The Mystic and Activist – St Catherine of Sienna

Catherine lived between 1347-1380.
She was lay woman a member of the Dominican third order.
She stared off living a life of prayer and solitude.
She experienced a vision that called her to leave her seclusion and enter public life.

She called on the pope of the time to reform the church. When she needed to, she respectfully challenged the pope and other church and secular leaders of her time. She became a mediator between the pope and others, as well between other leaders of her time.
Catherine was herself quite illiterate, not unusual for women of her time. However, she dictated 380 letters, 26 prayers, 4 treatises of ‘Il Libor Della Divina Dottrina’ better known as The Dialogue.
A record of her mystical ecstatic experiences are recorded in The Dialogue.
She received the stigmata, i.e., a replica of the wounds of Christ on her body.

Catherine was totally united to the will of God in her life and let God lead her. It was not what she thought best, but what God thought best.

Some of her sayings hit the mark:

Love follows knowledge, otherwise it is useless.

The human heart is drawn by love.

God is more willing to pardon than we have been to sin.

God made humans and the human was made God!!! i.e. In Christ we share in the life of the divine.

Do not be satisfied with little things because God wants great things.

Love transforms one into what one loves.

Start being brave about everything. Drive out darkness and spread light. Do not look at your weaknesses. Realise instead that in Christ crucified you can do everything.

Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.

Speak the truth like as if you had a million voices. Silence can kill the world!

Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.

So many other quotes.

She is known as a doctor of the Church.