Her Nature Was Fire

Sigrid Undset (Photo Source)

Being a cradle Catholic, I’ve been immersed in the lives of the Saints since a young child. The first Saint to capture my heart and imagination at the young age of 7 was St. Catherine of Siena. As I read about her political endeavors (during the Middle Ages, when women played an insignificant role in public life), I quickly became enamored with this young mystic, who was a holy force to be reckoned with. The first story of her life I read was a little TAN book, which I re-read several times as a child. In high school, my Theology teacher introduced me to the historical novels about the Saints by Louis de Wohl. We read St. Augustine’s story in school, and I discovered soon thereafter that he had also written a book about Catherine of Siena called Lay Siege to Heaven. This book reawakened and cemented in my soul a true devotion to this awe-inspiring Saint. Of course, she became my Confirmation Saint, and I can only hope to possess even a small ember from the fire that blazed in Catherine’s soul for Christ and His Church. I have also been blessed with a daughter in her namesake—Siena Catherine (5). It’s no wonder, then, that given the option, I chose to read yet another biography, simply titled Catherine of Siena, by Sigrid Undset. 

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire." Catherine of Siena

Nobel Prize winner, Sigrid Undset, exceeds expectations in her treatment of the life and times of Catherine of Siena. This biography is truly like none other. Most of what I have read about Catherine of Siena seemed to be little more than a chronology of her life's events, with small glimpses into her mysticism. This Norwegian author, on the other hand, interweaves spiritual, historical, and political themes against a cosmic backdrop in order to reveal the life and soul of Catherine of Siena, who, like Richard Wilbur’s nuns in dark habits, fought to keep a difficult balance. How Catherine longed to escape this life in order to be one with her Bridegroom, Who physically exchanged hearts with her! But obediently, she submitted herself to God’s perfect will, which desired Catherine to be a force of “holy recklessness” that would ignite a purifying fire throughout the Church and all of Italy. Her spiritual director and first biographer, Raymond of Capua, gave Catherine the nickname Catena, meaning chain in Latin, because God created her to rise to heaven with a chain of souls in tow. After all, what a tragedy it would be if we were to show up at heaven’s gates alone.

At first, I wondered why such a great writer chose such a simple title—one that could dissolve like a droplet into the sea of Saints stories. However, after finishing the book, I couldn’t even begin to think up a better title. This is the story of a unique soul who lived an incredibly dynamic life, one that cannot be pinned down by a single idea. She is a mystic, Doctor of the Church (although uneducated, she learned everything from Truth Himself), spiritual mother, political ambassador, papal advisor, and much more. She prevented wars and spoke with authority to all sinners, from rakes to bloodthirsty warlords to the Pope himself. Yet, Catherine was also a feeble woman, steeped in humility. To describe her life in simple terms would seem to speak in contradictions. Therefore, Sigrid Undset masterfully incorporates primary sources (letters, The Dialogue, Raymond of Capua’s writings, etc.), her research of the Middle Ages (the setting for her previous novels), and her insight into the human heart and Catholic spirituality in order to paint the most complete picture of Catherine of Siena that is available today. Not only does Undset give us a rich sense of the spirituality of Catherine of Siena, but she also is able to draw us into the minds of those surrounding her, especially her misunderstood mother Lapa, who could easily be mistaken for a cruel mother. Put simply, her mother was a worry-wort, and repeatedly Catherine would beg Lapa to direct her motherly love toward her soul, not only her body. In Catherine of Siena, we don’t only see the life of a holy woman and her amazing miracles, visions, and charitable works. More importantly, we are provided with a glimpse into the loving relationship between God and man and the mysterious workings of His Providence. We also get an up-close look at the problem of evil, which is like spilt ink across the pages of history. Rather than try to explain why evil exists, Catherine shows us what one must do in the face of evil. She took up arms against the enemy, and an army of souls readily followed suit. Undset reminds us that human history, as well as our present day, is indeed one long spiritual war against evil, and the welfare of the soul, not the body, is what ought to occupy our worries.

"In your nature, Eternal Divinity, I have learned to know my own nature. My nature is fire." ~ Catherine of Siena

Ecstacy of St. Teresa (Photo Source)

One might easily consider a mystic’s life, like that of Catherine, to be desirable — being able to partake in the life of the Trinity in such a uniquely intimate way. However, as Bernini’s famous statue “Ecstasy of St. Teresa” depicts, there is a terrible pain associated with such closeness to God. For Catherine, she felt a certain sorrow in leaving her ecstasies to return to the darkness of this world. But, she had a duty to spread the Kingdom of God through love. These visions were Catherine’s consolations and fuel for her life, but she also suffered much in body and soul, including the Stigmata. Due to her intimacy with Christ, however, she always possessed a heavenly joy and love. She is a testament to the Biblical wisdom as C.S. Lewis puts it, “Aim at Heaven, and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither” (cf. Lk 12:33, Mt 6:19-20). Catherine reminds us in the spirit of Christ that suffering is redemptive, and love for God and care for others' souls allows us to endure these sufferings with fortitude. 

I could go on, but I think it’s best to allow Sigrid Undset to speak for herself, as I share with you my favorite passage from this wonderfully enlightening biography (calling it such seems a hefty oversimplification):

"In our own lifetime we have learned to know the smell of rotting corpses on battlefields and in bombed towns; we know of the stinking sores and boils of prisoners from concentration camps, where dead and dying were made to lie on beds as wretched as the one Catherine [of Siena] had chosen for herself. We have poured out oceans of blood and tears, both of the guilty and the guiltless, while we hoped against hope that this blood and these tears could help to save a world reeling under the weight of its miseries. And how little have we achieved of the great things we dreamed! Yet we ascribe it to the confused ideas of the time she lived in and her own dark vision of Christianity, when Catherine intoxicated herself with the blood of Christ—that blood which would put an end to human bloodshed, if only we could agree to receive it as the redemption from our bloodthirsty passions, our insatiable lust for imagined gain for ourselves projected onto other nations or classes. Indeed, many Catholics think in this way. The strong-willed, brave and strangely optimistic girl who handled the powerful men of her time so masterfully, who had such an unusual understanding of the characters of men and women among whom she lived, who really succeeded in making peace between many of her unruly townsmen, who in fact on one or two occasions prevented war, and on many put an end to bloody feuds—she would answer us as she answered her contemporaries...and in the 'Dialogue': that the blood of Christ was the only source of her own courage and strength and wisdom, of her amazing and indomitable joy of living. She would say to us, Drink of it with the lips of your souls, as the saints in their visions seemed to drink it with their lips of flesh; assuage your thirst in the love which streams from God's holy heart--then there will be an end to the vain shedding of man's blood by the hand of man..."