Catherine of Siena

Catherine of Siena
by Sigrid Undset

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Book Summary Information

Author: Sigrid Undset
Brand: Ignatius Press
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); German (Unknown); French (Unknown); Italian (Unknown); Spanish (Unknown); Danish (Unknown); Hindi (Unknown); Chinese (Unknown); Japanese (Unknown); Korean (Unknown); Welsh (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-10-01
ISBN: 1586174088
Number of pages: 335
Publisher: Ignatius Press

Book Reviews of Catherine of Siena

Book Review: One of the best biographies of a saint. Ever.
Summary: 5 Stars

It takes a great writer to tackle a subject like Catherine of Siena, whose life was such a breathtaking blend of mysticism and involvement in the world. Undset, who once won the Nobel Prize, is beautifully up to the job. The result is this fascinating book, which follows Catherine from her birth as the last child in a well off but unimportant family to her dealings with murderers, kings, and popes.

Like Padre Pio, Catherine experienced a vision as a child. It was only the smallest of beginnings, because Catherine later experienced many visions. She also felt the wounds of the stigmata, although they were not visible to others. Not, at least, until she died, when the wounds were suddenly apparent. She ate nothing other than the Eucharist for the last half of her life.

After taking the Eucharist, she fell into an ecstasy for hours. Annoyed clerics sometimes dragged her stiff figure from the church and tossed her outside. Once, a young woman "stuck a large needle in Catherine's foot to see whether it was true that she felt nothing" (p 184). Catherine didn't move during the ecstasy. For two days later, however, she couldn't put her foot down.

There were miracles galore in her adult life. Some were humble miracles, such as the ones recounted by her spiritual child and later biographer, Fra Raimondo, who recalled how the Host would quiver in his hand before he would give it to Catherine. "Once, moreover, he was convinced that a piece of the consecrated Host had left the altar in a quite inexplicable way, and had been brought to Catherine without the help of human hands" (P 153).

Some of the miracles were quite spectacular, such as when the black plague swept through Europe, and Catherine healed many.

Most famously, Catherine worked to return the pope to Rome. Rome, at the time, was a virtual wasteland, surrounded by gangs of bandits, and wholly without appeal to anyone living in France, as the pope was at the time. She scolded, prayed for, and advised, scores of kings, and many popes.

Her life is spectacular, her achievements immense.

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Summary of Catherine of Siena

Sigrid Undset's Catherine of Siena is critically acclaimed as one of the best biographies of this famous fourteenth-century saint. Known for her historical fiction, which won her the Nobel Prize for literature in 1928, Undset based this factual work on primary sources, her experiences living in Italy, and her profound understanding of the human heart.

One of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century, Undset was no stranger to hagiography. Her meticulous research of medieval times, which bore such fruit in her masterpieces Kristin Lavransdatter and The Master of Hestviken, acquainted her with some of the holy men and women produced by the Age of Faith. Their exemplary lives left a deep impression upon the author, which she credited as one of her reasons for entering the Church in 1924.

Catherine of Siena was a particular favorite of Undset, who also was a Third Order Dominican. An extraordinarily active, intelligent, and courageous woman, Catherine at an early age devoted herself to the love of God. The intensity of her prayer, sacrifice, and service to the poor won her a reputation for holiness and wisdom, and she was called upon to make peace between warring nobles. Believing that peace in Italy could only be achieved if the pope, then living in France, returned to Rome, Catherine boldly traveled to Avignon to meet with Pope Gregory XI.

With sensitivity to the zealous love that permeated the life of Saint Catherine, Undset presents a most moving and memorable portrait of one of the greatest women of all time.

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