St. Catherine of Siena is honored as one of the greatest teachers of the faith, being given the title of a Doctor of the Church. Her ultimate goal in life was total surrender to God which she viewed as a process that takes a lifetime to complete. Entire books are written about her life, so we will concentrate on a few important key points.
St. Catherine was a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic. As a member of this order, Catherine was not confined to a convent but still lived at home with her parents. When she first joined the order, Catherine spent most of her time alone in prayer. After three years closed away, Catherine suddenly began to spend her time helping others in her community. She gave away much of her family’s wealth to those who needed it.
Beginning in her three years of intense prayer, Catherine began to have mystical experiences. (A mystic is someone who has a unique, intimate union with Christ.) Catherine was blessed to be given visions of Christ, but this is not the case with all mystics. One of her visions, which inspired her to give up her life of solitude and go out to serve the world, was what she described as a “mystical marriage.” Jesus gave her a ring, just as a groom would place a ring on his bride’s finger, and instructed her to remain pure until she was united with Him in Heaven. This ring was only visible to her. Later in her life, the stigmata, the five wounds of Christ, appeared on her body; in her humility, Catherine asked God to hide these wounds from the world while she was alive. In another vision of Christ, our Lord offered Catherine the choice of two crowns: a royal crown of jewels or the crown of thorns. She chose the crown of thorns, which, although invisible, caused her great suffering for the rest of her life.
Even while confined in her parents’ home, Catherine’s deep prayer life and connection with God became well known. She attracted many followers who sought to learn how she lived in order to grow closer to God themselves. Many people visited her, worked with her, and wrote her letters asking for advice. Many of her letters are preserved today. The number of her followers grew after her death as word of her holiness spread.
During her life, Catherine wrote hundreds of letters, prayers, and a book titled Dialogue which included a conversation she had with God. The unique thing about the quantity of writing Catherine did was that she had no education as a child. When she joined the order, Catherine could not read or write. It is believed that one of the other sisters in her order taught Catherine to do both, but it is also possible that some or all of her writings came from her telling someone else what to write.
Catherine’s writings show us that she was involved in the politics of her time. She wrote numerous letters to the Popes throughout her life, encouraging them to stand strong in the faith, to strengthen the Church, and to spread the knowledge of the faith. This was a time when the Church was experiencing great difficulties and challenges. Many men did not approve of a woman speaking about political topics and advising the Pope, so there were many attempts to force her to stop speaking in public. All of these attempts failed, and she continued to be a strong influence until her death.
One of Catherine’s visions was of a bridge which led to Heaven. As she describes it, this bridge is Jesus, and each of the three steps is made of a different part of Jesus’ body. As we pass each step, we must grow in our faith in a specific way before moving to the next step. The first step is Jesus’ Feet which were pierced on the Cross to forgive our sins; when we are on this first step, we must stop sinning in order to move ourselves closer to Christ. The second step is Jesus’ Side, pierced by the lance, through which we can see His Heart. In order to grow closer to the Heart of Jesus, we replace the sins which we abandoned in the first step with love and habits which lead us toward God. The third step is the Mouth of Jesus, ready to welcome us with love. As we stop sinning and spend that energy instead growing in our love of God, we begin to experience peace in our lives. This peace comes from our souls changing from desiring sin to desiring the habits which lead us closer to God.
In our flawed human nature, God knows that we are likely to need to repeat these steps over and over during our lives. The steps of this bridge are not to be walked once and be finished, but to be taken over and over as a journey which leads us to Heaven.