“Saying which, she struck her breast, repeating her confession, and continued: I have not observed Your precept, with which You commanded me to seek always to give You honor, and to spend myself in labors for my neighbor, while I, on the contrary, have fled from labors, especially where they were necessary. Wretch that I am! for I have not observed Your commandments, either those which are given in general to all, or those which Your goodness laid upon me in particular! Oh mean creature that I am! “ It is my fault, oh eternal Trinity, that I have offended You so miserably with my negligence, ignorance, ingratitude, and disobedience, and many other defects. Then, changing her words, she said as many times again, but without moving her arms, “Holy God, have mercy on me!” Finally she employed the remainder of the above-mentioned time with many other formulas of prayer both humble and devout, expressing various acts of virtue, after which her face suddenly changed from gloom to angelic light, and her tearful and clouded eyes became serene and joyous…” Then she sat up, fixed her eyes on the crucifix in the room, and prayed aloud: “And this, as I believe, she repeated more than sixty times, raising each time her right arm, and then letting it fall and strike the bed. “After this unction she began altogether to change, and to make various signs with her head and her arms as if to show that she was suffering from grave assaults of demons, and remained in this calamitous state for an hour and a half, half of which time having been passed in silence, she began to say: “I have sinned! Oh Lord, have mercy on me!” Then suddenly, it appeared to those around her that she was experiencing a demonic attack: A priest arrived and offered her both absolution and extreme unction (anointing of the sick). This all continued until the morning of the next Sunday, when she seemed to become aware that her end was drawing near and asked for absolution from a priest for her sins. This continual suffering took a physical toll: “ was reduced to such a state that it seemed like a corpse in a picture” – but with an important qualification: “though I speak not of the face, which remained ever angelical and breathed forth devotion.” Yet as a new wave of pain would wash over her, “she would joyously raise her eyes and her heart to God and say: ‘Thanks to You, oh eternal Spouse, for granting such graces afresh every day to me, Your miserable and most unworthy handmaid!'” These sufferings continued for the next 8 weeks. But her suffering was not only physical, but spiritual: “ the infinite afflictions of the soul which she derived from the consideration of the sins which she saw being committed against God, and from the dangers ever more grave to which she knew the Holy Church to be exposed, on account of which she remained greatly overcome, and both internally and externally tormented.” Peter’s Basilica (she was in Rome), and spend the rest of the day there in prayer, “returning to the house so worn out that she seemed a corpse.”įinally, her body gave out again and she was confined to her bed. She would pray 1 to 2 hours in the morning, walk a mile to St. Her bodily suffering increased, but so did her devotion to prayer. That’s when things started to get interesting. However, while they were mourning her apparent passing, she suddenly awoke, stood up, and “did not seem the same person as she who had fallen.” After a few weeks of suffering, she had a stroke so terrible that her caregivers thought she had died. Catherine became ill such that eating and drinking became difficult for her. Despite all of her accomplishments, one of the most inspiring – and instructive – events of her life was her death.Īttached to the end of her most famous work, Dialogues, is a letter written by Ser Barduccio di Piero Canigiani, in which he describes his eye-witness experience of the final moments of St. Today, she is honored as a Doctor of the Church, is the patron saint of Rome, of Italy, and of Europe, and is generally revered as one of the greatest saints in the history of the Church. Famously, she helped convince Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome (the papacy had resided in Avignon, France for decades). Catherine was a mystic, theologian, philosopher, and spiritual advisor. April 29th is the feast day of the great St.
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