"Saints of Empowered
Prayer: St. Catherine De'Ricci"
St. Catherine De'Ricci: Some saints like Teresa of 'Avila and Catherine
De' Ricci are noted for their extraordinary mystical experiences, but they
themselves placed little value on these. Both were noted for their good sense,
balanced personality and wide circle of friends. Both were also dearly loved by
all who knew them.
Catherine De' Ricci was the "finest flower" of
the Savornarola reform. Girolamo
Savornarola was a Dominican friar, a preacher in Renaissance
Florence, Italy. Catherine was born in Florence, Savonarola's city, almost
twenty-five years after Savonarola's tragic death by hanging and burning at the
stake. Catherine was from a noble family and educated by her aunt, a
Benedictine abbess. She entered the Dominican convent of San Vincenzio at Prato, undoubtedly due to the influence of Savornrola, who was a Dominican.
Catherine's
life was full of the extraordinary: visions, ecstasy, rapture, and other
unusual manifestations. These so disturbed the community in which she lived
that the nuns of her convent, at her request, prayed that these supernatural
occurrences would cease--which they did—in1554. St. Catherine De' Ricci was
favored with the stigmata and the wounds resulting from the crown of thorns.
These
unusual happenings, however, did not detract from Catherine's wisdom, her humor, or her
down-to-earth practicality. She advised bishops, cardinals, general of
religious orders, and even popes; she corresponded with a wide variety of disciples
and associates in letters of great charm. She cared for the poor and found time
to advise a widening circle of friends and associates. In 1560 Catherine became
prioress of her convent and administered its affairs with wisdom and energy.
For
twelve years, from 1542 to 1554, Catherine relived the Passion of Jesus from
Thursday noon to Friday evening, and she was known to have visited St. Philip Neri and St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi--probably
by means of bilocation as she never left her convent. Catherine wrote a poem in
honor of Savorarola and a canticle of the Passion
which became part of the Dominican liturgy. Before it was popular Catherine
encouraged frequent confession and Holy Communion and recommended a spiritual
life joined to energetic action. Her portrait by Naldini
shows her with a book in her hand and a winsome, forceful look on her face.
Catherine died after a long illness at the age of sixty-eight on February 2nd,
1590. She was canonized in 1747. Her feast day is February 13th.
Questions:
1)
Do I seek God more for the gifts He might give me or more because
He is all good and worthy of all my love?
