St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 16, 22 April 1909, Page 603

St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin.

Siena, in Italy, has the honor of having been the birthplace of this great saint. Froip her earliest years St. Catherine cultivated a spirit of perfect union with God, and even when engaged in the most distracting occupations succeeded in keeping herself no less sensible of His presence than if she had no exterior employment. She was indefatigable in her efforts to bring souls to God, and her words and example, and even the very sight of her emaciated but saintly countenance, were the cause of many conversions. She seemed to have a special grace for effecting the reconciliation of enemies. Her powerful influence in this direction was exercised, not only in the case of private individuals, but also in reconciling States that were at variance, and in obtaining the submission and pardon of rebellious cities which had incurred the censures of the Holy See. But the most important service she rendered to the Church was the restoration of the Sovereign Pontiff to his episcopal city, after a residence of nearly seventy years at Avignon, in France, an end being thus put to the innumerable evils resulting to the Church from the prolonged absence of the Vicar of Christ from Rome. St. Catherine died in 1380, at the age of 47, and was buried in Rome, in the Church of the Minerva, where her remains are still preserved. " '