Siena is located in that part of Italy known as Toscana, or Tuscany, a region located north of Rome, on the west coast.  In addition to Siena, Tuscany boasts of two cities quite popular with travelers: Florence and Pisa. 

 The regions of Italy may be compared in a way to our states – each has its own flavor.  Tuscany was and still is a proud and prosperous region, the cradle of the Italian renaissance, home, not only to Catherine, but to Giotto, Dante, Petrarch, Donatello, Michelangelo and the Dominican painter Fra Angelico. 

In the 14th century, the city state of Siena was an important trade and banking center.  It no longer has that distinction, but it has retained its reputation as a culturally rich city. 

What we see in Siena today are the same things that Catherine saw: a beautiful cathedral and a central square designed by Siena’s artists; impressive palaces; narrow streets winding up and down steep hills, each street tightly packed with brick and stone houses that truly suggest the color “burnt siena.”  As with so many cities in Italy, it is still surrounded by the walls that protected it from invasion during the middle ages.  It is easy to step back in time when visiting there. 

Stepping back to Catherine’s time brings us to the middle of the 14th century, which is seen as a mirror of our own time – a time characterized by tremendous cultural, economic, political, religious and  social changes. 

Italian artists reflected these changes.  They were either breaking away from the old Byzantine manner of painting (similar to icon painting) or trying to breathe new life into it.   

In 1333, just 10 years before Catherine was born, Simone Martini painted the Annunciation for an altar in Siena’s cathedra.  (It is now in the Uffizi museum in Florence.)  Although this work may look strange to our 20th century eyes, it shows the extent to which Simone Martini had absorbed the ideas of his time.  Generally medieval artists ignored the real shape and proportion of things when illustrating sacred stories.  Not so with Tuscany’s artists.  They attempted to create figures that looked real,   that were rooted in real space, expressing real emotions. 

In a way, this describes Catherine Benincasa – a woman rooted in the reality of her time.  One of her biographers describes her as someone who was always “at full stretch,” whether she was responding to her God or reaching out to her neighbor. 

While she was still in her teens, she decided to become a Dominican.  It is interesting that she joined the “Mantellate,” a group of women attached to the Dominican Order.  They met regularly, lived in their own homes and dedicated their lives to prayer and works of charity.  The alternative open to Catherine was to enter an enclosed Dominican monastery.  This would not have been in keeping with her idea of how to best live life as a Dominican.  In her book, the Dialogue, she describes St. Dominic as “an apostle in the world.”  It seems that Catherine also desired to be an apostle of God’s word in the world.   

Like the artists of the 14th century, she broke with tradition.  She became a woman on the move – something quite unusual in her time. 

Also, there were activities that were generally reserved to men in her society and when she first felt called to them, she hesitated on the grounds that she was a woman, but God reassured her:

    “Was it not I who created the human race?  Male and female I created them.  With me there is no longer male and female for all stand equal in my sight.  You must obey without demur when it is my will to send you out into the world.  No matter where you go, I shall be your guide.” 

She preached God’s word in many ways:  teaching her followers (She was the center of a group that she called “la bella brigata” – the beautiful brigade or beautiful company.  They were drawn from many religious traditions and levels of society and they looked upon Catherine as their teacher and spiritual guide.) 

She cared for the poor and sick; counseled men and women from all walks of life; spent time with men on death row, even accompanying them to their execution; was an ambassador and peacemaker between feuding families and warring states; persuaded the pope to return from Avignon in France to Rome. 

She was diplomat, peacemaker, healer, writer, reformer, prophet,   mystic.  She spoke out courageously and honestly, named the evil that she saw, and chastised both secular and church leaders. 

In all of this, she followed Dominic’s example to bring God’s word to as many people as she could.  She was, as we might expect, severely criticized –

            “That one!  She’s always on the road!  Why doesn’t she stay put; be like other women; get married and raise a family like her brothers and sisters!” 

She did not allow herself to be held back by fear or by criticism.  She was strengthened by God’s words, spoken to her on an occasion when she prayed about her calling:  “You are to plunge boldly into public activity of every kind for the salvation of souls, whether they be men or women.  I will be ever at your side.  Carry on with courage.” 

Catherine preached also through the written word.  Her principal work is the Dialogue, a compendium of all her theological teaching.  Its contents are in the form of a conversation between Catherine and God.  We have also 26 of her prayers, which were written down by one or another of her followers who were present as she prayed aloud.  In addition, Catherine was a prodigious letter writer.  Almost 400 of her letters have come down to us.   

She wrote to members of her family;  to many friends, among them a poet,  an artist,  a lawyer,  a craftsman,  a widow;  to public figures: popes,  bishops,  a king,  a queen and rulers of various Italian states;   to nuns,  hermits,  prostitutes,  mercenary soldiers.     

The famous, the infamous, and the ordinary received from Catherine the words that they needed:  encouragement, advice, admonition, or even a scathing rebuke:   An elderly widow who was living a frivolous, shallow life was told to stop fritting away her energy on all kinds of silly things. 

            She gave simple, sensible advice to a young married woman, writing,  “I ask and command you not to fast except on the days laid down by holy Church, if you are able.  But if you do not feel strong enough to fast, then don’t do so.” 

            Pope Gregory XI was very timid, hesitant to do anything that would upset his cardinals.  Catherine writes and persuades him to be braver:  “Father, get up courageously, because I tell you, there is nothing to fear!  However, if you don’t do what you should, you will have every reason to be afraid.” 

            In a letter to authorities in Bologna, she wrote:  “When one is in charge, one often fails in true justice.  And this is the reason:  they are afraid of losing their status, so in order not to displease others, they keep covering and hiding their wrong-doing.  They behave in this way toward those whom they think may harm their position.  But toward the poor who seem insignificant and whom they do not fear, they display tremendous enthusiasm for “justice” and, showing neither mercy nor compassion, they exact harsh punishments for small faults.” 

            Catherine’s style of writing is spontaneous and energetic.  Its vitality comes from her wonderful use of imagery.  Like the poet or the artist, the mystics express themselves through symbol or image.   

Catherine, as a mystic, had profound experiences.  She attempted to convey what she had experienced and learned by using images from everyday life:           the kitchen fire eating up the wood thrown on it,     light filtering through a narrow street,  the fountain near her home in Siena, bubbling up from a deep underground source, the bridge across the Arno River in Florence, a vineyard in Tuscany. 

In the Dialogue God speaks to Catherine:  

            “Keep in mind that each of you has your own vineyard.  But every one is joined to your neighbors’ vineyards without any dividing lines.  They are so joined together, in fact, that you cannot do good or evil for yourself without doing the same for your neighbors.” 

And again,  “I could well have supplied each of you with all your needs, both spiritual and material.  But I wanted to make you dependent on one another so that each of you would be my minister, dispensing the graces and gifts you have received from me.  So whether you will it or not, you cannot escape the exercise of charity!” 

The image of a circle appears in both Catherine’s prayers and in the Dialogue.  She talks about double knowledge;  knowledge of God and knowledge of self.  This double knowledge forms a circle and if either is missing there is no full circle at all. 

The circle is a compelling image for today.  It has no top or bottom, no beginning or end.  In it there is neither first nor last.  All are equal. 

Values such as compassion, cooperation, participation and interdependence are characteristics.  As it is described by the Dominican Mary O’Driscoll, it is a model for justice and against injustice.  She calls it the Reign of God Circle and invites us to choose it over the pyramidal structures that dominate our society.  Peace and justice are issues of our times, just as they were in Catherine’s.  Neither can be achieved within systems of dominance. 

When we look at Catherine we see a woman of uncommon virtue, a woman driven by a Dominican sense of mission, which continually pushed and drove her to right whatever was wrong in her world. 

We have the same mandate.  This mandate seems overwhelming, even impossible within the global community that we call ours.    St. Thomas Aquinas, however, reminds us that choice is always concerned with what is possible. 

No one of us, not even all of us together, can change unjust structures overnight.  But there are things we can do.  Perhaps a good first step is the move toward interconnectedness,   toward relationship,   toward the circular mode of thinking and doing. 

I often wonder what Catherine would be doing if she lived and worked among us today.   

I think that the following passage from her Dialogue provides the answer.  Again, this is God speaking directly to Catherine and, through her, I believe, to us:            “I gave you your EYES to look at the sky and everything else and the beauty of creation through me.  I gave you your EARS to listen to my word and to pay attention to the needs of your neighbors. I gave you your TONGUE to proclaim my word, to confess your own sins, and to work for the salvation of others.  I gave you your HANDS to serve your neighbors when you see them sick, and to help them in their need. I gave you your FEET to carry you to places that are holy and useful to you and your neighbors for the glory and praise of my name.” 

Sources: 

Catherine of Siena – Selected Spiritual Writings and Catherine of Siena, both by Mary O’Driscoll, OP; 

Catherine of Siena - the Dialogue, Translation and Introduction by Suzanne Noffke, OP;  

Praying with Catherine of Siena by Patricia Mary Vinje; 

Doing Justice – proceedings of the 1988 Dominican Conference on Faith and Culture