Page 55 - Saints of the Month: February

Saints of the Month: February

the name of Catherine, after her patron and
namesake of Siena. Her special attraction
was to the Passion of Christ, in which she
was permitted miraculously to participate.
In the Lent of 1541, being then twenty-one
years of age, she had a vision of the
crucifixion so heart-rending that she was
confined to bed for three weeks, and was
only restored, on Holy Saturday, by an
apparition of St. Mary Magdalene and Jesus
risen. During twelve years she passed every
Friday in ecstasy, She received the sacred
stigmata, the wound in the left side, and the
crown of thorns. All these favors gave her
continual and intense suffering, and
inspired her with a loving sympathy for the
yet more bitter tortures of the Holy Souls. In
their behalf she offered all her prayers and
penances; and her charity toward them
became so famous throughout Tuscany that
after every death the friends of the
deceased hastened to Catherine to secure
her prayers. St. Catherine offered many
prayers, fasts, and penances for a certain
great man, and thus obtained his salvation.
It was revealed to her that he was in
purgatory; and such was her love of Jesus
crucified that she offered to suffer all the
pains about to be inflicted on that soul. Her
prayer was granted. The soul entered
heaven, and for forty days Catherine
suffered indescribable agonies. Her body
was covered with blisters, emitting heat so
great that her cell seemed on fire. Her flesh

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