“This fruit tastes bitter at first, when we bite it with holy desire in the mouth, but when the soul has become willing to suffer unto death for the love of Christ crucified, then it tastes quite sweet.” - Caterina de Siena. Undset, S. (1954, p. 250)

It would seem to me, while it is impossible to logically deny the existence of the person, Caterina Benincasa, as she lived, prayed, worked, and served in Siena, would it not stand to reason that by her life lived, as experienced by those that knew her directly, that she devoted her life and gave of herself to God?  Does it not stand to reason, based upon recorded history, that her words and actions resounded piety, and that her life and as well as the lives of those the Church deems as saints, point to, or indicate, the existence of a Divine being?  How can it be explained that she was able to sleep only a few hours every few days, not able to eat food for more than a few years of her adult life, nor was she able to read or write?  Yet, with all of this she experienced things that her closest friends and family, could not grasp on any level nor gain any satisfaction of understanding. 

It is of course futile to expect to understand the experience of the saints, unless one has seen a glimpse of the invisible beauty and majesty, which they were allowed to contemplate while they were still divorced from it by the barriers of the visible world.  Catherine herself had to give up when she once tired to describe in words to Fr. Tommaso della Fonte what she had experienced while in ecstasy; she who had the whole of the lovely and rich Tuscan language at her disposal said, “It is impossible, it is like dipping pearls in the mud.” Undset, S. (1954, p. 93)

“No biographer has ever been more conscientious than Raimondo. (Blessed Fr Raymond of Capua, Catherine’s Spiritual Director) He always gives the source of all his information-experienced, what he had heard from others, and who these others were and whether they were still alive.  But after he had sifted the whole of his vast material and arranged it with immense care and love, he had to confess that it was beyond him to understand completely Catherine’s inner life.”  Undset, S. (1954, p. 93)

As such a soul was graced and given the insights she was, during states of ecstasy, which at times lasted for hours, Caterina’s Dialogue with God the Father can give us a small glimpse into her interior life.  God the Father spoke to her and allowed her to understand with clarity that which is beyond any literate or illiterate person, educated or not.

Then said the Supreme and Sweet Truth of God, “Oh, beloved and dearest daughter, you beg knowledge of the reasons and fruits of tears, and I have not scorned your desire.  Open well the eye of your intellect and I will show you, through the spiritual stages I have described for you, those imperfect years whose source is fear.

·   First of all, there are the tears of damnation, the tears of this world’s evil ones.

·   Second are the tears of fear, of those who weep for fear because they have risen up from the sin out of fear of punishment.

·   Third are those who have risen up from sin and are beginning to taste me.  These weep tenderly and begin to serve me. But because their love is imperfect, so is their weeping.

·   The fourth stage is that of souls who have attained perfection in loving their neighbors, and love me without any self-interest.  These weep and their weeping is perfect.

·   The fifth stage (which is joined to the fourth) is that of sweet tears shed with great tenderness.

I will tell you, too about tears of fire, shed without physical weeping, which often satisfy those who want to weep but cannot.  And I wish you to know that a soul can experience all of these different stages as she rises from fear and imperfect love to attain perfect love and the state of union. I want you to know that all tears come from the heart.  Nor is there any other bodily member that can satisfy the heart as the eyes can.  If the heart is sad, the eyes show it.  If the sadness is sensual, there will be hearty tears that give birth to death –hearty because they do come from, the heart, but deadly because the heart’s love is disordered, cut off from me.  And because it is disordered it is offense to me and earns sadness and tears that are deadly.” Benincasa, C. (1980, p. 161)

It is with tears that one can see the closeness of a soul to its’ Creator, as it was given to Caterina.  The state of union of a soul to its’ Creator can only be felt by the soul from within and be seen outwardly by tears.  The union of the soul to its’ Creator and only by, with, and in the stripping of itself, in order to empty itself of itself in order to be filled with the love of, from, for, and with its’ Creator.  As John the Baptist spoke, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”  (Jn 3:30)  It is only by the grace of God that a soul can be stripped.  The depths of such a soul cannot be nor will not be understood or expressed in adequate words to give any degree of satisfaction to anyone that does not taste such.  It is in this depth the soul finds its’ Creator and can see clearly what it is and what it desires.  Would it not stand to reason, that it is impossible for anyone to assert, looking in from the outside, and state with any degree of reasonable certainty, that God does not and cannot exist?

By this light set in the mind’s eye Thomas Aquinas saw me and there gained the light of great learning.  Augustine, Jerome, and my other holy doctors, enlightened by my Truth, understood and knew my Truth in the midst of darkness.  I am referring to Holy Scripture, which seemed darksome because it was not understood.  This was no fault of Scripture, but of the listener who failed to understand.  So I send these lamps to enlighten, blind, and dense understandings.  They raised their mind’s eye to know the truth in the midst of darkness, and I the fire, the one who accepted their sacrifice, carried them off and gave them light, naturally but beyond all nature, and in the midst of darkness they received the light and so came to know the truth.  So what seemed darksome before now appears most perfectly lightsome to every sort of person –to the dense as to the discerning.  All receive according to their capacity and according to their readiness to know me, for I do not spurn their dispositions.  Benincasa, C.  (1980, p. 156-157)

It is with this light that Caterina saw and spoke, although not being able to express adequately what it was she saw, felt, and tasted, given to her by the Creator.  It is only by the fruits of the lives of those that live, see, and taste such sweetness that we can reach further understanding of the existence of God.  While we are not obligated to accept private revelation as doctrine of and with the Church, giving full assent;  

  

The Church, regarding private revelations, “simply permits them to be published for the instruction and edification of the faithful.  The assent to be given to them is not therefore an act of Catholic Faith but of human faith, based on the fact that these revelations are probable and worthy of credence.” Pope Benedict XVI 

“When the Church approves private revelations, she declares only that there is nothing in them contrary of good moral, and that they may be read without danger or even with profit; no obligation is thereby imposed on the faithful to believe them.  Speaking of such revelations as (e.g), those of St. Hildegard (approved in part by Eugenius III), St. Bridget (by Boniface IX), and St. Catherine of Siena (by Greorgy XI).  Poulain, A. Fr. S.J 

‘It is not obligatory nor even possible to give them the assent of Catholic faith, but only of human faith, in conformity with the dictates of prudence which presents them to us as probable and worthy of pious belief.’ (De canon. III, Liii, xxii, II)” The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913). Pope Benedict XVI.

We can only hold Caterina as a saint and a Doctor of The Church.  The fruits of her life, point us to God, as she followed God, with simplicity and blind faith.  The depths of the light given to her by God can only be seen in the fruits of her life.  It is ONLY by looking back that we can see the handprints of God upon a soul.  Private revelation is just that, it does not require us to the assent of Catholic faith.  It does however present moral demands to us, that with our own freewill and sound philosophy does lay claim to our intellect whether we like it, want it to, or not.  We cannot with sound reason and logic attempt to dismiss and/or deny something because it presents something we do not like or makes us feel uncomfortable.

Caterina Benincasa

• 15 March 1347 23^rd child, born as a twin with Giovanna, whom died in infancy
• 1353 est., Siena.  When she was about six, while walking home she looked over the valley and the church of St. Domenica and saw Jesus in bishop’s robes, and with the treble crown of the Pope on His head.  Beside Him stood the apostles St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John the Evangelist.
• By 1370, she was unable to eat any solid food.
• 1375 Pisa, Italy. St. Christina’s Church:  Mid Lent (Laetare Sunday), Catherine received the invisible wounds of Christ after receiving Holy Communion.
• 13 September 1376 Pope Gregory left Avignon forever
• 29 January 1380, Rome in the old basilica of St. Peter’s, the mosaic of Giotto’s called “Navicella” –St. Peter’s ship, while in prayer she collapsed as if the entire weight of the ship fell upon her.
• 29 April 1380, Rome Caterina Benincasa died, with her “Caternati,” with her.
• 1383 Caterina’s body was moved inside Santa Maria Sopra Minerva and placed under the high altar.
• 1383 Her head was removed and taken to Siena and placed in St. Dominic’s Church
• 1399, Nuremberg, in the fall, Fr. Raimondo died
• 1461, Rome Pope Pius (Enea Silvio de Piccolomini of Siena) canonized Caterina

                                                  References

(Benincasa C G 1980 Catherine of Siena the Dialogue)Benincasa, C. (1980). Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue. New York: Paulist Press.

(Pope Benedict Xiv 2011 Private Revelation: Unravelling Medjugorje.) Pope Benedict XVI. (2011). Private Revelation: Unravelling Medjugorje  by Cary Winters. www.catholicapoligetics.info, , . Retrieved from www.catholicapologetics.info/privaterevelation/medja.htm.

(Poulain Fr SJ Augustin 2011 Private Revelation: Unravelling Medjugorje) Poulain, Augustin,. Fr. S.J., (2011). Private Revelation: Unravelling Medjugorje by Cary Winters. www.catholicapologetics.info, , . Retrieved from www.catholicapologetics.info/privaterevelation/medja.htm.

(Private Revelations 1913) (1913). Private Revelations. The Catholic Encyclopedia, , . Retrieved from www.catholicapologetics.info/privaterevelation/medja.htm.

(Undset S 1954 Catherine of Siena)Undset, S. (1954). Catherine of Siena. New York: Sheed and Ward.