St Catherine of Siena - Alexandre Masseron Edt Biography

7/30/2019 St Catherine of Siena - Alexandre Masseron Edt Biography

1/98


2/98


3/98

IJU f

BIBL


4/98


5/98

ALEXANDRE MASSERON

SAINT CATHERINE^ ^ OF SIENA ^ *

WITH TWENTY FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS

translated by

HARRIET REID"

COLL CHRIST! REGIS SJBIB. MAJORTORONTO

TlPO(;.. ( OMUATTKNTI KSIKNA - Via del Vapore, 10 . SIK\.\


6/98

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Les Enigmes de la Divine Comedie. Paris, librairie delf Ari catholique, 1922. Outrage couronnepar V Academic fran$aise.

Sainte Catherine de Sienne, Paris, Laurens, 1922,(illustre).

Les " Exeraples " d un Ermite Siennois, Taris, Perrin,1924, (illustre).

Saint Yves, Paris, Laurens, 1924, (illustre).

In preparation

Saint Antonin, Archeveque de Florence.Un libraire florentin. Vespasiano da Bisticci.Assise, (illustre).


7/98

Saint Catherine of Siena

44 She passed among us like a smile, "said a great Italian poet St, Catherine isthe smile. of Siena, as Siena is the smileof Italy.

She astonished the world, - popes andkings, monks and condottieri. But she didnot astonish her fellowcitizens. Nobodyastonishes the Siennese, least of all onewho has been cradled within sound of thewaters that spring from Fontebranda, Thatrace of " fantastic minds " who in spiteof their oddities knew how to win thethrice - armoured heart of Blaise de Montluc,Marshal of France, recognized and loved theirown blood in the humble but energetic popo-lana whose words, spoken in full consistory,drew from the harsh and severe Urban VL


8/98

the amazed exclamation, " This littlewoman is too much for us * * * Questadonnicduola ci confonde . , ,

Never was a saint more entirely of herown time and her own people : not anItalian, for at that time the word hadscarcely a meaning, but a Siennese ofthe Trecento, that epoch when factionssoaked the republic in blood, and pestilenceand famine added their horrors to thesufferings of perpetual conflict; when blowswere exchanged as persistently and evenindifferently between the mercenary forcesof rival communes as between 4i thosewhom one wall and moat contain " ; whenthe worst passions were everywhere mostaccentuated and when " poison- flowers *had invaded even " the garden of HolyChurch " ; when the great Mother of Consolation might sometimes almost seem tohave so far forgotten her divine missionamong the delights of the " Babylonishcaptivity " as to sink to the mean role


9/98

reigned on the Rhone while the exactionsof her legates created in the " hostel ofgriefs " griefs ever new*

Catherine summed up in herself all thegifts of Siena together with the forcefuloriginality of that mystic city* It was byardour of love and fineness of perceptionthat she established her reign, as becamea true daughter of the city which hascarved upon its gate the delightful welcome:-44 Even wider does Siena open to thee herheart "; as became the daughter of a racewhich says of itself in a homely andexpressive pun, 4i The Siennese have sixnoses* Senesi - set nasi "* Writing toPope Gregory XL she said of her fellow-citizens : " If there are any people in theworld who must be reached by love theyare these ". And she was t throughout thethirty-three years of her life, love s maityr,knowing no weapons but those of love ;and her frail bcdy, emaciated by suffering,and almost without earthly food* wasconsumed by an inward fire of holy desire*


10/98

She too gave her mantle to the poor,one day when she had nothing else to give,A significant act, the importance of whichlay not in the garment but in the symbol.The mantle was the religious habit of theSisters of the Third Order of St. Dominiccalled by the people the Mantellaie; and,to make the matter more serious, in Sienait was only women of evil life who wereseen out of doors without mantles. TheSaint was harshly criticised but she repliedgently * Better be without a mantle thanwithout charity ", The Siennese know nohalf measures in doing good.

They know them even less in doingevil, for it is not the most venial of theirfaults that they are incorrigible wranglers,always fighting with somebody, finding apretext if they cannot find a reason. St.Catherine shared the combative instinct ofher fellow citizens, and of this fault shemade one of her rarest virtues. For itwas not only against herself, the world


11/98

she battled ; the story of her life is nothingelse than the story of her battles - againsther family, against the companions of herreligious life, against the Siennese, againstthe duplicity of the Florentines, against thevices of the clergy and the indolence ofGregory XL, against the harshness of UrbanVL, against the Queen of Naples, againstcardinals unworthy of their purple, andagainst the usurpation of the tiara - forthe honour of God and the salvation ofsouls*

Siena, always quite unhampered by modesty, liked to boast itself the antichamberof Paradise, It might quite as justly haveboasted itself the antichamber of hell, asgood Fra Filippo degli Agazzari proved,with an unheard of abundance of terrifyingstories* Still it is true that over its threehills there floats a luminous crown ofsaints and blessed ones. And its brightestjewel is the little Dominican nun whodid not even learn to write till late in life,and then, she tells us, miraculously, and


12/98

who is now considered one of the finestprose writers of Italy*

Siena s piety and the art of her paintershave made a sanctuary of the house inFontebranda where the saint was born in1347, probably on Palm Sunday, She wasthe twenty-fifth child of Jacopo Benincasa,a dyer, and Monna Lapa, Her maternalgrandfather had been reputed a poet - theair of Siena breathes poetry. It was perhapsfrom the venerable and unknown MuzioPiagenti that Catherine received, in hercradle, the magic gift of expressing herfeelings and thoughts in imagery.

At six years old she had her firstvision - Christ, in the attitude of benediction, appeared to her above the church ofthe Preaching Friars, in pontifical vestments,wearing the tiara, and attended by theapostles Peter, Paul and John, So earlywas the future mission of the DominicanTertiary clearly revealed to her, the support of the papacy in its peril.

Later, she thought of entering a Do-


13/98

rainican monastery in disguise in orderto preach religion and convert heretics andsinners* An idea not unworthy of a Sien-nese, but Catherine had too much goodsense to linger over it. In any case shehad no need of such subterfuges*

At the age of seven she made thatvow of perpetual virginity which five yearslater was to bring upon her repeated attacks,the first she had to suffer being the mostformidable. Monna Lapa, an honest womanof the people, a little vulgar perhaps, andcertainly not troubled by the mysteries ofthe interior life, was resolved to haveCatherine married* With the help of hereldest daughter she managed to persuadeher to pay a good deal of attention to hertoilet and even to use certain chemicalpreparations which were very fashionableat the time and which Fra Filippo degliAgazzari had not the slightest hesitationin pronouncing to be of diabolical origin.Catherine ever after reproached herself forthis weakness as if it had been a crime.


14/98

By the advice of her confessor, who wishedto put her to the test, she ruthlessly cutoff all her magnificent hair* That broughtupon her the fiercest persecution* She wasdegraded to the position of a servant ; shehad not a corner to which to retire formeditation and prayer ; but she had still" the cell of her heart "*

Nobody has ever got anything out of aSiennese by such methods* Worse still,Monna Lapa was fighting against the graceof God* Catherine, without complaining andwithout yielding, submitted to every outrage*Then, after a fresh vision, she called thefamily together, and told them that herresolution was unshakable; she had givenher troth to Jesus ; His love was more toher than any creature* This time honestJacopo interfered with all the authority ofthe father of a family and his wife had toyield*

A second victory followed* This timeMonna Lapa, brought to a juster view of


15/98

her daughter s ally* Catherine, by commandof St* Dominic , who had appeared to her,applied for the mantle of the Sisters ofPenitence* The Tertiaries protested. Theywere women of mature age, widows for themost part, living in the world, withoutvow, under a not very strict discipline* Theyouth of the candidate caused some anxietyto these prudent matrons, themselves secureagainst tempests* Weary at last of theimportunities of Monna Lapa, they endedby saying that Catherine* s lack of beautyshould be the final argument* A deputationwas appointed to go and look at her andbring a report. It was unfavourable to herappearance,-favourable, therefore, to herrequest* The young girl was seriously ill,probably as a result of the tortures shehad inflicted on herself at the hot springsof Vignone, where she had mortifiedthe flesh by scalding herself at the boilingspring. On the subject of her beauty FatherRaimond of Capua, confessor and biographerof the saint, has left an opinion more


16/98

admirable for prudence than precision :" Speciositas naturaliter in ea non ineratexcessive ". But to judge from the pensivecharm which emanates from the portraitsof Catherine, the most celebrated of whichis the fresco in the cappella delle volte,one is inclined to think that the ThirdOrder of St, Dominic acquired its mostradiant star through a fortunate mistakecaused by unforeseen circumstances andthe total incompetence of the examiners*

The Mantellaia was henceforth free todevote herself wholly to her heavenly Spouseby prayer and mortification, silence andworks of charity. The terrible excess ofher austerities shortened her life. Continualfasting brought her to the point of not beingable to eat without indescribable suffering,But the Bread of the Holy Eucharist sufficedto maintain even her bodily strength. On oneoccasion she lived fifty-five days withoutother food than the sacred Host,

This is the period of her fierce struggles


17/98

and over which she triumphed, gaining newstrength at every battle ; the period too,of the ecstasies, visit ns, dialogues withJesus, and special supernatural favourswhich have inspired so many works ofart, the two most celebrated being theExchange of Hearts, and the Mystic Marriage* At the season when the streets ofSiena were loud with the rough orgies of theCarnival, when the licentious songs of themaskers rang in all ears, her Creator andSaviour came to " espouse in the Faith, "by placing the betrothal ring upon her finger,the virgin who expiated the sins of the worldin her narrow cell in Fontebranda,

No", however, in that cell, dear as it wasand dearly bought, lay Catherine s destiny,but rather in the pullic square and in thepalace of the Popes, sharing in the battlesof the Campo, and baffling the intriguesof the Consistories. A strange mission forthis " little woman " and one which givesher a solitary and unique place among thesaints,a place worthy of a Siennese, Jesus


18/98

himself gave her the mission. She humblyraised her objections. The Master put themaside* There was nothing for her but toobey* " We are chosen " wrote Catherineto the magistrates of the Commune, referring to herself and her spiritual family,44 we are chosen to spread abroad theword of God and to gather the harvest ofsouls. Let every one be diligent in hisown work: this is what God has entrusted to us ... " This work of hers was to beended in Rome whither she was to bringback the bark of St Peter. She began it,as was fitting, in Siena, her belovedbirthplace, whence as a centre her lovingheart was to irradiate the world.

The city was all a-simmer with hatreds - public and private. So indeed is thewhole history of these amiable and charmingSiennese. But after tke fall of the Nine,who in 1 355, had replaced the Twelve, andwere themselves replaced in J368 by theReformers, the popular mind, which had


19/98

political passions; anger and revenge, intheir acutest degree, raged openly in thestreets*

Before labouring to pacify Italy andthe Church Catherine pacified her fellowcitizens. They provided her with an excellenttraining ground for study and experience* Hersuccess was so great that very soon shebegan to be called upon by neighbouringterritories to come and heal bitter feuds*But while she was at Montepuldano, theSignoria of Siena sent an ambassador tobring her back to the Palace of the Commune* The " Mother of Pity " was neededto keep the naughty children from fightingwith each other*

Catherine* s knowledge of souls andof their weaknesses was* in the truestsense of the word* miraculous* She feltsin* There lies the secret of her irresistibleinfluence* There is abundant and concurrent proof of this at all stages ofher life* Princes like the Due d Anjouobeyed her : so did condottieri like the


20/98

famous Aguto whose portrait is in theCathedral of Florence* Vanni di ser Vanni,a kind of wolf whom she transformed intoa lamb, expressed his astonishment withan emphasis almost comic : " That Catherine - what sort of woman can she be that Ican t resist her or refuse her anything,no matter what! " Cardinal Giovanni diDomenico who knew her at Flsa in 1 375gives picturesque expression to the sameidea : " I saw her speak to certain sinners, and her words were so wise, sofull of fire, so powerful, that they instantlychanged the black pot into a clear glassphial, as it is said in the hymn to St.Mary Magdalen which Messer Jesus madeabout her %

Her most outstanding work was theconversion of Niccolo Toldo whose executionshe has described in one of her most vibrantletters . . * " I have now received a headin my hands , , . " Sodoma has not caughtthe inspiration of this. His fresco in San


21/98

of it, notwithstanding the beauty of thecuirasses and the fine drawing of the muscles*This Niccolo Toldo was a young Perugiannoble who was condemned to death by theReformers on a more or less vague chargeof conspiracy - either against the safetyof the Republic, which did not matter much ;or against their own power, which was aserious crime* The sentence drove him mad.Blasphemies and curses ! Grief and rageand the intolerable sense of impotence werethe only feelings for which he found anyplace* He refused ail religious ministrations*Catherine visited him in prison* and madeanother man of him* Thanks to her, hewent gaily and bravely to the scaffoldwhere she was awaiting him, where shehad laid her own neck on the block* Ardently she besought the Blessed Virgin togrant to the condemned man light andpeace of heart and to herself the grace tosee him approach his end : My soul wasso flooded with the sweetness of the promise that although there was a great mtdti-


22/98

tude I could see nobody. Then he came likea meek lamb, and when he saw me hesmiled and bade me sign him with theCross, And when I had done so I said " Tothe bridal, sweet brother, soon you willhave attained to the life eternal ",

He knelt down with great meekness,and I uncovered his neck, and bent down tohim, reminding him of the blood of theLamb. His lips said no word but " Jesus!Catherine ! " And even as he said thesewords I received his head in my hands.And as I did so I fixed my mind on thegoodness of God and said " I am willing ",Then I saw the God-man, clearly as onesees the shining of the sun. His side wasopen, and there he received the blood ", , ,

Compared with this poignant and sublime narrative the flexures of the torso ofthe executioner as drawn by Giovan AntonioBazzi, known as Sodoma, seem but a pooraffair.

By her sanctity and the imperious


23/98

about her a whole spiritual family whoknew no law but to obey her, no joy butto accompany her, at first in Siena, butsoon throughout Italy, Provence and theCounty of Avignon* In spite of her youthshe was the 4< mamma " to the little circleof the faithful so strangely and sweetlyformed* It included men and women, religious and lay folk ; at first some of theMantdlate* among whom was Alexia Sa-raceni, the young widow who was thetruest and probably the earliest of Catherine s companions, a terrible chatterbox andrather restless, if we may judge from thesaint s advice to her; her confessors -Father Tommaso della Fonte, very humble,not very learned, who preferred after afew years to hand over to some one elsethe direction of a penitent who must attimes have been something of an embarrassment ; Raimondo da Capua ; Tommaso diAntonio Nacci Caffarini, Bartolomeo diDomenico, all of the order of PreachingFriars; her three secretaries - Stefano Ma-


24/98

coiii, whom she reconciled to the Rinaldiniand the Tolomei and who thenceforwardfollowed her wherever she went, BarduccioCanigiani, and the fascinating Neri di ian-doccio dei Pagliaresi, poet and neurotic,who ended his days as a hermit; gentlefolk like Gabriele Piccolomini and Francesco Malavolti ; artists like Andrea Vanni,who is supposed to have painted the frescoin the cappella delle

Date post:	14-Apr-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	waterwind
View:	222 times
Download:	0 times

St Catherine of Siena - Alexandre Masseron Edt Biography

Documents