29/04/2026
๐๐ผ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ / ๐๐. ๐พ๐ผ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ผ
Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa (Catherine) was the twenty-third or twenty-fourth child born to loving parents in Siena, Italy. As a child, she stood out for her joyful disposition and deep devotion to God. Six-year-old Catherineโs vision of Jesus, sitting on a throne, crowned as King, surrounded by Saints Peter, Paul, and John, led her to vow to give her whole life to God. Catherineโs parents set aside a basement bedroom that she could use as a place of prayer. Her prayer life increased her virtues. She treated her father as Jesus, her mother as Mary, and her siblings as the Apostles.
As a teenager, Catherine firmly opposed her parentsโ desire that she marry. She fasted, prayed, and cut her hair short to make herself less attractive. Eventually, her parents accepted her vocation. At age sixteen, Catherine joined the Third Order of Saint Dominic, made up of lay people who wore a religious habit but lived at home, serving the poor and sick and performing charitable works. For several years, Catherine lived in seclusion and prayer. Around age twenty-one, she entered into a โmystical marriageโ with our Lord. While Catherine prayed, Jesus appeared to her, along with the Virgin Mary and King David as a harpist. Jesus placed a ring on her finger and departed. The ring remained for the rest of her life, although Catherine was the only one who could see it.
After receiving the gift of spiritual marriage, Catherine began a more active ministry to Sienaโs poor, sick, and imprisoned. When the bubonic plague struck, Catherine and her companions cared for its victims. To address controversies plaguing the Church and State, Catherine wrote hundreds of letters to royalty, religious, and the pope himself. She engaged in severe penance and prayer, living daily only on the Holy Eucharist. When she learned of rebellions within the Church in 1375, she fell into ecstasy and received an invisible stigmata that appeared on her body after her death.
At that time, the papacy had moved to Avignon, France. Anti-popes were elected and confusion was widespread. Catherine wrote letters and had face-to-face conversations with Pope Gregory XI, urging him to return to Rome, which he did in 1377. The last years of Catherineโs life were spent writing letters, visiting towns that were warring against the papacy, and counseling two popes. She rallied the people, addressed abuses, and gave witness to Christ crucified through her penitential life.
Her last, and greatest, gift to the Church was her book, The Dialogue of Divine Providence. Dictated by Catherine while she was in ecstasy, it is a conversation between a soul and the Father in Heaven. In addition, 382 of her letters and twenty-six of her prayers have survived.
St. Catherineโs unquenchable desire for God is beautifully expressed in this prayer she wrote:
Eternal God, eternal Trinity, You have made the Blood of Christ so precious through His sharing in Your Divine nature. You are a mystery as deep as the sea; the more we search, the more we find, and the more we find, the more we search for You. But we can never be satisfied; what we receive will ever leave us desiring more. When You fill our soul, We have an ever greater hunger, and we grow more famished for Your light. We desire above all to see You, the true Light, as You really are.
Saint Catherine of Siena, pray for us. Jesus, we trust in You. ๐ผ๐ข๐๐ฃ
๐๐ค๐ช๐ง๐๐:
https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/?fbclid=IwY2xjawPGbDdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR6IAxGYNjdKM0Ih8K3fyMDTvN41Y4QJwONCQWK0mmYPC1XSlKSCLoHvh31n0g_aem_IHvuP1efxzUW3M7WrRhmHg