

r. That Giuliano departed from this life a little after the wonderful change is handed down by the writer praised in the same place, who in the Blessed Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter 2, number 2, says that the Saint was written by Giuliano heir of the recovered goods, which, that is, he had before squandered, as we have seen. In the same place I read the year 1494 noted in the margin.

CHAPTER VII.

The Saint's humility; the consent of her will with the divine: ecstasies, visions, and other favours granted her.

XVI.

There is no reason for us to marvel if St. Catherine's charity attained that sublime degree of perfection which we have already seen; The Saint's virtues rested upon humility, since so lofty and noble an edifice rested upon the solid foundation of a most profound humility ^a. That we may understand how great a lover of this virtue Catherine was, it will suffice for us, who by no means repeat here what has already been said, to know that she, always voluntarily subject to every kind of man, so advanced along the path of holy humility, and came so far, that she rejoiced in her own abasement and blame. Whence not only did she never excuse herself when she was rebuked by anyone, but she rejoiced besides when she felt herself reproved; nay, she suffered no occasion, even the least, to slip past from which contempt and blame might follow.

[78] Nevertheless all that was nothing if it be compared with those humble sentiments which she conceived in her mind concerning herself, in which she advanced wonderfully: Catherine's most profound as often as she weighed her own being, drawing out of the consideration of her own nothingness the precious treasure of heroic humility. "Clearly," the holy Matron said, "I see that, if there is any good in me, all of it is in very truth God's; and if I admit anything of evil, I alone do it, nor can I ascribe the cause of it either to the devil or to any other creature, but only to my own will, affection, pride, self-love, concupiscence, and many other depraved motives; for if God had not preserved me, I should be worse than Lucifer ^b; and this is so certain to me that, if all the angels were to affirm to me that something good was to be found in me, I could not be brought to believe it, because I evidently perceive that all good is found in God alone, but in me nothing except vice." Hence it is that, being utterly forgetful of herself, she never spoke about herself either good or evil; nay, she was unwilling even to utter her own name ^c, and bore it ill to be named by another, fearing lest nature, of itself prone to evil, should grow proud on hearing her name pronounced; and she said that in a creature nothing good is found which of itself leads to grace or glory, since we, created out of nothing, are necessarily borne by our nature toward evil ^d, and without the help of divine grace frequently fall into it.

[79] sentiments about herself. She was so fixed in mind in the knowledge of her own nothingness that, as often as she heard anything good said of her by others, addressing herself inwardly by reasoning, she was accustomed to say: "If others knew you as I know you, they would not bring forth such words." Whence she laid down for herself this law, which she always kept inviolate: "When you hear yourself named in good, know that the talk is not about anything of yours; on the contrary, when you understand that you are named in evil, know that not so much can be said as there is; nay rather, you do not deserve that talk about you should be raised even in evil ^e, because I judge that even that does not befit you." That holy humility might ever drive deeper roots in Catherine's soul, God sometimes withdrew from her the tokens of his love, allowing her to languish in dryness of spirit, and in the afflictions with which her fervent soul was accustomed to be tormented beyond what can be told; but in these very cases Catherine exulted to see herself so humbled by her love; whence, turning to him, she said: "Love, leave me here, that I may be subject to you, and that my nothingness may not be able to move itself; for I know that if it could move itself in the least, it would be able to perpetrate nothing but evil."

XVII.

[80] So faithfully did Catherine observe the law which her love, God, had given her — of taking as the foundation of her spirit these words of the Lord's Prayer, Thy will be done — Her admirable consent with the divine will that, living always most fully conformed to the ordinances of the divine will, she seemed no longer to be endowed with a will, but to have turned it wholly into the divine. Whence, speaking of the perfection to which a soul is raised that fully consents to the divine good pleasure, she said of herself: "So did that soul act, which, after God had set her mind in order, no longer followed her own will, but always stood inwardly intent upon the divine, with such confidence ^f that she said to God himself: I consign to you all my operations, both inward and outward, trusting that you will never permit me to do anything other than what shall be of your will; and therefore God did not suffer that she should ever will a choice of her own which had not been ordered by the will of God inscribed upon her mind."

[81] With this perfect consent of soul Catherine was always utterly indifferent regarding every event, not consenting that there should dwell in her heart any affection which was not wholly conformed to the divine will. Hence it is that she never wished to be solicitous about her own temporal advantages, but always left the care of them to others; with that same indifference she saw the riches of her house and the prodigality with which her husband consumed them. The honours which the world imparted to her in the time of prosperity were no dearer to her than the contempt ^g to which she was subject when she saw herself deprived of them. With as great benevolence as she regarded her brothers and sisters, with as great a consent of soul ^h did she receive the news of their death, giving no sign of grief, as though they had not been her own blood. She was equally ready to bear the troublesome company of her husband and the loss of him; whence to some friends of hers who after her husband's death strove to console her, representing to her mind the tranquillity which she had recovered together with her liberty, she answered that nothing was of care to her save the will of God, and that she made no more of anything whatsoever that might befall, whether good or evil, than of anything else.

[82] Companion to this indifference went a perfect transfer of all things to God, permitting nothing except what God willed, so that she was accustomed to say: "I have handed over the keys of my house to Love, with ample power to determine concerning me whatever

he wills, and not to have regard either to soul, or to body, or to means, or to parents, or to friends, or to the world: because I do not detect that there is lacking in me any spark of that which the law of pure love requires." Whence in whatever place or state of consolation or of anguish of soul she was questioned as to what she would have desired, no one ever succeeded in drawing from her mouth any other word than this: "I will only that which at this point of time I find myself to have." Nay, however various were the circumstances, instances, and conditions which were set before her by some in order to search out in what direction her will inclined, she always answered the same, adding: "This is the goodness of God, that at every time, in every place, and in every manner he moderates and governs all things, and always wills that which is better for us; and therefore we ought not to will anything else than what happens at any time — yet on that account we ought not to omit always to exercise ourselves in good: for whoever should be unwilling to do that, waiting only for what God may command us, would be tempting him."

[83] However much by the force of that love with which she was borne toward God never desiring anything. she felt herself carried away with the Apostle by a desire of death and of union with Christ — especially when she saw some dead person carried out for burial, as has already been said ⁱ — nevertheless in this too she subjected the incitements of love to conformity with the divine will, so that, when on such an occasion she had allowed herself to be carried away only so far as to reason inwardly with herself, "Would that this hour had shone for me!" at once repenting and returning to herself she said: "I will not that there reside in this breast any spark of desire either of earthly or of heavenly things, or of any created things whatsoever, but I commit all to God's sweet ordinance and disposition." And from such a desire of a soul not master of itself she drew so much grief that it could not be allayed, until, the matter having been communicated to her confessor, she was all but persuaded by him that that act, as being indeliberate, since it had not proceeded from reason, could bring no detriment to the exact conformity of will which she professed. What renders Catherine's singular consent of soul no less wonderful is that, however great the love with which she was affected toward the sacred Eucharist, in this too she nevertheless lived perfectly submitted to the divine will, never demanding it ^k, but leaving the care to the Lord, who by his command procured it for her daily, either through some pious priest or through her confessor.

XVIII.

[84] If it was of singular merit for this great Saint to make nothing of all that which the world greatly esteems, She shuns consolations and heavenly favours, it was certainly of greater merit to turn away, no otherwise than from a plague of the soul, from all those things which less enlightened minds account vast favours of heaven. Therefore so far was she from being delighted with ecstasies, visions, and other heavenly favours ^l, that even from her earliest age, as was said above, she besought the Lord as a suppliant that she might never be endowed with them. Nevertheless God, desiring that this beloved soul should expend labour upon his talent, after he had led her to the highest hatred of self and to a perfect transfer of herself to the divine will, stripping her of every relish and desire of flesh and of spirit, willed to heap such graces upon her, often carrying her away for the space of many hours into an ecstasy of mind, and frequently exercising her with heavenly visions.

[85] and when she cannot decline them, she strives in every way Wonderful to see was the violence which the Saint did to herself in order to hinder these things, so that, taught by experience, she had scarcely felt in her mind and heart those divine impressions which were wont to precede these favours of heaven, when, doing violence to herself to turn aside the effect, she suffered a vast torment in her body; yet she could not hinder the divine operation, after which, being restored to her senses, she was so languishing and weakened in body that it seemed a miracle that she could live upon earth, who for so many hours of the day lived in heaven with an inexplicable pain of body. So long as, in the vigour of her age, her strength sufficed for her to withdraw herself from the eyes of others, as soon as she felt herself carried away into ecstasy of mind she so bore herself that, had not the diligence of those with whom she lived been holily curious, the ecstasies which she underwent daily would have remained hidden; but when she was further advanced in age, and her bodily strength failed her, she being unable to resist or in good time to hide herself in a secret place, it pleased God that they should be made manifest to all.

[86] to cover them, but in vain. Yet she did not cease to employ every industry to cover them under the name of fits of dizziness, such as they plainly seemed to be to one who did not perceive the language of heaven. Nevertheless such they did not seem to that distinguished servant of God, Don Cattaneo Marabotto, whom Providence had chosen to be first her disciple and afterwards, for more than two lustres up to her holy death, the guide of her soul; who from thence took the resolution of binding her to make manifest ^m the heavenly secrets, which, drawn together into an epitome, he left us along with her holy Life. When, carried away into ecstasy or outside it, she spoke of the love of God, her face shone luminous and rosy after the manner of a Seraph blazing with love, and thoughts of so sublime a doctrine flowed from her mouth, after the manner of a Cherub full of heavenly learning, that those standing by were suffused with astonishment and with grief, admiring in her the divine wisdom which supplied her with sentences and words to explain matters so exalted, which went as far as possible beyond the capacity of the human understanding.

[87] With what her visions were chiefly concerned, Yet she could not express ⁿ even the least part of those things which God declared to her in her ecstasies of mind and visions; whence, as far as she could, she abstained from all talk about them, and if indeed she was compelled to speak, she said with the Apostle that she had seen what the eye cannot behold nor the ear hear, not finding words fitted to signify those heavenly secrets which God showed her. Her visions were most frequently concerned with the immense love of God toward man, with the glory prepared by him for those who truly love him, with the disposition of the supreme providence, which distributes to each one the means useful for gaining heaven, with the dignity and price of divine grace, and with the mind of men, inhumanly ungrateful toward the divine benefits, which at the last judgment will show in the sight of all that it is unworthy of pardon.

[88] By the frequency of her ecstasies from the senses, and of the fiery darts of love and with what torments through them which God, after the manner of shining rays, often hurled into her heart with an inexplicable convulsion of her worn body, after the fiftieth ^o year of her age, nine years before her holy departure, she had been reduced to a state of health so worthy of compassion that it seemed not unlike a prodigy that she could live amid such great labours and anguish, which nevertheless she bore with a cheerful countenance and a tranquil mind. Hence it is that the ministers of the hospital, moved with tender compassion toward her, would not allow her to continue the labours which she had borne in time past, lest she should fail amid them; but perceiving that rest tended to the greater detriment of her body — because the vehemence of the continual ecstasies of mind by which she was carried away, and the frequent darts of love with which her heavenly Bridegroom struck her heart as often as she was occupied alone with him alone, would shortly have snatched away her life — they were compelled to call her back again to her accustomed exercises, bidding her leave God for God's sake, and showing at the same time the desire with which they burned to preserve her life, and their own ignorance in discovering remedies.

[89] And indeed, since the ways of the Lord by which he is wont to draw chosen souls to himself are far different from ours, the Saint's body was afflicted. it is no wonder that the human understanding could not search out means for relieving the pains and torments of this holy Matron, to which her loving Lord willed to subject her [p], especially in the last years which preceded her death, in order to render her in all things uniform to the image of his beloved Son. Whence, since from day to day the impressions of the divine fire increased, ruining her body, they rendered her heart unfit to bear the burnings, so that it seemed about to be torn from her breast; and the parts of her body which surround it, having become of a ruddy colour, gave an indication of that conflagration which she carried in her bosom. Among other things which, with angelic apparitions interposed, the Lord made her undergo, were the torments of SS. Lawrence the martyr and Bartholomew the apostle, and finally some of the pains which the Incarnate Word endured for love of us on the hard wood of the Cross — so that, unless she had been supernaturally [q] strengthened by the Lord, who rejoiced to see her constantly suffering, it would have seemed impossible that by human strength she could withstand pains so many and so bitter. These, in sum, are the chief favours, and those more pleasing to her, with which it pleased God to adorn this holy Soul, so as to leave a twofold example for our admiration, both in what he himself performed through her, and in what she endured for him.

ANNOTATA.

p. The longer Life, chapter 48, asserts that the manner of her death had been revealed to the Saint beforehand: God, it says, showed her at a point of time by what end his work was to be completed — that she would die of an enormous torment, the whole of which, up to death, he set before her eyes.

q. The Saint attests this also in the Dialogue, part 2, chapter 10, speaking of the bitter torments borne by her over a space of about 10 years: From the least evils, she says, she received great torments, and her infirmity grew continually; and had not God held her inwardly occupied with a hidden operation, she could not have endured.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Saint's last illness and precious death: the beginnings and progress of her cult.

XIX.

It was now nine years during which, as was said in the preceding chapter, The Saint's last illness was above the order of nature, Catherine's body, frequently overwhelmed by ecstasies of mind, alienations of the senses, and the darts and burnings of divine love, could no longer struggle against their violence, so that she was consumed daily, no relief being brought to her by the remedies employed up to this hour, and the physicians not knowing the means that might avail to restore her health. Whence those who were around her helped her in the best way they could, by the assiduity of the various experiments which were made daily, until, seeing her as it were reduced to the extremity of weakness, four months before her death they gathered a number of physicians, who, entering into common consultation, might investigate a way by which some relief might be brought to the most grievous pains in which she had so long lain immersed.

[91] with no medicine helping: how grievous The physicians did not omit diligently to observe the causes of her ills, to examine the beating of the veins, and to consider the symptoms; but, no indication of a natural disease being detected, all with one voice went into this opinion — that this infirmity carried something divine about it, and therefore could not be cured by human remedies, but that the care of the patient was to be left to the operation of God alone. A determination of this kind was plainly conformable to what St. Catherine had always said before; who nevertheless, being most obedient ^a, would never have refused, even to her own greater detriment, to take the medicines offered her; yet she constantly declared that her sickness was of a condition wholly different from those which the skill of the medical art can reach. And it was indeed clearly enough seen that her disease was of a higher order than the natural: for her pains became more intense and were more provoked on feast days, especially on those consecrated to the solemnities of the Most Holy Virgin, of the Apostles, and of the Martyrs — so that thereafter, when the festival of some Saint was celebrated in the Church, God made his handmaid a partaker of the passion borne by him.

[92] torments she then suffered, in all things And the higher condition of a disease of this kind appeared more manifestly to those who saw that anything whatsoever offered to refresh her, whether in food or in drink, brought her harm rather than help; nor could anything be found by which she might be strengthened, save the most holy Eucharist, which she received daily without trouble and with the greatest joy ^b. There flowed together also from afar very many pious persons, to behold the martyrdom with which divine love was torturing this holy woman; and observing on the one hand the inexplicable pains and anguish in which she was plunged, and on the other the conformity and tranquillity of mind with which she bore them — and since besides she exhorted all who stood by, with a fervour of soul not to be sufficiently expressed in words, to contempt of the world, flight from sin, and the love of God — they could not restrain their tears, and, asking her prayers with grieving heart, they returned suffused at once with consolation and with astonishment that they had seen Catherine, more divine than human ^c.

[93] There would be need of a vast volume to describe the extraordinary effects which divine love produced in St. Catherine in those last four months of her life. consenting to the divine will. Sometimes it tortured her with pains so bitter that in very fact her body seemed to her to be dwelling in the fire of expiation ^d; sometimes it refreshed her with heavenly visions, which raised her soul to the joys of paradise. But the former did not bring it about that she refused to suffer, here too on earth, out of love for her crucified Good; nor could the latter extinguish the desire with which she longed to fly hence, that she might be joined with him in heaven. At that time God showed her the state of the souls in expiation, the purity ^e with which a soul must be endowed at the stroke of death, the love with which she had been created by God, the price of eternal beatitude, and other secrets, for the penetrating of which he alone suffices who has seen them.

[94] When the day of the Assumption of the Most Holy Virgin Mary had dawned, The great joy of one refreshed by a vision of Angels. in the year 1510, Catherine's pains increasing beyond measure, on that so memorable day she was fortified with Extreme Unction with the highest delight of soul, just as she herself had desired. Afterwards a multitude of angels visited her, who gave her to taste along with them the joys of paradise; and so great was the jubilation which arose in her from such a vision that, overflowing into her body, it compelled her to give manifest signs of gladness, those standing by being suffused with no less astonishment than consolation at so unforeseen a change. Nor was the joy she conceived of a single moment or fleeting, but it lasted in her for seven continuous days in such a manner that all judged her to be so far from all peril of death that she would thereafter be restored to health.

[95] But when the said days had flowed by, everyone perceived that his hope was false; Afterwards she is more vehemently tormented, even by the sight of a demon. for on the day sacred to the Vigil ^f of St. Bartholomew she was again oppressed by most vehement convulsions, which shortly brought her as it were to the appointed time of death. And moreover the Lord permitted that she should be tortured by a horrifying vision of the common adversary, which brought her intolerable pain — not indeed because she feared him in any way, but because of the repugnance which stood between her soul, kindled with divine love, and the deplorable state of that unhappy creature, which had been despoiled of so great a good. So that, unable to endure a vision so troublesome and abominable to her, turning herself this way and that, although she could not speak, she nevertheless signified by help of nods to those standing by that they should sign themselves over the breast with the sign of the holy Cross, as she also did, and should sprinkle the chamber and the bed with lustral water; and when all these things had been performed, at the end of half an hour that terrible vision vanished, and to her former tranquillity of soul

she was restored by the Lord.

[96] For a short time that quiet state stood firm, God renewing in her the accustomed torments, Astonishing changes in the sick woman while she was from time to time relieved by other heavenly impressions; whence there arose in her such sudden changes from pain into exultation, from sadness into joy, from failure of strength into an extraordinary vigour of soul, that her spiritual children were struck with astonishment along with the physicians, who at every moment both feared that they would lose her and at the same time promised themselves that she would be preserved. Fear of this kind mingled with hope they experienced on the twenty-fifth day of August, on which she, deprived of her senses and unable to receive any relief, having taken up her strength again, ordered the windows to be opened, that she might contemplate the sky; and she began the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, continuing it while the others sang with her, and they observed her countenance cheerful and flashing, and heard from her mouth these words: "Let us go, no more earth, no more earth." But although they doubted about her death, all perceived that God at that point of time had made great things manifest to her; and so it certainly happened, although she herself, when asked what she had seen, answered that she could not speak ^g.

[97] and operations proceeding from the love of God: She did indeed make manifest a vision which she had two days afterwards, in which her soul was shown to her, cleansed of every affection of flesh and of spirit — which she had continually longed for — and she disclosed it by clear signs, ordering that no others should be near her save those whom sheer necessity required, and that they should hold no talk with her save what charity demanded; practising besides toward her most intimate familiars a wonderful indifference, which struck fear and veneration into them. The astonishing trials which heavenly love made upon her wasted body and cleansed spirit after these visions can more easily be recorded than accurately described, since human wit is not fit to penetrate the hidden operations of God. We know that sometimes she lay motionless for many hours, her face and lips reddening; that, her native colour being changed, her body frequently burned in such a manner that it seemed to give off kindled vapours of fire, which communicated a vehement heat to the water offered her in a silver vessel to cool her hands, so that the vessel itself was heated by the boiling of the water, just as if it had recently been taken from the fire.

[98] suffering much, she counts her pains sweet. Here the favours did not stop with which her heavenly Bridegroom willed to endow her before her holy departure; for on the third day of September he made her a partaker of his most sacred Passion, making trial in her body and soul of the bitterness of the pains borne by him; and this those standing by knew well enough, when they observed her with her arms stretched out on the bed in the form of a Cross, representing in herself the image of her crucified Good, and loosing her tongue in the following words: "Happily has this passion come, and any other torment whatsoever sent by God's sweet ordinance; for it is now about thirty-six years since you enlightened me, sweet Love, and from that point of time until now I have always desired to suffer, both inwardly and outwardly; and because this was my wish, I seemed to myself never to have found any torment at all, but rather, although every past pain and outward grief appeared a vast torture, by your disposition all of it seemed to me of the greatest sweetness and inward delight. Now I have reached the end; I come to you, so oppressed with the highest inward and outward pain from head to foot that I do not think that any human body, however great its strength, could endure this monstrous torment; to which, it seems to me, not only a body consisting of flesh and bones must succumb, but a body even of iron and adamant must be annihilated by its force: since it plainly appears that you moderate and govern all things by your equitable and just disposition, by which you do not yet will that I should die. And although without any remedy I have borne in this body such immoderate torments ^h, nevertheless I experience within me a lofty spirit, and I am so affected that I cannot say that I suffer; nay, I seem to myself to dwell continually in a great delight, which is so pleasing and lovable to me that I cannot utter it, nor even think it."

[99] For many days now God had withdrawn from her every human solace, so as to sustain her by his consecrated Body alone, Another vision offered the Saint, in whose disease there is nothing natural. when on the 7th day of September, among other appearances of joy, he showed her a vast fiery ladder reaching from earth to heaven, to the ascent of whose fiery steps she was invited; which vision, lasting four hours, so inflamed at once her soul and her body that the whole world seemed to be burning up — so that, having inquired whether this were so, she ordered the windows to be opened, that she might be made more certain. Those who were with her, suffused with shame and astonishment at such unusual vicissitudes, and desiring to make every trial to preserve her life, sometimes urged her to take something by which she might be strengthened; but this availed only for the exercise of her obedience, since it was certain to her that she would not be able to keep it down. And when they had explored other ways, though uselessly, they gathered ten distinguished physicians, that they might see whether human industry might ever avail to obtain her relief; but this too was in vain; for when the experts had once more applied all their most exquisite skill, they could determine nothing other than what they had determined before, namely that this disease was by no means natural.

[100] The Lord had then fulfilled the sublime counsel which he had turned over in his mind from eternity, Having lost much blood, and yielding to her love, she breathes out her soul. of making this vast Soul a singular example of loving and of suffering; and so he had consumed her body that little or no blood was left in it. Because of the vehemence of the heat she had conceived, it could no longer be kept shut in her veins; whence in her last days, a way being opened for it to come forth, it flowed out from them abundantly, and the force of the heat, penetrating the metal vessels in which it was received, left them stained with indelible marks. At length, when the fourteenth day of September of the year 1510 had drawn near, sacred to the Exaltation of the holy Cross, on which, although her body had remained as it were bloodless and empty of every other humour, nevertheless, just as a lamp about to be extinguished gives out more light, so this remarkable Saint broke out with greater spirit and strength into discourses more kindled with love than ever. When that day had passed and the following one, which was Sunday, the fifteenth of September ^k, had advanced beyond the sixth hour of the night ⁱ, the Saint, being asked whether she wished to be refreshed with the Eucharist, carried away in a most profound contemplation, as one to whom her nearing end was known, pointed her finger to heaven, signifying that she must at once set out for the heavenly banquet; wherefore, with a serene countenance and a most sweet voice chanting the last words of her crucified Jesus, saying, "Into thy hands, Lord, I commend my spirit," in the sixty-third year of her age, the sacrifice being complete, this consumed Victim of divine love flew away to an inseparable union with her God.

[101] At that very point of time in which that holy Soul stripped itself of the bonds of the body, Immediately after her death the Saint's glory is revealed, miracles she was seen by a certain spiritual daughter of hers, present there, to go forth from the body and ascend most swiftly into heaven ^l; and when a certain possessed woman was being tortured beyond measure by a demon, the malignant spirit was compelled to say that it had seen this Soul joining itself to God, and that thence it was experiencing an intolerable torment. Visions ^m of this kind blessed many chosen souls also who had striven to follow her holy footsteps. When news of this holy death had been swiftly spread abroad, clerics and laymen, nobles and commoners, of every age and of every sex, stirred with grief and mourning at so great a loss, ran together in rivalry to venerate her body, exposed in the public church of the hospital; and since various sick persons who commended themselves to her intercession obtained a perfect healing from their diseases, there was no one there who did not feel himself moved with tenderness of soul at the sight of her and at the prodigies wrought, and feel stirred up within him affections of sorrow and of contempt for worldly things — seeming to himself to be invited even by the bier on which she lay to take fervently the way of heaven; nor did much time pass before wonderful changes were observed, especially in illustrious women who, sending word of dismissal to the vanity of the world, applied their minds solely to attending to the great business of their eternal salvation.

[102] wrought, and the veneration shown her by the peoples: Before the sacred body was placed in the new tomb prepared for that end, there was no one present who dared to order it to be opened ⁿ, since it did not seem right that that body should be subjected to an incision which even then seemed to be living, being soft and flexible, and which, preserving the signs of heavenly gifts, kept the skin surrounding the region of the heart continually red ^o. Hence it came about that the other favour of the heart, reduced to ashes by the divine fire, with which, as has already been said, the Lord had adorned her, could not be made public. Wherefore so precious a treasure, having been brought into the new tomb [p], remained in it for a year and a half, hidden from sight but open to the common piety, which then stood out most of all when, before it should be transferred into a richer monument, it was necessary to expose it for eight continuous days to the boundless multitude which ran up to venerate and to admire in it the continuance of those prodigies [q] which had been observed in it from the beginning. And because it was not enough for the fervent piety of those who ran up to procure the sacred garments for themselves, someone having been found among them who dared to steal away a nail by stealth, it became necessary to enclose it in a well-guarded and fortified chapel — the Lord continuing to show how much his Handmaid's prayers availed with him, prodigies being multiplied in favour of those who commended themselves to her.

[103] which, diminished at no time, ever more greatly The cult of this great Saint was extended in a greater degree after her heroic virtues were given to the public light, together with the wonderful works composed by herself, which were made public by help of the press [r] by two Servants of God, Don Cattaneo Marabotto and Ettore Vernazza, of whom we have made honourable mention elsewhere. Since these very works were often printed and translated into various languages, it is not to be believed how widely the fame of her surpassing sanctity and admirable doctrine was spread throughout the Catholic world — so that most holy and most learned men were carried away with astonishment [s], a lengthy catalogue of whom was woven by Father Giacinto Parpera of the Congregation of the Oratory in the book entitled Blessed Catherine of Genoa illustrated.

[104] grew, and was declared legitimate, processes having been instituted, The cult imparted to this holy Matron from the beginning constantly persevered, no diminution of it ever being made; nay, it was extended far more widely, even among foreign nations. There seemed

pious men from every quarter to run together in great number to venerate her holy body, which always remains incorrupt, exposed to public view; whence, after fitting petitions, a cult of this kind was declared legitimate by Apostolic authority on the sixth day of April in the year 1675. But the noble men who preside over the governance of the greater hospital of the city of Genoa, by no means content with declarations of this kind, obtained that the cause of her Canonization should be introduced by the sacred Congregation of Rites; from which, having obtained various favourable rescripts, both for the inscription of her name in the Roman Martyrology and for the celebration of her festival with a proper Office and Mass, they at length obtained from that same Congregation in the year 1732 a favourable decree in the examination of her heroic virtues, afterwards obtaining its Apostolic confirmation on the 30th day of May of the aforesaid year [t].

ANNOTATA.

p. Arthur writes in his Gynæceum that her sacred body was entombed on the 18th day of October. Whence he learned this I do not know; for neither the older biographer nor Parpera in the twofold Life of the Saint marks this 18th day. The later writer in chapter 114 of the Life published in the year 1682 notes in the margin these characters: 1510, 17 September; and in Blessed Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter 1, number 4, where he treats of the codicil added to the Saint's testament, of the declaration of Catherine's last will made by Carenzio and Marabotto, and of the Saint's burial in the church of the greater hospital, which followed this declaration, he likewise notes the following in the margin in Italian: Codicil, 1510, 12 September, in the acts of Gregorio Sacheri. Declaration on the 16th of the said month. Handbook of the Cartulary of the hospital, 1510, 2 October, on pages 18 and 4. But none of these characters favour Arthur.

q. The longer Life reports but a single benefit: Parpera in the Life published in the year 1682 records some others, the first of which he binds to the year 1616. It must be therefore that those prodigies which the older biographer relates under the general name of a benefit as having happened immediately after the Saint's departure were either not committed to writing, or perished through the injury of the times.

r. The time at which these were published, and other matters bearing on this, see in the Commentary §1.

s. Some we reviewed in the Commentary §2.

t. What is reported throughout this whole number will be further elucidated in the Posthumous Glory.

CHAPTER IX.

Miracles recently obtained at the Saint's invocation: her solemn canonization.

XX.

It is not the place here to recount one by one the innumerable prodigious healings Miracles recently wrought, which God worked at this Saint's intervention through the long space of more than two centuries which flowed by from her holy death to her solemn canonization. Whence it will be enough for me to report those which were recently wrought, from the time when, in the year 1729, by the fervent zeal of the nobles of the greater hospital of Genoa, this cause of hers began to be more effectively promoted, and which are read as reported in the records of the processes, proved by authentic evidence, and at length confirmed by the approval of the holy Apostolic See.

[106] Maria Maddalena Rizzi about the year 1619 ^a contracted in the greater hospital of Genoa a sickness with swelling of the legs and knees and an intolerable pain in the left side; among which are three sudden healings and when all the remedies which were applied to her had been tried, but uselessly, this was the physicians' opinion, that she could not recover from this ill; whence, placed among the incurables, the unhappy woman led a most wretched life, compelled by the force of the ill to lie motionless and always needing another's help in all her tasks. In that state she remained for a space of about nine years, when on the last Friday of March in the year 1729, at a time when she was oppressed by a greater pain than usual, which took from her not only rest but besides all appetite for food, she fervently commended herself to the Saint, reciting once in her honour the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation; and soon she fell into a gentle sleep, from which not long after she awoke free and well, and, clothing herself in her garments, sprang from her bed without delay, and without another's help or support went on foot to visit the Saint's tomb; and having given thanks to her whom she had experienced so remarkably beneficent, she was able at once, to the astonishment of all, to apply herself to her accustomed laborious exercises ^b.

[107] The fame of the miracle spread more widely which was wrought by God through the patronage of this great Saint in the person of the noble girl Maria Francesca Saveria Gentile, three sudden who for thirteen continuous years had lain oppressed by a heap of ills, which had often brought her to such a pass that she was fortified with all the holy Sacraments. Asthma, convulsions, the scorbutic ill, and contractions of the sinews by which the soles of her feet were drawn tight, were the accustomed infirmities with which she struggled, dangerous symptoms being frequently added to these. At last the thought came into the sick woman's mind, spurred by the miracles which were being done daily at the Saint's tomb, of bidding farewell to every human remedy and of commending herself to her with a sincere heart, since she hoped that she would certainly obtain health if only she should succeed in visiting that sacred monument. Wherefore on the 23rd day of March in the year 1734, contrary to what her household thought and to what the laws of human prudence dictated,

after she had taken care to be clothed in her garments and settled in a chair, she was carried, accompanied by those who ministered to her, before the body of St. Catherine; whence, having first heard Mass and poured out fervent prayers to her, as she was being brought home again she perceived indeed that the hope she had conceived had not been disappointed. For scarcely had she been carried to the portico when, as the bearers wished to lift her from the ground and bring her into her chamber, she would in no way permit it, but raising herself, she began boldly to climb the steps, and in the twinkling of an eye found herself as free and well as if she had never been sick — to the astonishment of her parents and of her noble kinsfolk and friends, who ran up swiftly at the report of the miracle to share with her their gladness at the health she had obtained.

[108] are reviewed, after a rigorous examination In no respect inferior was the sudden healing of Bianca Semina, who at a tender age, having fallen down a certain stair of her house, remained crippled in the loins; and, having been carried to the hospital, after she had employed every remedy uselessly through the long course of twenty-five years, became paralytic, and, carrying her right hand drawn tight, lay ill continually, unfit of herself for every human task. She, hearing of the miracles wrought at the Saint's tomb, on the second day of April in the year 1734 ordered herself to be placed in a sedan chair and carried from the hospital of the Incurables, in which she was living, to the Greater hospital, to visit the sacred body; and there, when she had heard Mass and reverently received the Eucharist, as she went on to commend herself to the Saint in order to beg the health she desired, behold, unexpectedly she rises of her own accord, raises herself perfectly upon her feet, and stretches out her contracted hand, to the amazement and astonishment of all who were present as spectators of such a miracle.

[109] approved by the Apostolic See. Her solemn The aforenoted miracles, having been subjected to the rigorous examination of the sacred Congregation of Rites, the Most Eminent Giorgio Spinola being reporter of the cause, substituted in the place of the deceased Most Eminent Giuseppe Renato Imperiali, were universally approved with the applause of the lords consultors, and thereafter confirmed by the oracle of the Supreme Pontiff, who knows not how to err, in the year 1737 on the 5th day of April, upon which her birthday opportunely fell ^c. Afterwards, a general Congregation of sacred Rites having been held again before His Holiness, in which the doubt was proposed whether, in view of the approval of the reported miracles, a solemn canonization could safely be decreed, it was determined that this was safely permissible; wherefore our Lord the Pope, after imploring the divine help, on the 30th day of the aforesaid month and year issued the desired decree.

[110] enrolment of Catherine in the Roll of the Saints. The reigning Pontiff Clement XII had already decreed to bestow upon our remarkable Matron, endowed with heroic charity, those honours which the Vicar of Christ and lawful Successor of St. Peter is accustomed to grant to those who by a wonderful life and by remarkable prodigies wrought through their intervention have supplied the Church militant with surpassing examples of sanctity and with singular benefits, that posterity might admire and imitate them; and to that end he had appointed the 15th day of June in the year 1737, consecrated to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity; when, the usual counsels having been first held, and every preparation befitting a function so sacred and of such majesty having been made ready, on the said day the venerable majesty of the same supreme Pontiff was seen amid a most illustrious assembly of Cardinals, bishops, legates, princes, and prelates, by whom, all Rome exulting, our glorious widow Catherine Fieschi Adorno of Genoa was enrolled in the roll of the Saints together with Vincent de Paul, John Francis Regis, and Juliana Falconieri.

ANNOTATA.

POSTHUMOUS GLORY.

Catherine Fieschi Adorno, widow, at Genoa. (S.)

BY U. S.

§ I. The Saint's glory revealed to many: her cult begun immediately from her death: her burial, and the various translations of her sacred body, free from corruption.

[ ] Visions concerning the Saint's Our anonymous biographer, at number 101 of the Life, recorded in a few words that immediately after the Saint's happy departure her glory and her assumption among the heavenly ones was revealed to some. But the older biographer in chapter 51 says that it is fitting that we should believe that the soul of St. Catherine was joined to the blessed orders of the fiery cherubim: For since, he says, in this life she was most perfectly purged by the fire of love, it is agreeable to truth that the Lord raised her to that excellent dignity and glory. To believe this, because it does not conflict with the Catholic faith, is not alien to reason — especially considering the beginning, when she was wounded by divine love, and the progress of her whole life, together with the trials made in her company over many years. And to both revelations concerning Catherine's holy death, briefly recorded by the anonymous author, the older biographer in the chapter just praised subjoins the following: A certain physician, devoted to her, waking from sleep at the hour of her death, heard a voice saying to him: Farewell, I am now setting out for heaven; and he said to his wife: Lady Catherine has just now died — which he afterwards found to be true.

[2] glory among the heavenly ones He goes on in the same place: Another, being at prayer at that same hour, saw her going into heaven on a white cloud; and because he was a spiritual man and greatly devoted to her, he was filled with such consolation and joy that he seemed carried out of himself: he was indeed far away, yet as certain of her death and glory as if he had been present. Parpera, in the Life of the Saint published in the year 1682, chapter 112, says that it is credible that this revelation was made to Ettore Vernazza: and if so, it must be that he, out of lowliness of mind, wished his own name to be passed over in silence in the longer Life. A certain holy religious woman, says the older biographer in the praised chapter 51, beheld her in her sleep clothed in a white garment, girded about the middle, and her union with God was revealed to her in spirit; and she said to her companion that she had seen the soul of Lady Catherine passing into heaven; and in the morning, with vast joy (since she was most devoted to her), she was made certain of the truth of the matter. Parpera, in the place just cited, asserts that it is held for certain that this nun was Thomasa Fieschi, of whom we have made mention elsewhere.

[3] The longer Life thus continues the narration of the revelations of her holy death: offered to many. Another religious woman, being at that very hour in ecstasy, saw this Lady surrounded with such beauty and gladness and abounding in such delights that she thought herself carried into paradise: she was addressed by her by name, and by many salutary admonitions was led and prepared to bear adversities patiently for the love of God; and she both proposed and undertook a change of life. She declared that she was often suffused with consolation from the memory of this vision; whence she conceived a greater devotion toward her after her death, and gave her greater trust than before in her lifetime, although she had been familiar with her. In the same manner she appeared to a certain nun as enjoying the greatest peace and joy; hence she drew such gladness and delight that she almost expired, and so was made far more certain in spirit of her union with God

than if she had beheld her with bodily eyes. He adds that this favour was granted to many others also, even to those existing far away, and at last concludes thus: And so many things were heard from various persons that to relate them all would be too lengthy.

[4] After these things, both the older biographer in the same chapter 51, What befell Marabotto, the Saint's confessor, and Parpera more fully in chapter 113 of the Life published in the year 1682, set forth the special certitude which Marabotto, who had been Catherine's confessor, received concerning the Saint's glory in heaven and, as it seemed, her martyrdom. He was ignorant, throughout the whole night in which the Saint died and the following day, of the revelations made to others, when, on the testimony of the praised Parpera, although he in no way doubted of Catherine's beatitude, yet, meaning to imitate the example of St. Augustine, who had poured out prayers for his mother's salvation, he wished to celebrate Mass for Catherine; but Parpera adds that he was hindered by a certain hidden power from saying Mass for the deceased, and was inwardly taught to celebrate the Mass of many Martyrs which fell on that day. These things, however, are read a little otherwise in the older biographer, in this manner: Her confessor had no knowledge of these things that night and all the following day: on the second day after, being about to celebrate Mass for the dead, he could never pray for her particularly, but only in general. On the following day there fell to him, as he was thinking nothing about this Blessed woman, a Mass of many Martyrs to be celebrated. Parpera himself too, in chapter 51 of the Life published in the year 1681, writes in such a way as openly to agree with the older biographer, that a Mass was celebrated for the dead, although he could not pray for Catherine particularly.

[5] What befell him as he was celebrating the Mass of the Martyrs at the time of the sacrifice of the Mass. the Latin Life of Thanner describes: Behold, it says, as he begins the Introit, "But the salvation of the Just is from the Lord," he was wholly stirred in spirit, her entire martyrdom being represented to him: he understood that every word uttered by him fitted that martyrdom exactly. Reading the Epistle, "The souls of the Just are in the hand of God," together with the Gospel, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees," he felt his heart wounded at every word with devotion and compassion, and he was compelled to pour forth such a flood of tears that he thought it impossible to continue the Mass he had begun, much less to finish it. Having clearly beheld so great a martyrdom and pitied it to the marrow, he could not form words; and, bedewing his face with weeping, he received a vast gladness and inward delight from the divine ordinance and from her rest. All who were hearing that Mass (and they were many and devoted to Blessed Catherine) could not restrain their tears, so that the confessor himself was astonished. When the Mass had been completed with great difficulty, he was compelled to yield to tears alone for half an hour, before he was somewhat cheered again. From that time he felt no more affliction, and retained in spirit a clear and stable knowledge of the atrocity of this chosen Matron's martyrdom; and whatever he had before seen with bodily eyes and learned by long experience he counted as nothing in comparison with what he afterwards understood — from which vision (had not God turned it aside) he would have expired for grief.

[6] The cult shown the Saint immediately after her death. If we consider so many and so manifest visions concerning the Saint's glory among the heavenly ones, offered to many; if we look upon the examples of most heroic virtues recorded hitherto, of which the whole city of Genoa had been a witness, we shall by no means wonder that, as our anonymous author attests above at number 101 of the Life, immediately after her blessed departure men of every age and condition flowed together to venerate Catherine's sacred body. Hence also in the writing entitled The agreed Fact, offered to Clement XII, I read thus: Immediately from her death the fame of her sanctity and of her miracles spread so widely that from the aforesaid year 1510 a cult, and indeed a public one, toward this blessed woman began, and lasted without interruption for a hundred years and more. And these things leave no doubt concerning the antiquity of the cult bestowed upon the Saint soon after her departure. Yet there seem to have been some in Parpera's time who doubted whether it was lawful to honour our Catherine with an ecclesiastical cult; for thus he writes in the letters to Henschen praised above: The author (of the little book to which he gives this Italian title, A Specimen of an invitation to the veneration of Blessed Catherine of Genoa) contends to prove — nay, proves, against the pious dread of certain persons — that she can, nay ought, to be called Blessed, notwithstanding the Bull of our Most Holy Lord Pope Urban VIII published in the year 1621. And he adduces there as reasons an immemorial cult bestowed on Catherine with the ordinary's knowledge and toleration, and with the consent of the Church, etc.

[7] Her body, buried in the church of the greater hospital, Before we investigate the increases of the Saint's cult and other matters bearing on this, I subjoin a few things about her burial. Parpera, in Blessed Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter 1, number 4, mentions a twofold testament of the Saint. He writes that the last was drawn up in the year 1509 on the 18th day of March, and says that in it the Saint directed that she should be buried outside the city in the church sacred to St. Nicholas (commonly called del Boschetto), although in the earlier testament, whose date Parpera does not mark, she had declared that she wished to be laid in her husband's tomb in the church served by the Observant Minors, dedicated to the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commonly called the Annunziata di Portoria. The reason why she wished to be entombed outside the city was perhaps, Parpera says, this: that she might decline the honours which she could easily foresee would be paid her, and which were repugnant to the Saint's humble opinion of herself. Neither testament was satisfied, since, on Parpera's testimony in the same place, the most illustrious protectors of the greater hospital secretly saw to it that a codicil was drawn up by the Saint, by which the place of burial was left to the judgment of Giacomo Carenzio, then rector of the hospital, and of Cattaneo Marabotto. And he says that this codicil was drawn up in the presence of the protectors on the 12th day of September of the year 1510, and that on the 16th day of the same month and year Carenzio and Marabotto designated the place of burial, on account of which declaration the Saint was buried in the church of the greater hospital; but on what determined day is unknown, as we saw in the Annotata to chapter 8 of the Life, note p.

[8] The older biographer in chapter 52 writes thus of the Saint's burial: is found by a remarkable miracle many months after death The body of this Blessed woman was buried in the church of the greater hospital of the city of Genoa, … and was first placed in a decent wooden coffin against the wall, beneath which there was a water-conduit, which however was not noticed. The time during which the sacred body lay in that tomb is there said to have been eighteen months, after which it pleased God to declare the sanctity of his Handmaid by a remarkable prodigy. On Parpera's testimony in the Life published in the year 1682, the most illustrious protectors of the greater hospital, aided by the alms of the pious, built a tomb of marble, adorned with paintings, that the Saint's body might be more becomingly placed in it. Afterwards, says the older biographer in the chapter 52 just praised, the monument was broken open and the coffin opened, in which, because of the moisture of the water, many worms had been generated; and in the tow which was in the coffin there were not a few white and thick ones, but not so much as one had crept to the sacred body, which was found whole from head to foot, utterly unharmed, the flesh in part as palpable as if it had been dried, not consumed.

[9] In the same chapter is described the vast concourse of the people to the sacred body for the sake of veneration, whole and unharmed. Baillet's which it was necessary to expose openly for eight whole days; but when a nail had been taken from it by a pious theft, it was shut up in a certain shrine, that it might no longer be touched. Then it is added thus: Everyone marvelled, seeing that all the cloths in which the sacred body had been wrapped in the monument, together with the wooden coffin, were putrid and corrupted, but the body incorrupt and inviolate. The skin about the heart was even then ruddy, as a sign of the fiery love which had burned in it; the rest of the body was of a saffron colour, as was said above (chapter 51) — so that anyone might expressly perceive that the whole of it was a divine work. It is to be observed here in passing that, whereas, on the testimony of the older biographer in the Annotata to chapter 8 of the Life, at the note o there praised, after her death the whole body was found of a saffron colour, which while the Saint lived was seen only about the heart, in this first translation the part of the body surrounding the region of the heart was found ruddy, and the rest of the body of a saffron colour, God multiplying his prodigies for the Saint's glory. Now Baillet, in the Saint's Life, takes up the foregoing narrative from chapter 52 in French much as follows: They then remembered that in the last month of her sickness the Saint had directed that after her death her body should be opened, and had asserted that her heart would be found wholly burned up by love; yet they did not dare to carry this out, fearing lest the outcome should either prove the truth of the prediction or convict it of falsity.

[10] Before I answer Baillet, it will be useful to review the biographer's words. censure, concerning the reason why the body was not opened The Latin edition of Thanner, chapter 52, has this: This holy Soul, many months before her death, because of the burning fire with which she blazed, directed that after her death her body should be opened and her heart inspected, and that it would be found wholly burned up by love. She perceived that in it there was to be seen some sign and manifest token, as is read of St. Ignatius and of many others, especially of Blessed Clare of Montefalco: nevertheless her friends did not dare to attempt this. Observe here first, reader, that the biographer says the Saint directed this many months before her death; Baillet on the contrary says it happened in the last month of St. Catherine's illness. The biographer writes only that her friends did not dare to perform what had been commanded; but Baillet, on what authority I do not know, asserts that the Saint's command was not satisfied out of fear lest the outcome should either show the truth of the prediction or convict it of falsity.

[11] after her death, is beaten back. Whence, I ask, did that critical man learn this? Did he perhaps think this inference legitimate: They did not dare; therefore out of fear lest, etc.? Surely no beginner in dialectic will acknowledge it. How could it fall into a sound brain to argue thus: They did not dare, lest the outcome should show either the truth of the prediction or its falsity? For indeed, if, obeying the Saint's command, they had found that she had predicted truly, it could not but have redounded to the Saint's greater commendation and glory; nor do they seem to me to have been able rightly to fear that falsehood underlay the prediction, for they had beheld so many other singular favours of God toward the Saint that they could with reason be persuaded that she had been endowed with this one too. Whence Mariano Grimaldi wrote more rightly in his Genoese Sanctuary, published at Genoa in the year 1613, that the sacred body was not opened out of reverence; better still did our anonymous author of the Life write above at number 102, that it did not seem right that a body should be subjected to an incision which after death, still soft and flexible, seemed to be living, and preserved the signs of heavenly

tokens of gifts. But let us dismiss these trifles inconsiderately raised by Baillet, and turn our mind to other matters whose discussion is more useful.

[12] Concerning the translation of the sacred body into the new marble tomb the longer Life, chapter 52, has this: Various translations of the sacred body Thereafter that sacred body was laid in a raised marble tomb in the church of the hospital; but on account of the throng and importunity of the men who visited it, it was afterwards honourably entombed in a lower place, where it continues whole up to this present year 1551 — that is, in which, as was said at number 10 of the preliminary Commentary, the Life of St. Catherine was first published in print. Moreover, although the order of time may seem to require otherwise, it has nevertheless seemed good to set here under one view the remaining matters which regard the conveying of the sacred body into a more becoming place or a more precious urn. Parpera, in the Life of the Saint published in the year 1682, chapter 114, number 7, writes that in the year 1593, the protectors of the hospital desiring to place a treasure of such great price in a nearer and safer spot, a notable tomb was erected above a certain arch of the same church with this inscription, cut in the marble: The body of Blessed Catherine Adorno of Genoa, sprung from the Fieschi family, which God has for so long made illustrious by its incorruption, etc., the protectors of this hospital have not suffered to be any longer covered by an obscure stone. A.D. 1593.

[13] into more becoming tombs. The praised Parpera asserts in the same place that in the year 1642 the holy Widow's body was translated into a more elegant gilded chest, with this inscription likewise: The incorrupt body of Blessed Catherine Fieschi Adorno the protectors have taken care to have transferred from a chest almost falling to pieces with age into this one of a more elegant form and adorned with gold, etc., by decree, by the hand of Giovanni Benedetto Gritta, chancellor. In the Year of Salvation 1642. In that tomb the holy body seems to have rested until the year 1692, in which, as is clear from the writing entitled The agreed Fact, the sacred Congregation of Rites, at the demand of those who were endeavouring to promote the Saint's canonization, permitted on the 17th day of May that the Blessed woman's body should be removed from the wooden urn and placed in another of silver, adorned with crystals, so that it might be beheld by those who looked upon it; which permission Innocent XII, Supreme Pontiff, approved on the 21st day of the same month and year, as is read in the same place. After these things the praised writing adds the following: And besides, since the garments with which the body of the same Blessed woman was covered were worn out, at the earnest prayers of the said petitioners the sacred Congregation granted on the 28th day of April 1703 that the body, without being stripped of the old ones, might be clothed over with new and more becoming garments. And thereupon, at new supplications, it granted that it might also be stripped, on the 4th day of August 1708, with the assent of Clement XI of holy memory on the 25th day of the same month. And these are the things which I have found committed to writing concerning the translations of St. Catherine's body into new and more becoming coffins.

§ II. What Julius II thought of St. Catherine? The processes instituted for her canonization: her immemorial cult approved: an Office and Mass granted.

[ ] Julius II's esteem for the Saint. Besides what I gave at number 6 concerning the antiquity of St. Catherine's lawful cult, Parpera further proves that her veneration was lawful from the fact that, eighteen months at least after her death, she was enrolled among the Blessed by an oracle of the living voice by Pope Julius II, then occupying the Roman Chair; and he asserts that this is established by weighty arguments in the praised epistle to Henschen. He hands down nearly the same in Blessed Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter 10, number 2, and says that Julius II, following the example of Pius II, rejoiced that he could adorn his fellow-citizen with the title of Blessed. The words of Pius in the Bull of canonization of St. Catherine of Siena, in our Work, volume III of April, page 975, number 34, are these: The matter was deferred until our own times, … that the sanctity of the Sienese virgin might come to light by the decree of a Sienese man sitting in the Roman See; which words, slightly changed, as though employed by Julius II, Parpera reports thus: That the sanctity of a Genoese Woman might come to light by the decree of a Genoese man sitting in the Roman See. That act of Julius II certainly could not but contribute much to promoting St. Catherine's cause before the Apostolic See; yet I have found no mention of it in the instruments of the canonization which we have obtained. Moreover observe that Julius II was born at Savona, which is a city of Liguria on the western Genoese coast under the dominion of that same republic, on the testimony of Baudrand in his geographical Lexicon.

[15] Parpera in the same letters to Henschen asserts that, the number of a hundred years before the decrees of Urban VIII having been completed, Processes instituted for her canonization: a process was constructed in the year 1630 by the authority of the archbishop of Genoa, and in the year 1636 another process by delegated authority. In the former, he says, all the things which are recounted in the History of her Life were proved, together with the admirable incorruption of the sacred body and some miracles then recent. But in the writing entitled The agreed Fact, and which I shall hereafter praise under that name, this process is said to have been offered to the sacred Congregation of Rites in the year 1631, the cause having been committed to the Most Eminent Cesarini; and there it is added thus: In the year 1632, on the 10th day of January, they petitioned for the despatch of Remissorial Letters in general only, which was deferred to the 24th day of May 1636, on which the aforesaid Urban VIII ordered the commission to be despatched in form. The process on her virtues and miracles in general having been completed, the cause was silent until the year 1670, etc. On the letters of Parpera just praised I read these words written in Papebroch's hand: I answered on the 13th of June that the first process should be transcribed, and, out of the second, as much as sufficed. Yet I have been able to find none among the records of our Museum — probably because Parpera did not think Papebroch's wish need be satisfied, writing back in another epistle to Papebroch that the Latin Life contained everything contained in the processes. See number 12 of the preliminary Commentary, toward the end.

[16] Catherine's immemorial cult The reasons why the Saint's cause, introduced into the sacred Congregation from the year 1631, the process having also been completed by Apostolic authority in the year 1636, was deferred until the year 1670, I have nowhere read. The agreed Fact attests that by the command of Clement X on the 21st day of July 1670 the cause was taken up again, the Most Eminent Cardinals Celso, Gualtieri, Ghisi, and Azzolino being successively substituted as Reporters of the cause; and at length that on the 30th day of March in the year 1675 there came forth a decree of the sacred Congregation, by which it was declared that the case excepted by the decrees of Urban VIII was established, and the sentence of the archbishop of Genoa concerning the immemorial cult of St. Catherine was confirmed — all which Clement X, who knows not how to err in his judgment, approved on the 6th day of April of the same year. If we believe Parpera in Blessed Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter 12, number 2, on that occasion Clement X borrowed the words of Sixtus V, likewise Supreme Pontiff, in the Bull of canonization of St. Didacus, which, as they are read in Parpera in the place praised, I here subjoin.

[17] approved by Clement X. To her chapel, as is established, not only the citizens of Genoa but neighbouring and more distant peoples, and the faithful from nearly the whole Church, flow together with such devotion; so many implore the help of this blessed Matron with God; so many Sacrifices are celebrated in that same church of hers; so many and such illustrious gifts are offered for the sake of paying a vow — that this constant and perpetual repute and opinion concerning the sanctity of blessed Catherine, not of a short time as though a breath of rumour, but through a hundred and sixty-five years and more, and so great a consent of all those faithful of every kind and of every rank, must assuredly be held in place of a great and illustrious testimony for proving the holiness of blessed Catherine. Nevertheless by many miracles also after her death this Woman, endowed with memorable sanctity, was made illustrious. Whether in very truth these things were brought forth by Clement X in approving St. Catherine's immemorial cult, or whether they were only employed by Parpera for the adornment of his History, I do not inquire. This is certain: from a hundred and sixty-five completed years since the Saint's death there are wanting five months and some days, as will appear to one who begins the reckoning from the 15th day of September of the year 1510, on which the Saint departed, up to the 6th day of April of the year 1675, on which Clement X is said to have honoured the Saint with this eulogy. Observe besides that this is not rightly ascribed by Parpera to Clement IX, who departed this life in the year 1669, and while he occupied the Roman Chair we have seen that the cause was silent. Now this error, by which Clement IX is written for X, can be ascribed to the drowsiness of the typesetters; and the same must be determined concerning Lesson III of St. Catherine's proper Office, to be recited just below.

[18] The Saint's immemorial cult having been approved by Clement X, an ecclesiastical Office, first from the common, and the Works written by Catherine having been approved by Innocent XI, as was said in the Commentary at number 20, so that further steps might be taken, on the testimony of The agreed Fact the petitioners besought the granting of an Office and Mass in honour of the said blessed Catherine; and, at the report of the Cardinal Imperiali of illustrious memory, substituted as reporter of the cause in the place of the Cardinal Giulio Spinola of illustrious memory, then deceased, the Sacred Congregation on the 13th day of September 1710 judged that an Office from the Common neither of Virgins nor of Martyrs could be granted for the church of the greater hospital of Genoa, called of the Pammatone, under a double rite, and for the city of Genoa only under a semi-double rite; to which resolution the same Clement XI (as one who had permitted the sacred body to be clothed in new garments) assented on the 19th day of December of the same year. But Clement XII, having kindly admitted the prayers of the most serene republic of Genoa, on the 6th day of March in the year 1734 granted that the proper Lessons for the second Nocturn of the Office, approved on the 19th day of May in the year 1733 for the city and diocese of Genoa, should be extended to the whole dominion of the said republic. And at last, says The agreed Fact, on the 14th day of May 1735 the Sacred Congregation, with the assent of Your Holiness (Clement XII) on the 17th day of the same month, approved a proper Office together with Hymns and Antiphons, and likewise a proper Mass. All these things, moreover, as they are read in the Summary, it has seemed good to subjoin here.

[19] Lesson IV. Catherine of Genoa, born of the parents Giacomo Fieschi then with Lessons and Francesca di Negro, conspicuous for their ancient nobility, passed her tender age amid the exercises of a grown woman's piety. For, intent upon chastising her body, when scarcely eight years old she snatched her sleep on straw, with wood placed under her head for a pillow. Turning away from childish trifles, and shrinking from all the delights of the world, she was wholly given to recalling by continual meditation the torments of Christ. Kindled with that zeal, she sought to enter a monastery. But her unripe age interrupted the Girl's pious desire. Meanwhile her parents betrothed her, against her will, to Giuliano Adorno, a nobleman, by whom she was treated so harshly and hardly that for five years she pined away at home in mourning and sadness, until, worn out with weariness and grief, she turned aside from her former strictness. But as her charity grew cold, lest

she should rush headlong into further licence of life, it was brought about by a remarkable benefit of the pitying God. For when, having thrown herself at the feet of a pious priest, she was commending herself to his prayers, by a sudden change of the right hand of the Most High and being seized by a sudden fire of the Holy Spirit, marvelling at the clemency and the power of divine love toward her, and crying out, she began to confess and to proclaim it.

[20] Lesson V. Then, having returned home, she seemed to herself to behold Christ flowing with blood over his whole body; for the second Nocturn and at this sight divinely offered her, she was vehemently kindled into contempt and hatred of herself. She tamed her limbs with a hair-shirt. She practised fasting in such a manner that for twenty-three years she passed the Fasts of Advent and of Lent refreshed by the food of the Eucharist alone, using only a most bitter drink to quench her thirst. She prolonged her prayer for many hours, and blazed with so great a conflagration of divine love that the ardour broke out into her body also. She was borne with the greatest charity toward her neighbour; for she ministered to the sick in the great hospital with incredible diligence, laying out her means liberally; she gladly undertook the most abject offices of all, having sometimes even kissed the wasting ulcers of the sick. Injuries and insults this truly strong Woman received with a cheerful mind; and, almost worn out by continual pains of body and of soul, she was made a partaker of the torments of Christ.

[21] proper ones, by the permission Lesson VI. Her, proved by so many and so great trials of heroic fortitude and patience, and having deserved excellently in the contest of Christian perfection, the Lord heaped with a rich abundance of benefits. Carried away into long and frequent ecstasies, and honoured with heavenly enlightenments and with apparitions of and converse with those above, she merited to understand the secrets of God, and to confirm the mysteries of the faith by most distinguished Writings. She was illustrious by the gift of prophecy; she saw through the hidden thoughts of minds. The conversion of a ruined man, and the peaceful death of her husband, and the eternal beatitude of both, she obtained from the Lord by her supplications. Therefore, in the sixty-third year of her age, when she was oppressed by her last illness and fastened to the cross with Christ and panting for the fountain of eternal happiness, on the day sacred to the Exaltation of the holy Cross (see the Commentary, number 134) the Lord called her forth from the anguish of this life. Distinguished indeed were the praises of learned and holy men concerning Catherine's virtues, approved also by the oracles of the supreme Pontiffs. Clement IX declared her cult immemorial; and Clement XI granted that her memory should be celebrated with a Mass and Office of Blessed Women.

[22] of Clement XII, her cult was begun. Further, as I noted here at number 17, the error of the typesetters is to be corrected in Lesson VI, by which it is written that Clement IX declared the Saint's cult immemorial, whereas this was done by Clement X. Now in the Office of St. Catherine granted by Clement XII, besides the Lessons already recited, the following are proper. Prayer. O God, who made Blessed Catherine to blaze with the fire of divine love in contemplating the passion of thy Son; we beseech thee that, by her intercession, thou wouldst kindle in us the flame of thy charity, and vouchsafe to make us partakers of that same Passion. Through the same our Lord, etc. At Vespers the proper Chapter is taken from Canticles VIII, 7: Many waters cannot quench charity, neither shall the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.

[23] Besides some other things at Vespers, The proper Hymn at Vespers is also set down in the praised Summary here:

With highest praises to the stars Let us all raise up the Woman Who by the glory of her sanctity Increases the honour of Liguria.

Blessed she! whose charity, Unable to lie hidden in her inmost bosom, Floods outward, And seethes through all her limbs.

Many months in the circuit of the year She passes fasting, Sustaining her failing life On the food of angels alone.

To God the Father be glory, And to the Son, who from the dead Arose, and to the Paraclete, Unto everlasting ages. Amen.

And the Antiphon at the Magnificat is read thus: Canticles VIII, 6. Put me as a seal upon thy heart, for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell. ℣. The lamps thereof are lamps of fire and of flames.

[24] Matins, besides the Lessons and the Prayer already recited, has nothing proper Matins, except the following Hymn:

While in her mind she beholds Christ With blood flowing from his limbs, She feels her breast suddenly Seized with an inmost ardour.

Hence, wounded with holy love, She despises all earthly things; She bears adversities briskly, And seeks one thing only — to suffer.

Soon also, wearing down with scourges Her rebellious limbs continually, She merits often to be made A partaker of the pains of Christ.

[25] At Lauds also, besides the Prayer and the Chapter already assigned for first Vespers, this Hymn is prescribed: and at Lauds, proper Hymns;

The throng of the poor lying prostrate, Whom dread anguish oppresses, As the languishing members of Christ, The merciful Matron cherishes.

Bestowing riches and aid, And performing a lowly service, She spreads their little beds, And diligently cleanses their filth.

The more foul each is with sores, The more readily does she serve him; Nor does she shudder at the wasting of ulcers — Charity knows not how to shudder.

But at second Vespers all is recited as at the first.

[26] The Mass is of the tenor which follows: Introit. Psalm XLI, 2. and the Mass are reviewed. My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? Psalm, ibid. III. As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters, so my soul panteth after thee, O God. ℣. Glory be to the Father. Prayer. That which has already been approved by the sacred Congregation. Epistle. As in the common. Gradual. Psalm LXXII, 25, 26. What have I in heaven? And besides thee what have I desired upon earth? Psalm, ibid. My flesh and my heart hath fainted away: thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever. Alleluia. ℣. Psalm XXXVIII. My heart grew hot within me: and in my meditation a fire shall flame out. Alleluia. Gospel. As in the common. Offertory. Psalm CVII, 2. My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: I will sing, and will give praise, with my glory. Alleluia. Secret. Look graciously, we beseech thee, almighty God, upon these Sacrifices, and, blessed Catherine interceding, kindle in us the spirit of thy love. Through our Lord. Communion. Psalm LXXXIII, 3. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God. Alleluia. Postcommunion. As suppliants we beseech thee, almighty God, that to those whom thou hast vouchsafed to refresh with thy Sacraments, blessed Catherine interceding, thou wouldst grant for love of thee to despise earthly things and always to rejoice in the participation of heavenly ones. Through our Lord.

[27] Observe meanwhile, reader, that, since in the foregoing from the Summary some things are read which are manifest faults of the press, I have thought that they should be written more correctly. Now the 22nd day of March was first appointed for the recitation of St. Catherine's Office and Mass, The transfer of the feast: the Saint's name inscribed in the Roman Martyrology. as is clear from the praised Summary; and since, on account of other festivals occurring, it often happened that the Saint's memory could not be celebrated on that day, it was petitioned of the Sacred Congregation that the Office and Mass might be transferred from the said 22nd day of March to the Thursday after the second Sunday of the Lord's Resurrection; and it was rescripted by the Sacred Congregation that it could be transferred to another day to be designated by the archbishop of Genoa, with the approval of Clement XII — who also, on account of the earnest prayers of the republic of Genoa, on the 6th day of March 1734 permitted that the Saint's name should be inscribed in the Roman Martyrology with the following eulogy: At Genoa, of blessed Catherine, widow, remarkable for her contempt of the world and her charity toward God — as was also done in the most recent edition of the praised Martyrology, made by the authority of Pope Benedict XIV, happily reigning, in which the foregoing is read at the 22nd day of March. Moreover I have judged it superfluous to add here the remaining matters which preceded the solemn canonization of St. Catherine, and which are reviewed both in the Summary and in The agreed Fact, especially since they are abundantly recorded in the Bull of Clement XII itself: this therefore I subjoin, as it is read in the excellent Work of Benedict XIV, Supreme Pontiff, on the Canonization of Saints, volume 1, Appendix 3, from page 353 to 361 of the Paduan edition.

§ III. Catherine is solemnly enrolled among the Saints by Clement XII, whose Bull is reviewed.

[ ] Bull of Clement XII.

The Church exults in the triumphs of the Saints, Clement, Bishop, Servant of the servants of God, for a perpetual memorial of the matter: The Roman Catholic Church rejoices and exults, glad in the victories of her sons, who, naked indeed of secular weapons but armed with divine strength, against the snares of the flattering world, or the assaults of the raging infernal enemy, or the threats of secular storms, stood strong and stable in the battle-line with a living hope, an uncorrupted mind, a constant faith, a fervent charity, and fought the good fight — the heavenly fight, the spiritual fight, the battle of Christ — completed their glorious course, and merited an unfading crown from the hand of God. Therefore the pious mother Church glories, and rightly glories, in the fortitude of the martyrs, the constancy of the penitent, the piety of widows, the chastity of virgins, and the other distinguished virtues of her faithful, who, being made a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men, fighting bravely and contending constantly, displayed in themselves the prodigies of a heavenly power. For God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the stronger, and the things that are not, that he might destroy the things that are. For the almighty power of God shines out in the weakness of his servants, and the splendour of the heavenly favour with which he makes his servants illustrious is poured back to the honour of the Church, which bore them spiritually in the laver of salvation, nourished them with the milk of doctrine, strengthened them with the words of the sacred Scriptures, armed them with the Sacraments for the fight, and led them by exhortations to the crown.

[29] And so, the greater the assault of the enemies, the fiercer the fight, the longer the contest, and the weaker the age and the frailer the sex of the one fighting, the more do the merit and praise of the victor increase, and the joy and glory of the most loving Mother, whose victory is the more illustrious from the weakness of their condition. who, recalling the triumphs of the Saints, cheered by their praises and trusting in their powerful patronage, consoles herself for the daily injuries which she receives from ungrateful sons, and wipes away the continual tears with which she bewails the deaths and the ruins of very many. Blessed be God, who withholds not his mercies in his wrath, and who ceases not daily to console his Church with the prodigies of divine grace and with the glorious victories of the Saints. Of which consolation He has willed that We — whom by no merits of our own he has vouchsafed to set over the government of the universal Church — should be partakers, amid the continual waves of tribulations and adversities by which for our sins we are grievously harassed, in blessed Catherine of Genoa; who was that strong woman whom Scripture declared hard to find, and whose fortitude of a constant soul, strengthened by heavenly aids, neither the assault of the infernal enemy nor the onset of many tribulations could shake or turn away from that purpose of sanctity which in the loftiness of her mind she had most deeply conceived.

[30] For by the grace of the Holy Spirit, of nature

passing beyond the use and the weakness of her sex, The Saint's virtues are reviewed, that they may be an example to others. girded with strength and walking in the spirit, she did not fulfil the desires of the flesh; but with her roots more deeply fixed in divine charity, and her dwelling upon the rock made solid with a sturdy mass, she stood firm and unshaken against the assaults of hell and against the storms and whirlwinds of the world, so that, going forward bravely to the gifts of God through the divine precepts, she might happily arrive at them. Her therefore on this present day, the solemnities having been observed according to custom, we have by the authority imparted to us from heaven enrolled among the number of the holy Widows, to be venerated by all the faithful; and therefore we shall briefly set forth her piously and holily accomplished deeds and her distinguished virtues, that by the recollection of them we may soothe the grief of our heart and the straits of our breast, and that all the faithful may be roused by the example of this distinguished Widow to flee the enticements of this world and to follow virtues. For, as experience teaches, we learn daily that human weakness, in running the course of the virtues, profits more by example than by precepts; since what has already been done is not reckoned difficult, and what has been proved is reckoned useful, and what has been transmitted into us by succession, by a kind of hereditary practice of a father's virtue, is reckoned religious.

[31] At Genoa, which is a celebrated city in Liguria and the head of the whole Genoese republic, From her tender years she gives herself to piety and to divine things: Catherine was born in the year one thousand four hundred and forty-seven. She had for father Giacomo Fieschi, viceroy of the kingdom of Naples, whom they hand down to have taken his descent from Roberto, brother of Innocent IV of happy memory, our Predecessor; and for mother Francesca di Negro — noble by the antiquity of their blood, but by far more noble in their offspring herself, who surpassed the splendour of her family by the pre-eminence of her virtues, which alone is nobility with God. For scarcely had she obtained the use of reason and reached the eighth year of her age when, by her love toward God, her obedience toward her parents, and her contempt toward herself, she gave a prelude of her future sanctity by remarkable proofs of virtue. For indeed, taught by the instruction of the Holy Spirit that Christian wisdom is to know Jesus Christ, and him Crucified, she frequently fixed her eyes upon an image of the suffering Christ hanging from the wall of her chamber, at whose sight she was kindled with a wondrous desire of suffering, so that, her carnal desires being crucified, she might with a mind loosed and free stretch toward the love of things invisible. And so, having already attained a mastery of virtue which outran the prejudice of her age, she scorned the softness of a bed and took a very brief sleep on straw, with wood affording her the place and the use of a pillow; and, despising all childish delights, a strict keeper of silence, she was delighted with prayer alone.

[32] being prevented from entering a monastery, she is given in marriage; Wherefore, nourished with the spiritual food of prayer, the love of the heavenly homeland and contempt of the world had so increased in her that in her thirteenth year, having taken the counsel of her confessor, she resolved to dedicate herself to God and to give herself wholly in a monastery of nuns. But the sacred virgins, to whom the grown fortitude of Catherine's soul and her spiritual strength lay hidden, reckoning her tender years and the feeble health of her body not fit for bearing the labours and duties of the monastic life, pleaded the custom of the monastery and refused to admit her into their fellowship on account of her tender age. So, by the most high counsel of divine providence disposing it, she was repelled from the religious retirement of a monastery, who afterwards, remaining in the world, might shine like a lamp set upon a candlestick in a dark place before married women and widows, over whose minds the custom of the world had spread the darkness of carnal desires, and who wished to enter upon the way of the Lord. God's Handmaid bore the refusal patiently; and understanding that the Lord willed obedience from her, not sacrifice, she obeyed the will and the command of her parents and married Giuliano Adorno, a noble and wealthy man.

[33] treated harshly by her husband, she pursues the delights of the world, But lest, caught by the deceiving sweetness of worldly pleasures, she should be led away into the way of the world, the Lord, who forsakes not those who love him, sent tribulations and pressures upon her. For her bridegroom from the very day of the marriage turned away from her vehemently: he pursued luxury and pomp, she frugality and modesty; he the gatherings and throngs of men, she silence and seclusion; he the games and delights of the world, she prayer and the chaste delights of those who love God. Therefore, her husband's mind being estranged by their contrary inclinations of will, she was treated harshly and hardly by him. But she, although she omitted no offices of wifely obedience and attention toward her husband, was nevertheless exceedingly wearied by his manners and life; whence her heart was oppressed by the darkening shadows of sadness, nor was there any to comfort her. Five years she passed in mourning and grief; then, when friends and kinswomen urged her to relax something of her former manner of life, in order to relieve the sadness of her grieving mind, she resolved to frequent the gatherings and houses of other noble women and to follow their way of living. But the most benign God had sprinkled all things with the gall of bitterness, that his Servant's soul, loathing the false delights of the world, might hunger for heavenly sweetness. For that most just power has, in wondrous and incomprehensible ways, through certain most hidden successions of the things which he created to serve him, both the severity to punish and the clemency to set free.

[34] refreshed by these in nothing, she is wonderfully converted. And so, when nearly another five years had passed, since by earthly things the grief and sadness of her soul was rather increased than her anguish relieved (for by a severe mercy God allowed nothing to grow sweet for his Handmaid that was not himself), she was so weighed down beyond measure, above her strength, that she was weary even of living, and had within herself the sentence of death. Amid grievous anguish of soul she consulted her own sister, who was a nun, at whose urging she went to the priest who was confessor of the monastery; and scarcely had she prostrated herself at his feet when, upon eyes of the mind already darkened in the world, the light of divine brightness suddenly shone, and, struck at once with the wound of sorrow and of love, she was little short of falling to the ground. But when she returned home, since a deep consideration, by the shining of the light of divine grace, had drawn together and heaped up from the hidden depth all her wretchedness into the sight of her heart, a vast shower of tears arose; and, having cast away her womanly ornaments, which she would never afterwards take up again, with a most bitter contrition of heart and a holy indignation against herself, she detested the faults of her past life, marvelling at the divine clemency and the unspeakable goodness of God, which draws back those who withdraw from him and forsake the fountain of living water, to dig for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold the waters.

[35] Therefore, with fear of the divine justice, with wonder at the mercies of the Lord, with hatred toward the world, with indignation toward herself, with sorrow for her sins — with so great and so heavy a storm of diverse affections at last shaking the inmost parts of her heart — the flame of divine love, already conceived, was kindled; and sighs fell from her breast and rivers of tears from her eyes, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. Inflamed from a vision of Christ bearing the cross with a desire of suffering When suddenly there appeared to the eyes of her mind the image of the Saviour bearing the cross, flowing with blood over his whole body. Which sight, deeply fixed in her soul and expressed in living colours, she so retained thereafter in her mind that whatever she beheld with her eyes seemed to her sprinkled with the precious Blood of Christ, and wherever she turned herself she seemed to behold the image of the suffering Saviour. Hence a vast ardour of suffering, that, conforming herself to the passion of Christ the Lord, she might make satisfaction to divine justice for the faults she had committed, even light ones, in the blood and through the merits of the divine Mediator, and might crucify the old man within herself and destroy the body of sin, that she might no longer be a slave to sin. And so she subdued her flesh with hair-shirts, with scourges, with hunger, with thirst, with vigils, with fasts, lest it should bring forth the thorns and briars of vices, but that, holy in body and in spirit, she might offer herself a victim pleasing to God.

[36] One or two years from the day of her admirable conversion, she keeps a long and prodigious at the voice of Christ the Lord sounding in the inward ears of her heart, she was invited to keep the Lenten fast with the Lord her Saviour; trained by which she might learn to overcome those three kinds of temptations by which he willingly was tempted: namely, that, nourished within by the word of God, she should not seek pleasure in the desert of this mortal life, but rather should hold desire so subdued that it should not yield even to hunger; that, subject to God alone, she should not desire boasting on the mountain — that is, in earthly elation — but, serving no creature and adoring none but God, should trample under foot the pride of the world and the vanities of the vain; and finally that, clinging to the eternal spectacle of unchangeable truth, she should despise the enticement of curiosity, and should not tempt God, nor cast herself down from the pinnacle of the temple — that is, through the eyes of the body — so as to arrive, by withdrawing from God to temporal and lower things, at the temple, that is, our soul, wherein he dwells; and thus by fasting and prayer she should hold those three utterly subdued and thoroughly broken: the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the ambition of the world.

[37] The strong Woman of God at once hearkened to the Lord's invitations, fast, victor over herself and over depraved affections. and followed the spirit leading her into the desert of penance, far from worldly delights and the secular cares of those who dwell upon the earth. And not only the time of that first Lent, but for many years, as is reported, she passed not only the Fasts of Lent but also those of Advent sustained by the heavenly food of prayer alone and by the most sacred bread of the Eucharist, sometimes rather torturing her thirst than quenching it with a most bitter drink of water in which salt and vinegar were dissolved; in which time of fasting she nevertheless discharged the laborious duties of charity more sturdily and more vigorously. Thus, passing by the grace of the Holy Spirit beyond the use of nature and the weakness of her sex, she nourished her body with the food of abstinence and the drink of bitterness, teaching that one should not only be ignorant of vices, but ignorant even of the causes of vices.

[38] Advancing therefore with swift step toward the height of sanctity along the narrow paths of penance, Of the Saint, ministering to the poor and the sick, and taught by the divine master of humility that the height of perfection ought to be the measure of humility, Catherine chose to be abject in the house of her Father rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners. And so, adding herself as a companion — or rather as a leader in piety — to other noble matrons, whose care it was to succour the sick and the poor and to relieve the calamities and straits of the wretched by work and by money, she went about through the streets and squares, seeking in the poor and the sick him whom her soul loved. And she walked through the city with a sober step, in a humble garment, with a modest countenance, her eyes fixed upon the ground, so that the signs of her virtues went before as heralds of her sanctity. And she came to the aid of the needy in their necessities promptly and liberally, and embraced sick women with a singular charity. She made beds, cleansed filth, undertook every mean duty, consoled with words, served with her hands, sustained with money, refreshed with food. The laborious and humble duty of serving the sick she exercised with careful care and diligent solicitude, first in private houses, then in the public hospital, whose government was committed to her, and retained it up to the happy end of her life, serving at her own charges; for she never received anything of the substance of the hospital, but willed that whatever was necessary for her food and clothing should be supplied to her at her own expense.

[39] her humility, charity, and love toward God. And by continual offices of charity toward her neighbour she ascended, as if by certain steps, to that pure and wonderful love of God. Since indeed her body had been made a temple of the indwelling God, her soul, as it were an altar of the Lord upon which a sacrifice of praise was daily immolated to the Most High by the hand of the eternal Priest, the dust of worldly affections having been shaken off and the ashes of earthly thoughts removed, blazed wholly, breathing out the vapour of a divine fire, which not only penetrated and inflamed the inmost parts of her heart, but reached even to the outward parts of her body and to the senses of mortal men. For her chest and the other parts of her body which surround the heart seemed to breathe fire, nor could they be touched by hands but that they were both afflicted with pain and felt an intolerable burning.

[40] Thinking lowly of herself, she gives herself to the salvation of others Wherefore, having been brought in by her heavenly Bridegroom through the high ways of contemplation into his chamber, and admitted to contemplate the beauty of the eternal Majesty, her mind, struck back by the brightness of the divine light, perceived with an inmost sense of knowledge, by comparison with that immeasurable height, the lowest poverty and misery of mortal condition, and her own emptiness and vileness; and, discerning the summit of loftiness above and the face of the abyss below, she so despised herself, and so loved to be despised by others, that she never called herself by her own name, and bore it ill to be named by others. For she affirmed that there is nothing in creatures which is good and can please God; but that, drawn forth from nothing and stained by the contagion of the first parent's fall, they always incline toward evil and most frequently fall into it, unless they are mercifully set free by the grace of God: that therefore care must be taken that what is of ourselves be destroyed, that Christ may be built up in us, by whose grace aided we may be able to say with the Apostle: I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me. For indeed she not only gave diligent labour to the temporal necessities of the needy and to healing and caring for the bodies of the sick, but also expended all her care and zeal upon healing the souls of others; and therefore both those who lay sick in the hospital and those who came to her she instructed with these and other most holy admonitions, by which she might impel them both to flight from sin and to the love of God.

[41] Nay, enlarging the spaces of charity, she also wrote a Dialogue, and by her writings, but most of all by her example: her in which, allegorically introducing the soul and the body as resolving to make a pilgrimage and agreeing to accomplish the journey without discord, she wonderfully shows with how great a loss the soul, entangled in the snares of its own blind love, is hindered in accomplishing the straight road of eternal salvation. But she was a very great incitement and example to all for following virtue, and an object of admiration — a woman born of splendid family, yet so humble that she performed the meanest duties of all in the public hospital; so mild and patient that with a cheerful mind she received the injuries and insults of insolent servants; burning with so great a charity that, though weak in body, she was at hand for the care of all the sick. And although, carried away into ecstasy by the sweetness of divine contemplation, she was frequently alienated from her senses, nevertheless, when called to perform the offices of charity, she rose at once, and with a cheerful and ruddy countenance, as though from the fellowship of the Lord's converse, she hastened to them; and when the duties of charity were finished she returned to prayer, so united to God that she remembered no creature, so intent upon the care of her neighbours and upon the salvation of souls that she seemed utterly forgetful of herself.

[42] For she had obtained from God that, while serving to relieve the necessities of her neighbours — although she performed this with as much diligence and care as no one else, not endowed with an equal charity, could employ — nevertheless, as soon as she had fulfilled the office of charity, she should forget him whom she had served. her admirable union with God, And so no image of a creature overshadowed that image of the suffering Saviour which she bore deeply fixed in her heart and mind, and no earthly affection either quenched or lessened that blazing flame of divine love with which her heart sweetly seethed; and therefore she could truly cry out with the Apostle: Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the charity of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[43] Assuredly neither the harsh nature and the dissolute and intolerable manners of her husband, hindered by no chance, however adverse. which she always bore with a patient and yielding mind; nor contempt and mockery while she performed works of piety — for she rejoiced that she was accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus; nor the harsh commands of those who ministered in the hospital, which she carried out humbly and gladly; nor the loss of those dear to her and of her kinsfolk, which, blessing the Lord, she bore with the most even mind; nor infirmity of body and continual sicknesses — for when she was weak, then was she the more powerful; nor, in fine, things prosperous or adverse, present or to come, could tear her away from God; but she stood like an immovable rock against the raging whirlwinds of the world and the assaults of the raging enemy; nor was she puffed up when enriched with heavenly gifts, nor cast down when shaken by adversities; but embracing with a most persevering purity of soul the God whom she always bore present to her, and holding herself to him with her whole affection, she had nothing future to expect or to fear; nor, passing into the past, anything to remember; nor, looking back to the present, anything to love; and therefore she was changed by no vicissitude, nor was she stretched out into any times; but cleaving to the highest True and to the truly eternal Good, which alone suffices the soul that loves it and can fill its burning desire, she did not roll herself away from it into any variety and vicissitude of times, nor turn aside to herself, nor flow away to other things.

[44] Her love toward the name of Jesus proved by an excellent deed. For, having found him whom her soul loved, she held him and did not let him go; in him she exulted, rejoiced, and gloried; and she always bore his holy name in her heart and always had it in her mouth, feeling no greater joy and solace than if she heard the sweet name of Jesus pronounced by others also. Having often exhorted a certain woman, labouring at the end of her life with a contagious fever and deprived by the force of the disease of the faculty of speech, to pronounce the holy name of Jesus, as soon as she noticed her moving her lips, carried away by the impulse of love for that most holy Name and forgetful of herself, she kissed the lips of that foul and pestilent mouth; and, infected by their contact with the same disease, she was little short of exchanging life for death. Then, when health had been restored to her by God's will, none the less than before, using no precaution and despising all peril of her life and health, she took up again, brisk and glad, her former offices of piety toward the sick. For from the abounding fountain of divine love flowed that wonderful constancy of breast and firmness of soul in running the way of the Lord and following his paths.

[45] Always even-tempered, she leads many back into the way of salvation, For always the same countenance, and the same brow, and a distinguished evenness in every act of life: humble, mild, modest, and merciful, despising human things, seeking heavenly ones, she displayed an admirable sweetness in her words and manners; all who fled to her she received kindly, consoled lovingly, admonished prudently, and relieved promptly and zealously. Her one and continual care and perpetual thought was the honour of God, the glory and praise of his Name, the destruction of vices and crimes, the conversion of sinners, the salvation of souls; this she attended to, this she busied herself with, to this she referred all her thoughts and that diligent care which she employed for healing and relieving the bodies of her neighbours. Therefore many who were going off into the counsels of the ungodly and following the paths of the world she called back to the way of the Lord by her prayers and persuasions, the divine mercy working; and that came to pass above all which the Apostle had foretold would be, that the man should be sanctified by the believing woman.

[46] which she obtains for her husband also by her prayers. For she also won for the Lord Giuliano Adorno her husband, speaking to him by her holy manners, by which God had made her fair and reverently lovable and admirable. For first she obtained from him that it might be permitted her to live in chastity; then he of his own accord came to her, and, having taken counsel with her, withdrew from the ways of the world, put on the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis, and set up a pious manner of living. But when in his last illness, prone as he was to anger and wearied by the discomforts of his disease, he was seized with such impatience and indignation that he seemed to be in peril of eternal salvation, as soon as his holy Wife saw this, entering her own chamber she prayed the Lord who commands the winds and the tempests and restores calm to the sky and tranquillity to the sea; and at once she obtained from the immortal God that her husband's impatient mind should be calmed and the stormy tempest stilled. For indeed, before the prayer was ended, the man, to the astonishment of all, was changed; and with a mind made tranquil and submitted to the divine will, and having patiently borne the troubles and pains of his last days, he met death.

[47] But Catherine's anxious care and solicitude for the salvation of souls, The Saint's ecstasies and visions, as she blazes wonderfully and the fervour of her charity toward her neighbour, was a small part of the immense flame with which she had blazed into the love of God; and by this, flowing back from the soul into the body, not only did the heart and the neighbouring parts seem to seethe with the burning of the divine fire, but besides that part of the skin which surrounds the region of the heart appeared to the eyes of mortals suffused with a fiery redness after her happy death. And so, whenever charity did not call her or the commands of others impel her, she returned to prayer; in which, enjoying the heavenly delights of contemplation, she was alienated from her senses; and to her soul, free from the tumult and disturbance of sensible things, and reclining in the sweetest rest upon the breast of the divine Master, heavenly secrets were revealed which the human understanding cannot receive: namely, the unspeakable way of divine Wisdom by which it provides for the eternal salvation of men; the wretched condition of human blindness, which, raging with a lamentable sickness, repels the remedies offered it and turns divine benefits to its own destruction; the force of heavenly love, the beauty of sanctifying grace, the glory of eternal beatitude. Which things afterwards, when questioned by her own people, though she greatly wished to, she could not express in human words; for what her mind, illumined by the divine light, had conceived, her tongue, knotted with fleshly bonds, could not bring forth; so that she could now take up that saying of the Apostle: I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I know not, God knoweth, that he was caught up into paradise and heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter.

[48] Thus therefore charity toward God and toward her neighbour had nourished and strengthened the soul of blessed Catherine, clinging to the breasts of continual prayer and heavenly contemplation; with the love of God, and to a most sweet and when that soul had now been made fit for following God, and could say to her heavenly Bridegroom, Draw me after thee, we will run; and when the loftiness of the divine Majesty had opened itself to her in as great a measure as mortal man is scarcely permitted to bear, that wonderful ardour of charity so grew, and so great a conflagration of divine love arose, that, every earthly stain being burned away, and

the inward man being purged and sanctified, the fire of heavenly love, overflowing from the soul into the body, living and effectual and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, all but consumed her weak flesh, unequal to bearing so great an ardour; and she now lived almost by the spirit alone, nor felt the burden of the body in anything else than in the pains and languors which the force and impulse of her seething love, overflowing into it, produced: whence there might now appear plainly enough in her how divinely it was said, I am a consuming fire; and that other, I am come to send fire upon the earth; and then also, The lamps thereof are lamps of fire and of flames.

[49] With full breast therefore Catherine seethed and blazed through all her inward parts, and her soul, impatient of delay, was borne toward the most chaste embrace of her heavenly Bridegroom, so that often, driven by the impulse of love, she was compelled to say with the Apostle: I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. For sweet indeed is the bond of the body by which man is bound, continually panting for the Lord's embrace and he does not wish to be loosed from it; but she, because she knew what was laid up for her and had already tasted the first-fruits of the spirit, longed to be dissolved and to be with Christ — so that what brings fear and terror to others was to her a joy and a solace: if, that is, she either heard talk of exchanging life for death, or beheld some dying in the hospital, or was present at the sacred prayers or at the holy Sacrifice which is offered for the dead, she was affected with a certain inward gladness and spiritual joy.

[50] For she groaned with unspeakable groanings in her pilgrimage, remembering Jerusalem; yet always consenting to the divine will and with heart lifted up and stretched on high she sought the heavenly homeland, the beloved homeland, the longed-for homeland, the fair and holy city, and God reigning over it and enlightening it, her father, her lord, her bridegroom, her beloved, her chaste and strong delights, her blessed rest and solid joy, the one, highest, true, and everlasting Good. She rejoiced therefore that one day the bonds of her fleshly members were to be loosed, that she might receive the garments and ornaments of the virtues; that the flesh was to be laid down, that she might receive the crown; that she must depart from the body, that she might be joined with God; that she must migrate from the earth, that she might come to heaven. Happy exchange, holy migration! But always intent on carrying out the divine will, and desirous and solicitous of doing only what was pleasing to the Lord, and submitting to him all her desire and conforming every thought to God's will, she did not refuse that her life should be prolonged, that through long torments of pain she might become more conformed to the image of his Son, since, as we shall be companions of the passion, so shall we also be of the resurrection.

[51] she is seized with an unwonted disease, and is extinguished Wherefore, amid such conflicts of sweetly opposing desires, she was tormented by a certain new martyrdom of heavenly love, whereby it came about that her weak flesh, seized by a certain unusual and grievous sickness, which was her last, gave way. And since no remedies availed to heal that unwonted infirmity, those who bore the care of her health, in order to try everything and leave nothing unattempted, called together a consultation of ten physicians; who, when they had beheld her lying there, and no indication of disease appeared, the causes from which she had begun to be ill having been weighed and the symptoms of the sickness diligently inspected, since none of the remedies administered did any good, but they recognized that only heavenly visions and the sacred Eucharist — with which alone refreshed she drew out her life for the last fourteen days before her death — were a solace and a help to her prostrated strength, astonished at the novelty of the disease, and plainly finding something divine in that wonderful infirmity, came into this opinion: that her sickness was not human, nor to be healed by human remedies, but was divinely sent and to be left to the heavenly Physician of souls.

[52] rather by the violence of love than of disease. She was in the sixty-third year of her age when the wished-for time came in which, the bonds of her bodily prison being dissolved, she might fly free to the longed-for embrace of her heavenly Bridegroom. Foreseeing therefore that the end of her mortal life was now at hand, pointing with her eyes and her hand to heaven, whither she was soon to set out, and having most sweetly pronounced those words, Into thy hands, Lord, I commend my spirit, a little after, languishing rather by the greatness of her charity than of her disease, in the secret silence of divine love, impassable to the minds of men, she most peacefully fell asleep in the Lord on the seventeenth of the Kalends of October in the year one thousand five hundred and ten.

[53] But when the report of the death of God's blessed Handmaid had spread through the city of Genoa, The veneration of the people, increased by benefits and never diminished: men and women of every rank and age flowed together in throngs to venerate her sacred remains in the great hospital where she had died. And there very many found solace for the troubles by which they were tormented and medicine for the sicknesses with which they were afflicted, through her intercession. Meanwhile her body, which was seen flexible, incorrupt, of a red colour about the heart, and altogether like a living body, was after some days placed with the highest veneration in a tomb recently built in the church of the hospital. After eighteen months, this having been opened so that the body of the holy Widow might be transferred to a new tomb more becomingly adorned, in order to satisfy the vast multitude of citizens who ran up to venerate it, it was laid within the rails of a chapel, by which the crowd of those rushing in in throngs might be kept off. Thus it remained for eight continuous days, the concourse of the peoples never failing, veneration being increased especially by the miracles which almighty God worked about it. When these days had passed, it was carried in the same church to a marble tomb raised on high, where, illustrious for miracles and exposed to public veneration, the fervour of devotion toward the sacred relics of blessed Catherine never being diminished, it has remained up to our own times — the divine omnipotence bearing witness by the prodigies of its right hand that what dies does not perish to it, and showing to the minds of mortals in how great a glory in heaven was the soul of this blessed Widow, whose lifeless flesh was adorned on earth with such surpassing effects of divinity.

[54] And so not only among the Genoese but among the other peoples also there was devotion toward this holy Servant of God processes instituted, and the Saint's immemorial cult approved: and a continual concourse of men of every kind and condition to venerate her sacred body. The cult and veneration toward her therefore constantly persevering, and growing widespread after the lapse of a hundred years, after processes on her sanctity and miracles had been completed by ordinary authority and exhibited in the Sacred Congregation of Rites, a commission was despatched on the twenty-fourth day of the month of May in the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-six for the purpose of drawing up a process by Apostolic authority upon her immemorial cult, and upon the case excepted by the decrees of Urban VIII, our Predecessor of happy memory; and this being completed, by Decio, Cardinal Deacon of the Holy Roman Church, called Azzolino, of good memory, reporter of the cause, the doubt was proposed whether the sentence pronounced by the bishop of Genoa, delegated judge, upon the immemorial cult and the excepted case ought to be confirmed; and it was answered that the excepted case was established, and that accordingly the aforesaid sentence ought to be confirmed — which decree Clement X of pious memory, likewise our Predecessor, confirmed on the sixth day of April in the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-five. Moreover, the same Cardinal Azzolino being Reporter of the cause, on the seventeenth day of the month of August in the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-three the faculty was obtained of drawing up a process upon the sanctity of her life, her virtues, and her miracles, so that her Canonization as a Blessed might be proceeded to.

[55] Then, many years slipping by, and the process, after some prolongations and substitutions, not yet completed, an Office concerning her granted, her name inscribed in the Martyrology: and Giuseppe Renato, Cardinal Deacon of the Holy Roman Church, called Imperiali, of good memory, having been substituted as Reporter of the cause, petition was made for the granting of an Office and Mass of the same Blessed woman; and the Congregation of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church set over Sacred Rites, a decree having been issued and confirmed by Clement XI of happy memory, our Predecessor, on the nineteenth day of the month of September in the year one thousand seven hundred and ten granted that in the city of Genoa the Office should be recited and the Mass celebrated from the Common of Widows in honour of Blessed Catherine; and not long after the same grant was extended to the whole dominion of the Genoese republic; and at last a proper Office and Mass of the same Blessed woman was approved, together with a eulogy of her to be added in the Roman Martyrology.

[56] a decree issued concerning the Saint's virtues, and her miracles Now the process upon her virtues having been completed, and the doubt proposed in the aforesaid Congregation of sacred Rites, a decree came forth affirming that her virtues in a heroic degree were established, which was confirmed by us on the thirtieth day of the month of May in the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty-two; and the other process upon her miracles being also completed, their examination was come to, our beloved son Giorgio, Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church of the title of St. Mary across the Tiber, called Spinola, being meanwhile substituted as reporter of the cause in the place of Giuseppe Renato, Cardinal Deacon of the Holy Roman Church, called Imperiali, of good memory, who had entered upon the way of all flesh; and in the congregation held before Us on the second day of the month of April in the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty-seven, out of the four miracles proposed, the three following were approved, namely:

The first, of the sudden healing of Maria Maddalena Rizzi; for this woman, in whom for about nine years the wicked fierceness of a corrupted humour had flowed down, extending to the lower limbs no less than to the left side, and had, in proportion as by its long standing it had nourished bitter pains in her side and at intervals stirred up still bitterer torments, taken away the free power of motion in her swollen legs, having long since been consigned to the incurables — when throughout the whole night preceding her healing she was more savagely tortured by the pain of her side, after invoking Blessed Catherine and being seized by a brief sleep, rose whole at daybreak; and, rendering thanks to her Deliverer, returned unharmed to the accustomed duties of those in good health.

[57] approved by the Holy See: The third, of the sudden healing of Maria Francesca Saveria Gentile, a patrician of Genoa, whom both a scorbutic sickness had assailed for nearly thirteen years, and difficulty of breathing, convulsions with a contraction of the sinews in her feet, and an intolerance of bright light and of every noise so harassed that she could neither walk nor lie down at all unless propped up by very many pillows. She, raised up in the hope of obtaining health if it were granted her to venerate the Blessed woman's remains in her presence, having obtained her wish, on returning home in a sedan chair from her visit to the Blessed woman, in no way hesitating that she had divinely obtained perfect health, began at once spiritedly to climb the stairs of her house, to sit, to rise, and to walk, the diseases with which she was afflicted having been driven off on every side. And the fourth, of the instantaneous cure of Bianca, a woman lying in the hospital of the incurables for twenty-five years, who from an old dislocation of the thigh was burdened with a paralysis of the lower limbs and of the right hand: while with all the effort of her spirit she begged health at the Blessed woman's tomb, she suddenly stretched out her contracted hand, and moved both her feeble legs freely and walked, being restored to perfect soundness.

[58] Finally, a general Congregation of sacred Rites having been convoked before Us, after mature examination, and the question proposed whether, the approval of the aforesaid miracles standing, the solemn

canonization of Catherine Fieschi Adorno could safely be proceeded to: when our venerable brothers, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church of the aforesaid Congregation set over sacred rites, had answered in the affirmative, We, after our own most humble prayers and those of others poured out to God, that in a matter so weighty the light of heavenly help might be granted from on high, on the thirtieth day of April in the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty-seven declared that it could be proceeded to the enrolling of Blessed Catherine by solemn rite in the roll of the Saints. Afterwards, on the sixth day of the following month of May, in our secret consistory, a summary and fitting report having been made by our beloved son Antonio Felice, Cardinal Priest of the title of St. Praxedes, called Zondadari, of all the foregoing things which had been done in the cause, and also of the life and miracles of blessed Catherine, when the remaining Cardinals who were present had judged the same, in the public consistory held by us next after, an eloquent oration having been heard from our beloved son Gabriele Seriano, advocate of our consistorial court, on the excellence of the virtues and the sanctity of the life of Blessed Catherine; and then also, most humble supplications being offered us in the name of the whole clergy and people of the renowned Genoese republic for the canonization of that same blessed Servant of God, We, having given answer that in a matter so great and a business so arduous We would, as was fitting, deliberate more maturely with our venerable brothers, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, the archbishops and the bishops, exhorted those same Cardinals and bishops in the Lord to implore divine help by alms, fasts, and prayers.

[59] Then, a semi-public consistory of those same Cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops present in the City having been proclaimed, the help of God having been implored, in which also our notaries and those of the Apostolic See, called protonotaries of the number of the participants, and the auditors of causes of the sacred Apostolic palace, being summoned, were present, those same Cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops all judged, from the things which had been proposed by us and reported in the processes, that blessed Catherine ought to be enrolled in the number of the Saints. Their opinions having been heard, We, giving thanks to God that he deigned to will that his Handmaid should be honoured through our Ministry, proclaimed the day of the canonization, and meanwhile exhorted all again that they should press on diligently and perseveringly with alms, prayers, and fasts to obtain for Us the heavenly grace of the Holy Spirit in a matter so great and a business so weighty.

[60] At length, all things having been duly completed which the authority of the holy Fathers, the statutes of the sacred canons, and the ancient custom of the holy Roman Church prescribe for carrying out a matter of this kind, on this present day, which was the Lord's day of the most holy Trinity, by solemn rite she is enrolled in the Catalogue of the Saints, we came together into the most sacred Lateran basilica, becomingly adorned, with our venerable brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and also with the patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops, and the prelates of the Roman curia, our officials and household, the secular and Regular clergy, and a very great throng of the people; where, the petitions for a decree of canonization having been repeated by our beloved son Nereo, Cardinal Deacon of the Holy Roman Church, called Corsini, our nephew after the flesh by our brother, through our beloved son Tommaso Antamoro, advocate of our consistorial court, and the sacred prayers and Litanies having been chanted, and the grace of the Holy Spirit humbly implored:

[61] with indulgences granted on the Saint's feast. To the honour of the most holy and undivided Trinity, to the exaltation of the Catholic faith, and to the increase of the Christian religion, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and our own, mature deliberation having been previously held, and divine aid often implored, and with the counsel and consent of our venerable brothers, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, the patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops existing in the City, We have decreed and defined Blessed Catherine Fieschi, widow, to be a saint, and have enrolled her in the catalogue of the Saints — as by the tenor of these presents we likewise decree, define, and enrol her; and we have commanded and do command all the faithful of Christ to honour and venerate her as truly a Saint; ordaining that by the universal Church churches and altars, in which sacrifices may be offered to God, may be built and consecrated in her honour, and that every year her memory ought to be recalled with pious devotion on the fifteenth day of the month of September among the holy women who are neither Virgins nor Martyrs. And by the same authority, to all the faithful of Christ who are truly penitent and have confessed, and who every year on that same feast day shall come to visit the tomb in which her body rests, we have mercifully relaxed, and do relax, in the Lord, in the accustomed form of the Church, seven years and as many quarantines of the penances enjoined upon them or otherwise in any way owed.

[62] Thanks having been given to God, a Mass is chanted: These things being performed, having venerated with praises and confessions God the eternal Father, and Christ the Lord, the king of glory, the Son of the everlasting Father, and the holy Spirit the Paraclete, one God and one Lord, and the sacred Hymn Te Deum having been solemnly chanted, and a plenary indulgence and remission of all their sins having been granted to all the faithful of Christ then present, because of our bodily infirmities and impaired health and our aged years, we withdrew from that same Lateran church, our venerable brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, the archbishops, bishops, and the whole clergy and people remaining in it; in whose presence, by our venerable brother Tommaso, Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina of the Holy Roman Church, called Ruffo, as the Cardinal senior in order, Mass was solemnly celebrated at the high altar of the aforesaid basilica, by our indult and licence, with a commemoration of that same Saint who is neither virgin nor martyr.

[63] The Pontiff implores the Saint's protection, But with all humility it is right that we should give thanks to God for so remarkable a benefit and confess to the Lord of lords, through whom his friends are crowned in heaven and honoured on earth, and from whom are glory and honour and peace to everyone that works good. And since we see the protection of this Saint divinely procured for us, let us beseech the unspeakable clemency of God that he, whose glory in these calamitous times of ours he willed to be made manifest on earth, may by her intervening prayers, through the merits and passion of his Son Christ the Lord our Saviour, turning his face from our sins, deign to free us from the present straits of this mortal life, and to endow us in this world with his heavenly grace and in the world to come with the eternal happiness of the Saints.

[64] For the rest, because it would be difficult for these our Letters to be carried to every place where there might be need, we will that to copies of them, even printed ones, provided they are subscribed by the hand of a public notary and fortified with the seal of some person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, the same credit be everywhere given defining that his decree shall be stable. which would be given to these presents themselves, if they were exhibited or shown. Let it therefore be lawful for no man at all to infringe this page of our decree, definition, enrolment, command, statute, grant, bestowal, and will, or with rash daring to go against it. But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God and of his blessed apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome at St. John Lateran in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand seven hundred and thirty-seven, on the sixteenth of the Kalends of July, in the seventh year of our Pontificate.

✠ I, Clement, Bishop of the Catholic Church.

§ IV. Monuments of public veneration erected to the Saint: some miracles taken both from the longer Life and from the processes.

[ ] Altars and other monuments of public veneration Before I begin the narration of the benefits obtained by various persons through the Saint's patronage, it has seemed good to subjoin a few things about the altars erected to Catherine and about other monuments of public veneration, which are read scattered through Parpera's works. In Blessed Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter 7, number 13, he writes that at Paris, within the cloisters of the monastery of the Discalced virgins of the Order of St. Mary of Mount Carmel, there stands a small chapel erected for the veneration of St. Catherine, and he there praises as witness the most illustrious lord Giuseppe Maria Giovo, to whom he also credits very many documents about the Saint transmitted from France. The same Parpera in the often-praised letters to Henschen has this: In the year 1669 we learned from public records that our church at Genoa of the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri had been the house of Blessed Catherine. But in Blessed Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter 1, number 14, he writes a little more fully to about this effect: The house which the Saint inhabited, and which had been assigned her by her husband as a dowry, and was situated in the square which was formerly named of St. Agnes but is now called Lomellina, was turned into the church of the Congregation of the Oratory in the year 1659. In the same place he also asserts that the altar in which the image of the Blessed woman is seen, and which is the first and the nearer to the high altar on the Gospel side, was built in that place where had stood the more secluded chamber which the Saint was accustomed to frequent, and in which she once beheld Christ the Saviour, flowing with blood over his whole body, as the longer Life reports in chapter 2 and our own account at number 19

[66] Further, from the Historical Monuments of the Congregation of the Oratory by Giovanni Mariani, volume 2, chapter 23, toward the end, it is clear erected to the Saint. that a residence was established for the members of the aforesaid Congregation at Genoa from the year 1644; but nothing is there added about the epoch of the turning of St. Catherine's house into a church, because he speaks of the Genoese Congregation only on the occasion of the Palermo one; and we have not obtained the continuation of Giovanni Mariani's Monuments. Parpera hands down in the Life published in the year 1682, chapter 114, number 7, that an exceedingly magnificent chapel to the Saint was also erected in the church of the greater hospital, but he marks no year; this is certain from Parpera's words, that that structure is later than the year 1642, and must be fixed between the said year 1642 and 1682, in which Parpera published this work of his — who in Blessed Catherine illustrated, part 1, chapter 16, number 9, says that an image of St. Catherine was carved in the year 1681. A description of this carving, as also of the painting which is seen at the altar dedicated to the Saint in the church of the Genoese Congregation of the Oratory, the curious reader will find in the same place at numbers 9 and 10. Immediately before it Parpera set a prayer composed to the end that by the Saint's patronage divine love might be kindled in us, and which is framed in these words: O God, who to inflame the hearts of the faithful didst wonderfully kindle Blessed Catherine of Genoa with fiery enlightenments: grant, we beseech thee, that we, imitating on earth her whose ardour we admire, may with her burn in heaven with the blessed conflagration of love.

[67] Benefits conferred upon many: a long-sick woman And these are the things concerning the public monuments erected for St. Catherine's veneration which have come to our knowledge. Now I proceed to the miracles. The older biographer in chapter 52 has this: Many who commended themselves to her were heard; but, as I have already noted in the Annotata to chapter 8 of the Life, note q, either those benefits were not committed to writing, or we lament that they have been lost. Among the rest, says the biographer just praised in the same place, a certain sick woman devoted to her (to whom she had appeared in a vision the preceding night) obtained the grace of the health she desired. This woman, by the force of her disease, had for a long time been unable to move herself, and was then lying quite

grievously afflicted; but after that vision she ordered herself to be carried into the church to the body, and, taking hold of the shreds of the decayed cloths clinging to it, she applied them to the affected place; and, commending herself to the Blessed woman, she was straightway restored to health, and returned home alone without another's support.

[68] is restored to health; her grateful spirit. Although this benefit of recovered health is not expressly said to have happened in the year 1512, nevertheless that it must be linked with that year is manifestly gathered from these words: She ordered herself to be carried into the church to the body, and, taking hold of the shreds of the decayed cloths clinging to it — for, as has already been said here at numbers 8 and 9, the body was lifted from the ground about the eighteenth month after her death, and worms were found in the urn, produced by the moisture of the water, and then it was exposed to public veneration for eight days; all of which belong to the year 1512, not far advanced. How mindful of the benefit received the healed woman showed herself, the biographer declares in the same chapter 52 with the following words: This benefit increased the devotion once conceived toward her, and every year on that same day she took care that a Mass of blessed Mary should be sung in her favour, and especially on the feast of her Assumption; and she ordered that this be observed for ever after her death. Besides the benefit already recited, the longer Life records no other in detail; Parpera too, who, as he professes, examined all the ancient documents, reports none which happened before the year 1616, doubtless for the reason already noted above.

[69] Miracles transcribed from the Processes; a woman Now those benefits which Parpera narrates are taken from the Process offered to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, as is clear from the title of chapter 115 of the Life published in the year 1682. But before I set forth those miracles, rendered into Latin from the Italian, I have thought that the reader must be warned that I shall render the names and surnames of the persons by whom those benefits were obtained exactly in the way in which they are read in the aforesaid editor, and that, where it shall seem necessary, I shall observe a few things. He writes thus at number 2: The Lady Camilla Doria about the year 1616 suffered from a gangrene infecting a hinder rib, which reached from one side through to the other; and when in order to cure it an incision was made a square of the size of a palm and a quarter, ten pounds of flesh were removed from that wound (doubtless the disease having been drawn out at length and the incisions repeated). Whence, on account of an ill so vehement, the physicians utterly despaired of her recovery, and hope failed so far that religious men were already standing by with a book in their hands, commending her soul to God. The sick woman, while she was in this last extremity, was exhorted by her niece, the Lady Maria Pavese Doria, to commend herself to blessed Catherine, some of whose relics she herself applied to the dying woman; who obeyed her niece's exhortation and conceived great confidence.

[70] After this, as she fell asleep, the bandages with which the injured part was wrapped seemed to be loosened; near to death from a gangrene is cured: and when she called out for help to be brought her, the surgeon who had the care of her ran up; and behold a wonderful thing: for after a few hours the corrupt flesh, which threatened death, was found to be separated from that which was sound. And so the hope of life began to shine upon the sick woman, who afterwards, growing ever stronger, at the end of about twenty days was fully restored to health; and the wound was so cured that the rib remained even, and nothing was wanting of the flesh already cut away, no otherwise than if it had never been infected with any ill. There was therefore reason why both the sick woman and the physicians and surgeons who were present, and others to whom the sickness was known, should deservedly marvel and hold it for an undoubted prodigy. Both the names and the surnames, as I have forewarned, have been rendered according to Parpera's Italian writing; for in this first narrative I have not been able sufficiently to make out what the word Pavese signifies, or from what it takes its origin, which, when the sick woman's niece is named, is placed midway between the words Maria and Doria; it is probable that it serves in place of a first name; but what it may have to do with the heavenly ones I gladly confess I do not know — unless perhaps it is derived from Pavia, who is reckoned among the companions of St. Ursula by Lahier in his Menology of Virgins at the 21st day of October, and by Arthur in his Gynæceum is announced at the 22nd of the said month among the companions of that same Ursula, whose bodies he records as having then been translated.

[71] Let us continue the interrupted narrative. In the praised chapter 115, number 3, Parpera has this: another leprous woman is cleansed. About the year 1631, when there was in the greater infirmary a certain woman of Villa (I think an unnamed woman from outside the city is designated) covered with leprosy to such a degree that she seemed in no way able to recover from the sickness under which she laboured, a certain other woman, Dominichina by name, gave her some of the oil of the lamp of Blessed Catherine; and the woman infected with leprosy, anointing her hands and face with it, began to be restored to health, and after the course of three days was wholly healed, to the astonishment of the physician and the apothecary and of others who had known of her disease.

[72] To Thomasa Peragalla, serving in the said hospital, about the year 1632, there grew under the armpit of her right arm a most evil abscess, An abscess taken away; black and thick to the measure of a four-denarius loaf, so that she could not move her arm save with torment; and because she feared that, if she showed the ill-affected part to the physicians, they would wish to attempt an incision, for the bearing of which she did not think her strength sufficient, she hid the matter; and having learned of the benefits which Blessed Catherine Fieschi Adorno was bestowing, she implored her help, coming three evenings to venerate her sacred body and reciting three times the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation, and anointing herself only with the oil of the lamp which burned before the said body; and although on the third evening she still felt the ill as much as on the first, nevertheless, when she awoke in the morning, she found that the abscess had vanished. Whence she could deservedly ascribe this prodigious benefit to the patronage of the said Blessed woman.

[73] dropsy and a burning fever with frenzy healed: A certain Masina of Bisagno, labouring under dropsy, was treated for the space of two months in the said hospital, various remedies being employed, and could never be healed; whence Dominichina Perazza exhorted her to commend herself to blessed Catherine, which the sick woman did; and having been anointed with the oil of the lamp of that same Blessed woman, after three or four days had passed she was restored to health and dismissed from the hospital. Lucia Medicina about the year 1632, when she was labouring under a burning fever and frenzy, on account of which the physicians had already despaired of her recovery — wherefore from that time her brother was asking her the place in which she wished to be buried. She was meanwhile carried to the said hospital, and when she had come there, on account of the signs of a raging mind which she gave she was bound with fetters. Dominichina, already praised, commended to her devotion toward blessed Catherine; and she, having been anointed with the oil of this Blessed woman's lamp, suddenly felt herself better and her headache lessened, and, growing continually stronger, within ten days was fully restored to health and returned to her house.

[74] sight given back to a blind woman, health to a frenzied one. Dominichina Perazza in the year 1632, or thereabouts, when she had laboured in the hospital under a grievous disease, remained as though wholly deprived of sight; whence she had to walk furnished with a staff and accompanied besides by others. She, using the opportunity when the urn had been opened in which the body of Blessed Catherine rests, betook herself thither; and having begged those standing by that she might be admitted to touch the said body, she drew near, and, fervently commending herself to the said Blessed woman, applied her eyes, robbed of sight, to the body, and suddenly was endowed with sight as before; and all who stood by beheld an evident benefit obtained by the patronage of this holy Matron. Thomasina de Agosti was oppressed in her own house by a malignant fever and frenzy. She was therefore sent to the hospital, and moreover, on account of the madness which lasted about three weeks, she was bound. She, since on account of the gravity of her disease she had not been able to commend herself to Blessed Catherine, toward whom she had already before been piously affected, on a certain day, wearied by her ill, commended herself to her; and, although she was bound, she did violence to herself in order to come and visit her. The governess, having understood Thomasina's holy desire, ordered her to be carried thither by two servants; and when she had made her prayer from the depth of her heart, from that time she performed no more works of madness, and so recovered that within about eight days she was perfectly restored to health.

[75] Parpera wrote with too much exaggeration about the number of the Miracles. And these are the miracles which are read in Parpera, that distinguished devotee of our holy Widow. But he writes toward the end of chapter 115 to about this effect: We have here some prodigies and benefits committed to writing; but with St. John the Evangelist, writing of Christ, Catherine's sweet bridegroom, we too can assert that there are many more miracles wrought by God through Catherine's patronage — because perhaps it seemed to the writers that her wonderful protection shown toward the faithful needed no proof or testimony of letters, since it was so well known; or because these prodigies were of such a number that to recount them all would have been too lengthy. After which Parpera adds: But there are also many other things which Jesus did (at the prayers of Blessed Catherine), which, if they were written every one, I think that the world itself would not be able to contain the books that should be written. I too with Parpera by no means doubt that Catherine obtained far more benefits than those related above for those who invoked her; nevertheless I in no way judge that the words of the holy Evangelist, brought forth with the most deserved right concerning our Saviour, can have place here. Nor indeed does Parpera prove his own amplification, proceeding from a certain excessive affection of piety toward the Saint, by adducing these words of the older biographer from chapter 51: And so many things were heard from various persons that to relate them all would be too lengthy — which words indeed I gladly acknowledge can suit the History of St. Catherine; but concerning the text taken from the Gospel it must be determined otherwise.

§ V. The names of the witnesses and some of their statements in confirmation of the three miracles approved by the Apostolic See.

[ ] A woman whose breast was to be amputated is cured. The anonymous writer of the Life published above, in chapter 9, reported three miracles wrought by St. Catherine's patronage; the same Clement XII reviewed in the Bull of canonization. To each I have thought a few things should here be added from the reports and disputations before the Sacred Congregation in the Saint's cause; and all those things which I shall subjoin are taken from the Summary, on the doubt whether, and concerning which miracles, it is established, etc., and from the statements of the witnesses reported in that same codex of ours marked † B XI. And first indeed, as regards the sudden healing of Maria Maddalena Rizzi, I have thought that some things should be culled from the statements of the healed woman herself. On page 7 she attests that, when she was already lying in a certain place removed from the company of the other sick (she calls it the Conservatory), she had heard it related that a certain woman, labouring under a gangrene in one of her breasts, when by the judgment of the surgeons the part

that was injured had to be amputated, and the apparatus was already made ready for the following day, implored the help of St. Catherine; and that the surgeons, returning the next morning, found her perfectly restored to health. This healing, besides the exhortations of a certain other woman reported on page 1 of the praised codex, probably incited Maria Maddalena, oppressed by pains heavier than usual, to demand with vast confidence the helping right hand of St. Catherine.

[77] But concerning the manner in which she obtained the health she desired, The Saint, appearing to the sick woman, gives back her health; I read this in the same place, page 8; take the words rendered into Latin from the Italian: When, says the healed woman, I had commended myself to her (the Saint) with vast fervour and feeling, not long after I fell into a sleep, but a light one, so that, if anyone had touched me, I should soon have awakened; and I saw near my bed Blessed Catherine, whom I recognized because she resembled the image which stands in the chapel in which her sacred body rests… Then I took hold of the Blessed woman's hand, which was soft, flexible, and gentle, and with my own hand I applied it to my left side, in which, as I have said, I was experiencing great pains: scarcely had I touched the said side when I suddenly felt myself healed; then I begged the Blessed woman that she would turn her hand again and touch me a little; but she answered: Thus it is enough, etc. Many statements are read in that same codex, both of Maddalena herself and of the other witnesses, from which it is established that she was truly incurable by the powers of nature alone, and was healed in a moment of time; and that she invoked the help of no other of the heavenly ones save Catherine; and that after obtaining the benefit, her strength being at once recovered, she enjoyed the best of health.

[78] witnesses of this benefit; Besides Maria Maddalena Rizzi, then about forty-two years old, the following confirmed that benefit by their testimony, from page 12 up to page 50 of the said codex:

Maria Domenica Gandulfa, about 60 years of age.

Maria Rosasca, about 40 years of age.

Maria Veronica Ferrari, about 54 years.

Caterina Quierola, about 56 years of age.

Giovanna Gentile, about 56 years of age.

Giovanna de Marchis, 48 years of age.

The magnificent Giovanni Francesco Troilo Ghisulfo, 71 years of age, physician.

The magnificent lord Giuseppe Maria Lavania, 55 years of age, physician.

Sister Paola Maria Campodonica, nun in the Conservatory of St. Mary of Refuge, situated in the Pammatone hospital, 50 years of age, in charge of the infirmary.

The magnificent lord Diego Portafascie, 38 years of age, physician.

The magnificent lord Ignazio Curletto, 31 years of age, physician.

Besides the witnesses here reported, others also seem to have been heard for the confirmation of the said benefit, although they are not expressly named; for whereas to Paola Maria Campodonica these characters are appended, 10th witness, to Diego Portafascie who next follows these are read, 13th witness.

[79] a long-sick woman, and another unable to move, Further, lest I should cause the reader nausea by frequent repetition of the same things, I purposely abstain from reporting the questions and answers of the witnesses; there are nevertheless some of which I have thought the pious reader ought by no means to be defrauded, and which therefore I subjoin rendered into Latin. On page 12 of our codex Maria Gandulfa testifies this: I have heard many sick persons in the hospital saying that they were restored to health through the intercession of Blessed Catherine; and among others I know that a few months ago there came to the hospital a certain woman, whose name I do not know, and that she said she had been struggling with her disease now for 12 years; and after she had remained in the infirmary nearly three weeks, she departed, saying that by the intercession of the said Blessed woman she was wholly healed; and she came for nine days to venerate her tomb in order to give thanks to the Blessed woman; but I know neither the kind of the disease nor anything else. In the same place, page 16, Maria Rosasca speaks thus: I have heard that some miracles have been wrought by God through the patronage of Blessed Catherine; and among others in a certain woman from outside the city, who came to the hospital sick for two months already, and could not walk save with difficulty. When we, the daughters of the hospital, had counselled her to implore the Blessed woman's help, on a certain day she went off to venerate her body and to commend herself to her; praying that this grace might be done her, she said that she was unwilling to depart thence. After some time, filled with joy, she came to the infirmary, saying that she had obtained the benefit from the Blessed woman; and she walked freely, and on that same day sought her home again, and on the following day returned to the hospital to venerate the Blessed woman; but I did not see her, and, as far as I understood, she brought a votive offering to the Blessed woman.

[80] Something not unlike the benefit already related Caterina Quierola attests in the same codex, page 24, concerning a woman and another infected with gangrene are cured. who was ill-affected in her whole body and was unable to move; and she asserts that she was suddenly healed by the Blessed woman's help. But perhaps the talk is of the same woman whom we saw to have been cured in the preceding number from the testimony of Maria Rosasca. That health was given back to a woman labouring under a gangrene in one of her breasts Maria Maddalena Rizzi attested in the words reported at number 76; of a like benefit, and perhaps of the same person, Giovanna Gentile speaks on page 27; for the circumstances agree, and the narrative differs only in this, that Maria Maddalena declared no time, while Giovanna Gentile besides added the number of four years, probably designating by this the duration of the sickness. The same Giovanna attests, on page 29 of the often-praised codex, that the physician Ghisulfo, when on that very morning on which Maria Maddalena was healed he was visiting the sick, called her to him, and, having conversed with her, recognized that the benefit was owed to the Blessed woman.

[81] The Ghisulfo just praised, besides many other things by which he attests that Maria Maddalena had been reckoned incurable, Why the healing of Maria Rizzi was held miraculous. adds on page 37: I believed that she was healed by a miracle, and I judge that all the others, men and women alike, who had seen the sick woman, before incurable, believed the same. And the physician Lavania on page 41 gives the reason why he esteems Maria Maddalena's healing prodigious: Because, he says, diseases of that kind, so inveterate through a space of years, cannot naturally be dispelled, as I have said, in a moment of time — the more so because there was no outward remedy by which she might be healed; and all physicians and surgeons will judge the same if they consider the said disease; and in the hospital all universally believe that she was healed by a miracle obtained through Blessed Catherine's patronage. The testimonies of the other physicians affirm the same, and agree that the aforesaid healing of Maria Maddalena was above the powers of nature and must be ascribed to a help of a higher order.

[82] The witnesses in confirmation of the miracle reported at number 107 of the Life Witnesses of the second miracle; are marked as follows in the same codex, from page 99 to 186:

The magnificent Lady Maria Francesca Saveria Gentile, 34 years of age, the healed woman.

The magnificent lord Paolo Maria Gibelli, doctor of physic, about 70 years of age, physician, who had the care of the sick woman.

The magnificent and very reverend lord Leandro Sorleo de' Gentili, 34 years, brother of the healed woman.

The magnificent lady Veronica de' Gentili, 49 years of age, mother of the healed woman.

Margarita Spalla Rossa, about 27 years of age, maidservant in the house of the healed woman.

The very reverend lord abbot Ermenegildo Tatis, of the Order of St. Benedict, of the Olivetan Congregation, 69 years of age, confessor of the healed woman.

Bartolomeo Armanino, 51 years, bearer.

Giuseppe Bacigalupo, about 50 years of age, the other bearer.

Pasquale Spallarossa, about 20 years of age, servant in the house of the healed woman.

The magnificent lady Apollonia de Passani, about 35 years of age.

The magnificent and very reverend lord abbot Giovanni Antonio Nigrone, 23 years of age.

To the last two witnesses these words are added: ex officio.

[82] the various kinds of diseases with which the sick woman struggled: To this healing of Maria Francesca Saveria Gentile, reported more briefly in the Life at the place praised and in the Bull of canonization, I subjoin these things from the same codex. First, besides the various kinds of sicknesses already recorded with which the unhappy virgin struggled, I read besides thus on page 89: She began to be tortured by the scurvy disease, which was accompanied by the most intense headaches, grinding of the teeth, ulcers in the mouth and throat, asthma, a violent cough, most bitter colic pains, nausea at all food and drink, most grievous pains in the hæmorrhoids, suffocations of the heart, most frightful convulsions of the whole body, sleeplessness, most frequent faintings, and other most wicked and savage symptoms, etc. On page 90 the disease is declared to have been incurable by human remedies in the following words: Many medicines were prescribed by the physician and many remedies applied to the sick woman, by which nevertheless she could never be healed; for although they brought some relief for a short time, nevertheless the disease, growing worse afterwards, afflicted her more savagely. Wherefore the physician, judging that the disease was now utterly incurable, thought it better to cease from the said medicines; and only in that case in which the convulsions became more violent, some light medicine was administered to her to restrain them somewhat.

[83] Commending herself to the Saint, and visiting her tomb It will not be beside the point to subjoin also a few things about the manner of the healing, which are recounted in the same place on page 90 and following. Seeing herself placed in this wretched and deplorable state, and despairing utterly of all human help, the aforesaid noble virgin cast her whole heart upon God, and trustingly committed herself to the patronage of Blessed Catherine Fieschi Adorno, her fellow-citizen; to whose remains she sent as a gift, in the year 1733, a little bundle of flowers of silver woven with her own hands. And when in the month of March of the following year 1734 nine days' prayers in honour of the aforesaid Blessed woman were being performed in the city of Genoa on the occasion of her approaching feast, the sick woman, hearing a little song sung in the square near her house in praise of that same Blessed woman, had it bought for her and applied it to her breast. After this she conceived in her mind the plan of having herself carried to the remains of the said Blessed woman. Wherefore on the eve of her festival she disclosed this purpose of hers to her household, one of whom was moved to laughter, thinking that it could in no way be carried out. But she, remaining firm in her purpose, on the said day purified her conscience by sacramental confession, and on the following morning, sacred to the aforesaid Blessed woman, lying in her bed, she received the Eucharistic bread in honour of that same Blessed woman.

[84] she is suddenly healed, no trace being left Some other things being interposed in the same place, her pains are said to have grown most vehemently worse on the evening of the 22nd day of March, the sick woman nevertheless persisting in her purpose of going to the Blessed woman's tomb — so that to Apollonia Passani, asking her in jest whether she wished to make this journey, she answered that she wished to go even if she were placed at the point of death; which she indeed performed, obtaining the most longed-for outcome of her vow, as is there narrated in this manner: When the morning of the 23rd day of March came, the said sick woman, clothed in her garments by the help of her mother and her maidservant, and lifted from her bed, was thereupon taken up by the bearers summoned for this purpose, and placed upon their arms, and set in a sedan chair, and led to the remains of Blessed Catherine. And when she had arrived there, sitting in the said

chair she listened to the sacrifice of the Mass, celebrated at one of the side altars by her brother, a priest; and when this was completed, helped by one of the bearers and by her said brother, rising from the chair she walked as far as the tomb of the said Blessed woman, before which, kneeling, she prayed for some time and more fervently commended herself to the patronage of that same Blessed woman in order to obtain health; nor in actions of this kind did she experience any discomfort or pain, even the least. And thence, with the same help of her brother and the bearer, she returned to the chair; and as she was being carried back to her home, on the way she experienced the greatest gladness, because she knew herself already healed of her disease.

[85] The other things recorded in the same place I pass over, as also the tests made by the physician, [not a trace of the disease remaining: the healed woman's grateful spirit toward the Saint.] that her perfectly recovered health might be more fully established. What of it, that the whole city of Genoa could be a witness, since Maria Francesca is said on the 25th day of March to have betaken herself to St. Catherine's tomb with a great retinue of noble women and men, in order to render due thanks to her Deliverer? And then it is added thus: From the day of the health that followed up to the present she has always enjoyed, and does enjoy, perfect health; nor did there remain in her any trace, even the least, of the ills by which she had been oppressed. All the statements of the witnesses, described at length, turn upon the nature of the disease, the long duration of it as curable by no human remedy, and the sequence of the whole affair as carried out before and after the healing; and therefore I have not thought it necessary to transcribe any of these here. Now it is clear both from the testimony of the healed Maria Francesca Saveria Gentile herself and from that of her brother Leandro and her mother Veronica de' Gentili, that the sick woman had promised certain gifts and a votive tablet to be sent by her to the Saint's tomb, and moreover had bound herself by a vow to fast on the Vigil of the festival of Blessed Catherine, and to hold as a feast the day itself sacred to her memory. It is clear also that the sick woman applied to her breast a little scrap she had obtained of the silken covering with which Blessed Catherine's urn had been covered, and drank some of the oil of the lamp burning before the Blessed woman's tomb, and anointed her breast with it.

[86] The benefit recorded in the third place in the Life the following witnesses confirmed, reported in the same codex from page 193 to 223: The names of the witnesses of the third miracle: some

Bianca Semina, about 42 years of age, the healed woman.

The reverend lord Francesco Muzio, priest, 34 years of age; he was present at the healing.

Maria Petra, daughter of the late Pietro, about 50 years of age, servant of the hospital of the Incurables.

Maria Casaretta, about 20 years of age.

The lord Giovanni Antonio Castagnino, about 55 years of age, surgeon.

The very reverend lord Leandro Sorleo de' Gentili, priest, 34 years of age.

Francesco Maria Rosati, about 43 years of age.

Felice Maria Rosati, about 18 years of age.

These two witnesses named in the last place were the bearers, by whose help Bianca Semina was carried from the hospital of the Incurables to the chapel in which the body of St. Catherine rests; and to the name of each are added the words, ex officio. From the statements of the healed woman herself, reported on page 193, it is established that she, having heard of the miracle of health given back to Maria Francesca Saveria de' Gentili, was likewise raised up in hope of obtaining a healing by the merits of St. Catherine, and asked to be carried to her tomb, having conceived a living faith in her patronage.

[87] circumstances of it, and the sequence of the affair. Other statements of the witnesses I pass over; a few things about the sequence of the affair I subjoin from page 187. And thence she fervently commended herself to the said Blessed woman, and begged those standing by also that together with her they would ask her health of the Blessed woman. And while she was sitting present at the sacrifice of the Mass, which was being celebrated at one of the side altars, she had an inward impulse to bend her knees at a nearby prie-dieu, whereupon she at once threw herself upon it, and from this experienced a vast pain in her knees. Meanwhile she ceaselessly implored the help of the Blessed woman, to whom she had also sent as intercessor St. Francis of Paola, whose feast fell on that day. And she had so firm and certain a confidence in the said Blessed Catherine of obtaining, through her patronage, her former health, that she felt a great heat and streamed with sweat. Thereupon she received the Eucharistic bread, still remaining on her knees; and when the thanksgiving was finished, she was inwardly moved to raise herself upon her feet. And when she had at once accomplished this with no one helping, seeing that she could not only stand upon her feet but also freely open the hand which she had long held contracted and stretch out her fingers, she straightway cried out with a loud voice: "Grace, grace! faith, faith!" At the novelty of which thing all who stood by remained full of admiration and astonishment, and burst into tears for joy, and at once upon their knees rendered thanks to God and to Blessed Catherine, and sang the Hymn Te Deum, a certain priest who was present leading. The things which are added in the same place declare how perfectly she was healed, being thereafter troubled by none of the ills under which she had before groaned oppressed.

§ VI. Other miracles taken from the instruments of the canonization; the names of the witnesses, and other circumstances.

[ ] Other miracles inserted in the process. Besides those three miracles recorded both elsewhere and in the preceding §, and which were approved and confirmed by the irrefragable oracle of the Apostolic See, three others besides are read in the praised codex. These were not discussed in the manner which is generally observed, so as to be confirmed by the supreme vote of Christ's Vicar, for the reason which I read in the Preface of the answer to the Animadversions of the Promoter of the faith, in the following words: Since by Your Holiness the canonization of other Blessed ones must be accomplished as speedily as possible, therefore in this narrowness of time, although we have adduced six miracles, we think it better for now to suspend the examination of two of them — namely, that by thus sparing the labour of the lords who vote, the cause may be more swiftly despatched; and because also we do not need the proof of all the said six miracles for the canonization of the aforesaid Blessed woman, since two or three are sufficient. Moreover I have believed that I should do a thing most pleasing to the pious reader if I subjoined those three prodigies here.

[89] I begin from that which is recited in the second place in our codex, and which, although it was examined, was nevertheless not approved, since, on the testimony of Clement XII in the Bull, A woman suddenly freed from consumption and other the approval of the three miracles related above standing, the solemn canonization of Catherine could safely be decreed. On page 51 I read thus: From the 25th day of November of the year 1729 Maria Caterina Rombi began to be ill, when, pains being stirred up in her belly and sides as forerunners of the sickness that was to threaten and to prove incurable, she was harassed by convulsions of the stomach and could neither take food nor keep it down; which symptom, however, having been somewhat overcome after several months, many others were added which indicated a deadly outcome of the disease. For, pressed by pains through her whole body, with troublesome sleeplessness also, and with diarrhoea and a diseased sweat coming on besides, and with a hectic fever harassing her at its accustomed periods, she came into such feebleness of strength that, being now continually confined to her bed, she was more than once refreshed with the most holy Viaticum as one who would shortly die. Ceaselessly oppressed by these diseases, and with the whole mass of her blood at times too always going from bad to worse, she suffered from erysipelas in the head.

[90] incurable diseases: Many remedies of the art were employed, but with an entirely useless outcome; for the resistance of the diseases became day by day more stubborn. Wherefore, having heard of the miracles which were being done by God at the intercession of Blessed Catherine, she came into full confidence of commending herself to that same Blessed woman, as she did, having instituted nine days' prayers; and while she was planning to begin these, she asked leave of her physician and her confessor to go to the Blessed woman's tomb; and although this leave was denied her, nevertheless, having conceived a living hope, she betook herself thither, yet not without the greatest difficulty; for only propped upon the arms of others did she leave her bed, clothe herself in her garments, and go down the stairs; nor did she come to the tomb of the blessed Widow save in a sedan chair. But there, after she had prayed a little, she knelt by herself, and thereupon, standing, felt herself greatly relieved; whence she at once walked about; and she could even, by the advice of an expert, have returned on her own feet, had she not, because she was not adorned according to her condition, preferred to seek her home again in that same sedan chair, after she had visited her own sister.

[91] The witnesses produced and examined in confirmation of this miracle in the praised instruments of the canonization are marked as follows, from page 55 to 88: witnesses of this benefit; a man lame in one foot given the power to walk.

Maria Caterina Romba, 52 years of age, the healed woman.

The lord Michele Castagneto, 37 years of age, surgeon.

The very reverend father Ignazio Maria of St. Francis Xavier, of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, 73 years of age, confessor of the healed woman.

Paola Maria Romba, about 40 years of age, sister of the healed woman.

The magnificent lord Paolo Giacinto de Rossi, 51 years of age, physician, who treated the sick woman.

Maria Calcanea, 36 years of age, companion of the healed woman to the Saint's tomb.

Maria Girolama Brutia, 60 years of age, the other companion.

Giovanni Battista Ramersario, about 43 years of age.

Battista Oberti, 25 years of age.

The last two are marked as witnesses ex officio, and were those who carried the healed woman in a sedan chair to the Saint's tomb. Now that benefit, as is clear from the testimony of the healed woman herself and of her sister Paola Maria, was obtained in the year 1734 on the Tuesday of Holy Week, which in that year fell on the 13th day of April. Further, I here also refrain from reporting the statements of the witnesses, and only observe that Michele Castagneto, the healed woman's surgeon, said that among other healings obtained by St. Catherine's patronage he had seen a certain man endowed with a free step, whereas before he had had to walk supported by crutches, being lame in one foot.

[92] An abscess arisen from a gangrene, with several ulcers also The benefit described in the fifth place in our codex is recited in the following words on page 225: Paola Fava, when she was pregnant in the year 1630 *, for some months before her delivery suffered a pain in her left breast, which so far from ceasing after the birth (which followed on the 19th of November) rather on the contrary took a troublesome enough increase; so and in such a way that in the following year at the time of carnival she perceived in the place of the pain a swelling, which swelling, or more truly abscess, came to suppuration. But notwithstanding this, a little after it swelled again, and it was necessary that a surgeon should open the part, and thereupon again another part, to which the abundance of the pernicious humour had turned aside. For about two months diligent care was employed, but at length the same surgeon in charge held her for a hopeless case and her disease for incurable — as she was also warned of such incurability by another surgeon and by the physician de Rossi.

[93] that had grown up, is cured: She too has recourse to the supernatural help of Blessed Catherine, and, to obtain her intercession with God, instituted nine days' prayers. The first

of these days she betook herself to the tomb of Bl. Catherine, and called upon her protection and anointed the ulcer with oil from the lamp. She had scarcely returned home when she was tormented with sharper pains, and the swelling of the breast increased, and nine ulcers appeared, in such wise and to such a degree that, driven by a kind of frenzy of despair, she addressed the Blessed one bitterly, saying: "Dear Blessed one, I give you thanks for your charity: is this the grace which you would bestow upon me? I see that it is leading me to death, and I no longer wish to come to visit you." Yet notwithstanding this womanly querulousness, while the sick woman was taking her sleep, Bl. Catherine appeared to her, and told her to rise, because she was healed. Awaking, therefore, she conceived a new and livelier confidence, and going again to the tomb to give thanks to the Blessed one, when she had returned home from there she saw one of the ulcers healed; on the second day a second, and another on the third, so that on each of nine days one of the nine ulcers appeared perfectly healed, and she felt no further discomfort at all.

[94] the names of the witnesses for this miracle, The witnesses heard and examined concerning this benefit are noted, from p. 227 to 252, as follows:

Paula Fava, aged … years, the woman healed.

Master Antonius Maria de Rubeis, aged about forty-three years, surgeon.

Master Joannes Antonius Castagninus, aged about fifty-five years, a second surgeon.

Nicoletta Valentina, aged about forty-six years.

Teresia Tonsa, aged about fifty years.

Stephanus Fava, aged about forty-nine years, husband of the woman healed.

The noble lady Julia Maria Rosa de Furnariis, widow left by the most illustrious lord Alexander Marius, a patrician of Genoa, aged about fifty-three years.

The worshipful master Ignatius Curletti, aged thirty-five years, physician.

To the two last names are added the words ex officio.

[95] The depositions of the witnesses I likewise omit here, content to have briefly observed a few particulars from them for a fuller knowledge of the benefit just related. and other things to be observed concerning it. Under n. 92 I marked with an asterisk that the beginning is to be read as the year 1730, not 1630, as our manuscript writes in the history of this miracle through the carelessness of the typesetters: for besides the fact that it is manifestly established from the words of the healed woman herself that the sickness began in the year 1730, it is certain from the Factum concordatum that only in the year 1733 was the faculty granted by the sacred Congregation for examining the witnesses, among whom the husband of the healed woman asserts that, at the time when he was heard, about four years had elapsed since his wife began to be afflicted with this grave malady: moreover the time during which the sickness held her was about nineteen months, and the healing came about in the month of June of the year 1732, though the day is not marked. It is to be observed besides that the healed woman was favored not with one apparition only of the Saint, but with two: in the former the sick woman says that she was admonished to rise from her bed, since by the benefit of God and of the Most Holy Virgin she had been healed; in the second, which happened on the following night, the Saint again bade Paula rise from her bed, asserting that her help would be at hand for her in every labor and distress, and that she would never fail her, provided she devoted herself piously to the service of God and of the Most Holy Virgin.

[96] Our manuscript relates the sixth miracle on p. 253 in these words: A boy unable to walk from birth Petrus Joannes Regaggi, who obtained the enjoyment of this light on the first day of November of the year 1728, when he had come to the age at which he ought to have formed his steps, was recognized by his mother to have his left leg so weak, infirm and defective that he could in no way stand upon his feet. There were applied to him, while he was in about his second year, certain remedies, which nevertheless brought no help whatever. Wherefore, after he had reached about his fourth year, since he could not go forward except by crawling, crutches were fitted to him, by which he might support himself and move about. But his mother, hearing of the continual miracles which were being wrought at the intercession of Bl. Catherine Fieschi Adorno, resolved to carry the said boy to her tomb, firmly hoping that she would obtain from God that, by the mediation of the patronage of the said Blessed one, he would leave his crutches there and walk without the help of another; and she communicated this her purpose to her son.

[97] Some days having elapsed after this, when on the morning of the thirtieth day of March 1734 the said boy had gone with his mother to the neighboring church, he is wonderfully healed at the Saint's tomb: that he might hear Mass there, this being finished he asked his mother to carry out what she had determined and promised, by carrying him to the tomb of the aforesaid Blessed one: but his mother, not being able to do this, inasmuch as she was detained by ill health, told her son that he should take himself thither together with his brother and another boy, their companion, as he at once did; and when he had arrived there he was present at the sacrifice of the Mass, which was then being celebrated at one of the side altars. And during the celebration of the said Mass the aforesaid boy poured out many prayers in honor of the said Blessed one, to whom also he said, with confidence and holy simplicity, thus: "Fair, dear Blessed one, here I leave you my crutches, and I desire to go away from here without them." And, O wondrous power of God! When the sacrifice of the Mass was completed, the boy stood upon his feet, and that without crutches, although he still had his leg weak and defective as before; and thereupon, full of joy, having left the crutches upon the altar which stands near the tomb of the aforesaid Blessed one, he departed thence at once, and walking freely, nimbly, and with no one helping him, went down the stairs of the hospital, and returned home exulting, a great multitude of the people accompanying him and unable to restrain their tears for gladness; and from that time onward he always walked and walks freely and without any support, and comes daily to venerate the sacred body of the Blessed one, notwithstanding that his leg still remains in its original degree of weakness and infirmity.

[98] the names of the witnesses; the boy's healing Testimony of this miracle was given by those written below, recorded in our manuscript from p. 257 to 284:

Anna Maria Regaggi, aged about thirty-six years, mother of the boy healed.

Master Michaël Castagnetus, aged thirty-seven years, surgeon.

Master Franciscus Maria Monno, aged about fifty-two years, a second surgeon.

Maria Francisca, daughter of the greater hospital of the city of Genoa, aged thirty-three years.

Gertrudis, daughter of the greater hospital of Genoa, aged about twenty-nine years.

Joseph Regaggi, aged about thirty-two years, father of the boy healed.

Maria Nicoletta Natina, aged about thirty-eight years.

Petrus Laurentius Sueglia, aged about fifty-one years.

The last two are marked as witnesses ex officio. Observe here that on p. 277 of the said manuscript one reads thus: This examination (of Joseph Regaggi, father of the boy healed) being completed, etc., their most illustrious and most reverend lordships ordered the boy Petrus Joannes Sanctes Regaggi, etc., to be brought into the present chapel, to the end of inspecting him with their own eyes and hearing him: and when he had been brought in, and had been well inspected and diligently considered by their most illustrious lordships, etc., he was admonished to narrate all the things which had happened to him before and at the time of his healing; and he answered, etc.

[99] lawfully attested. After the words of the healed boy have been related in the same place, there is added on p. 278: After the aforesaid, the most illustrious and most reverend lord judges attentively considered and inspected the said boy, and made him walk about, and found that he walked about freely without any help of a staff or of a person; that he had nevertheless his left leg weak and useless, so much so that he drags it along with him, and even, on account of a test that was made, lifts it with his hands above his head; and that notwithstanding this he supports himself upon that leg and foot and walks about; and that the boy himself, from his countenance, is of a good disposition, and had narrated in a natural and boyish manner the things which he deposed above. The depositions of the witnesses concerning this miracle likewise contain nothing which need be specially recorded here: yet it is to be observed in passing, from the testimony of the surgeon Michaël Castagnetus, that the healed boy's incapacity for walking was incurable; and he gives the reason in nearly these words: On account of the natural defect from which this boy suffers in a knee ill formed from birth, I judge that he cannot naturally walk; and the very gait which he enjoys, and that a swift one, is a singular benefit, obtained by the merits of Bl. Catherine: that is to say, the inborn defect in the ill-formed knee-joint still persisted even after he had been granted the power of walking.

[100] [The Saint most famous throughout the world; she is set up by many as an example of sanctity.] Here I make an end of the posthumous Glory of the Saint, since we have not obtained other documents by which it might be more fully adorned: but I transcribe a few things from the Preface of the reply to the animadversions of the Promoter of the Faith; thus the author addresses Clement XII: The question concerns a most famous Blessed one, whose heroic virtues … have already been approved, … and she is most widely known to the whole Catholic world, both on account of her heroic sanctity, and on account of the stupendous prodigies which God, best and greatest, deigned to work in her while she was still alive, … and also because she is adduced by almost all ascetic writers, and signally by St. Francis de Sales in his Works, and by many other Servants of God, as an example of virtue and sanctity, etc. These words, by which he urged the Pontiff to conclude Catherine's canonization more speedily, I employ in order to show that I have no doubt at all that, besides the monuments of public veneration erected to the Saint which were recorded at the beginning of §4, many others are to be found, not at Genoa only, but also among foreign and far distant nations, among whom her Life was received so eagerly while she had as yet been enrolled among the citizens of heaven by no lawful authority, as the frequent editions of the Life recorded in §1 of the preceding Commentary prove. I add also the words which the earlier biographer uses at the end of his History: It remains that we beseech the most merciful Lord himself, that through the intercession of this blessed Soul (to whom I reverently consecrate the first-fruits of this my labor) he may deign to pour out his love upon us abundantly.

\* l. 1730.