The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Sienna

The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Sienna

St. Catherine, the author of The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Sienna,  and born 1347, was a woman of intense interiority and spirituality, who's contributions aided the Catholic Church through one of its most scandalous moments in history. By the age of 7, she consecrated her life to God after an encounter of her first mystical experience. At thirteen she entered the Dominican Sisters of Penance, and there she developed a following of lay and religious, who were inspired by the immense grace God had put within her, and the holiness with which she lived her life. Through this immense grace, wisdom, and kindness, St. Catherine persuaded Pope Gregory XI to move from Avignon back to Rome. She succeeded, he returned. She likewise sought to council the pope's successor, he however would not be moved, and in 1380, at the age of 33, St. Catherine died. Only 81 years later, St. Catherine of Sienna was declared a saint. She left after her a legacy, the words which formed her, a dialogue between her soul and God, piercing and purifying to read. The Dialogue was written in 1370, and is a work of non-fiction, written in a conversation between God and St. Catherine. 

The book is divided into four sections, first, A Treaty of Divine Providence, second, A Treaty of Discretion, third, A Treaty of Prayer, and fourth, A Treaty of Obedience.The book will appeal to any reader who wishes to grow more authentically in love of Christ, through unity with Him, and a desire to glorify Him, as well to grow in charity towards their brother.

The dialogue contains the conversation of a soul abandoned to its creator. Her questions simple, selfless, edifying, and God's response's to her all the more edifying to an unsuspecting reader. Most potently, God illustrates before her and therefore the reader, the Bridge over which a soul must cross in order to obtain everlasting life in Heaven. He himself being the Bridge. “Open the eyes of thy intellect, and wonder at those who voluntarily drown themselves, and at the baseness to which they are fallen by their fault, from which cause they have become weak, and this was then that they first conceived mortal sin in their minds.” 1. From there, God opens before her the tragedies and torments that take place within a soul who crosses beneath and bridge and drowns in the waters, handing his immortal soul to the devil. Delving deeply into the human conscience, God illuminates every wickedness of the human heart as originating in self love, and with the clarity of what one might feel on Judgement Day, He, through her words, opens the chasm of our soul and names the sins for which every man is guilty. The reader, wound now opened and conscience laid bare, is drawn into the conversation with the pain of an unflinching eye as the realities of exist lay quite naked and actual before him.

Within the text, God's very heart is laid bare, man's guilt inexcusably unjustifiable, the only desire which saves him is desire for God Himself, and true sorrow for his offense against God. The sin of man , his salvation, the way of mercy, the way of sin, the way to hell, means of salvation, the pains of hell, the mercy of God, are set upon the conscience of the reader with a clarity both painful and purifying, leaving him with no doubt. The reader walks away convinced and inspired: he indeed is a hopeless sinner, and ah, to love more! The book illustrates quite clearly that nothing but the striving for perfect and unselfish love brings the soul to God, a striving for which we are by no means obscured or excused.

However this text is not experienced without joy, healing, and love. One quote in particular speaks of the different variations of tears which come from a soul. In reference to the tears brought on by redemption, the Lord says to St. Catherine “The third are tears of those who, having abandoned sin, are beginning to serve and taste Me, and weep for very sweetness; but since their love is imperfect, so is their weeping, as I have told thee. The fourth are the tears of those who have arrived at perfect love of their neighbor, loving Me without any regard whatever for themselves...the fifth are joined to the fourth and are tears of sweetness let fall with great peace...the tears of fire without bodily tears of the eyes, which satisfy those who often would desire to weep and cannot. And I wish thee to know that all these various graces may exist in one soul, who, rising from fear and imperfect love, reaches perfect love in the unitive way.” 2. Here, while the reader may feel daunted and overwhelmed by how it has the choice to love, and at what price it will come, there is given hope that through the “unitive way”, love is purified.

A copy of this book may be found online free of charge, at www.ewtn.com/library, in the Algar Thorold translation. It may also be found, in the same translation at Amazon.com for $8.25, with editor Darrell Wright. Catholic bookstores, for example EWTN Bookstore, sells the copy for a comparable price.

1. Catherine, and Algar Thorold. The Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin, Catherine of Siena: Dictated by Her, While in a State of Ecstasy, to Her Secretaries, and Completed in the Year of Our Lord 1370: Together with an Account of Her Death by an Eye-witness. Rockford, IL: Tan, 1974. Print. 93

2. Catherine, and Algar Thorold. The Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin, Catherine of Siena: Dictated by Her, While in a State of Ecstasy, to Her Secretaries, and Completed in the Year of Our Lord 1370: Together with an Account of Her Death by an Eye-witness. Rockford, IL: Tan, 1974. Print.