Catherine of Siena: A Private Life Called to Action by Jessica McAfee

Catherine had a deep and rich personal life with Christ, so when He called her to open up in service and preaching, she had a very difficult time surrendering her desire to keep it to herself. When she did accept this, she sought out to be allowed to join the Mantellatae, a group of women who at the time were all widows and members of the Dominican Third Order. When she was allowed in, it was a perfect fit- and became more perfected when God called her again to step out of her comfort zone and begin preaching. Her devotion first to God, and the encouragement of her confessor, Raymund of Capua, helped her to obey God’s call and her determination helped her to face all those who opposed her in positions of authority both within and outside of the Church. “I will go and I will do as the Holy Spirit inspires me.”

This acceptance of being pushed to action outside of her comfortable inner life with Christ (which she maintained even while taking action), helped her to call others to action- including the pope himself! Although she only learned to read and write as an adult, her writings are amazingly impressive and she wrote much in the way of documents and letters to people of influence as well as to encourage humble lay women such as herself.

Specific missions that occupied much of Catherine’s life from the time she was 28 until her death at the age of 33, were threefold. (1) The Pope’s return to Rome, which did happen after she called him out to be a good shepherd of God’s people and be “be a man.” (2) Another Crusade to drive the Muslims out of Europe as well as the Holy Lands, which did not happen. (3) Peace between the papacy and Italian states as well as reform in the Church itself in the form of a council, which also did not occur.
True to form, failure was not an option in Catherine’s life, and she went on a public hunger strike, making sure that she was seen opposing the decision not to reform and bring forth peace. Her body finally gave out after a month of this hunger strike and she took some, although very little nourishment. She died shortly after this episode as her body could not recover from the damage done to it through the hunger strike. Although one might be tempted to see this as a tantrum and wonder how much more she could have accomplished had she lived longer, too much is written about her intentions to continue thinking such thoughts. “All that she did stemmed from her sense of union with Christ; her mysticism was never a break from her activities but the constant wellspring of them.”

What an inspiration Catherine of Siena is to all Christians, especially lay women who want to take action, and fellow Dominicans. Her devotion to prayer, service, study, preaching, her and her community truly define her life as a follower of Christ.

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1 Butler’s Saint for the Day by Butler, Alban; burns, Paul Edition: Rev. ed London: Burns & Oates. 2007. eBook.
2 Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England by Robin, Diana Maury; Larsen, Anne R,; Levin, Carole. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO. 2007. eBook.
3 Butler’s Saint for the Day by Butler, Alban; burns, Paul Edition: Rev. ed London: Burns & Oates. 2007. eBook.