Today the Church celebrates the memorial of this great female saint. This painting, perhaps, does not speak much to our modern sensibility and sense of art. Perhaps. The one below, by the same Italian painter, is better known and, perhaps, more inspiring. The point is that in the first painting, Saint Catherine of Siena is exchanging her heart with Jesus (sic!).
Are we not used to hearing miracles, dealing with divine locutions or revelations, incredible messages, etc. when it comes to “high caliber” saints? Well, Saint Catherine is no exception. We know she was keen to the poor, was instrumental in the Pope’s returning to Rome from Avignon and known for her letters and Dialogues. She is one of the women Doctors of the Church, in possession of solid theology and great devotion to the Eucharist, and she is one of the patron saints of Europe. Her biographer mentions her mystical marriage to Christ, and then her having received the stigmata of our Lord.
Incredible Grace
The Italian painter Giovanni di Paolo depicts her exchanging her heart with our Lord. A beautiful eccentricity? No! An incredible grace from our Savior. Pope Benedict XVI said that the vital center of Catherine’s spirituality was her Christocentrism.
“For her, Christ was like the spouse with whom a relationship of intimacy, communion and faithfulness exists; he was the best beloved whom she loved above any other good.” This profound union with the Lord is illustrated by another episode in the life of this outstanding mystic: the exchange of hearts. According to Raymond of Capua who passed on the confidences Catherine received, the Lord Jesus appeared to her “holding in his holy hands a human heart, bright red and shining.” He opened her side and put the heart within her saying: “Dearest daughter, as I took your heart away from you the other day, now, you see, I am giving you mine, so that you can go on living with it for ever” (ibid.). Catherine truly lived St. Paul’s words, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).2
Great Inspiration
What a great inspiration Saint Catherine is for us so that we can put into practice today’s gospel from John 14: Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.
May our love for Christ be always inspired and increased by our devotion to his saints, living examples of his great Love for us!
Saint Catherine of Siena3
God bless you all.
Author: The Contribution of Cornelio Fabro to Fundamental Theology. Reason and Faith: htps://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-9315-2
Poesía Sacra, Quemar las Naves, and Desde Fossanova, IVE Press: htps://ivepress.org/
2 Benedict XVI, General Audience, 24 Novemebr 2010, htps://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20101124.html, accessed april 24, 2024.
3 From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_di_Paolo, accessed April 24, 2024.
