Letters of Catherine Benincasa | Page 8

naturally enough, by her denunciations of the
corruptions of the Church, denunciations as sweeping and penetrating
as were ever uttered by Luther; by her amazingly sharp and outspoken
criticism of the popes; and by her constant plea for reform. The
pungency of all these elements in her writings is felt by the most casual
reader. But it must never be forgotten that honest and vigorous
criticism of the Church Visible is, in the mind of the Catholic
philosopher, entirely consistent with loyalty to the sacerdotal theory.
There is a noble idealism that breaks in fine impatience with tradition,
and audaciously seeks new symbols wherein to suggest for a season the
eternal and imageless truth. But perhaps yet nobler in the sight of
God--surely more conformed to His methods in nature and history--is
that other idealism which patiently bows to the yoke of the actual, and
endures the agony of keeping true at once to the heavenly vision and to
the imperfect earthly form. Iconoclastic zeal against outworn or corrupt

institutions fires our facile enthusiasm. Let us recognize also the
spiritual passion that suffers unflinchingly the disparity between the
sign and the thing signified, and devotes its energies, not to discarding,
but to restoring and purifying that sign. Such passion was Catherine's.
The most distinctive trait in the woman's character was her power to
cling to an ideal verity with unfaltering faithfulness, even when the
whole aspect of life and society around her seemed to give that verity
the lie. To imagine her without faith in the visible Church and the
God-given authority of the Vicar of Christ is to imagine another
woman. Catherine of Siena's place in the history of minds is with
Savonarola, not with Luther.
Catherine confronted a humanity at enmity with itself, a Church
conformed to the image of this world. Her external policy proved
helpless to right these evils. The return of the Popes from Avignon
resulted neither in the pacification of Christendom nor in the reform of
the Church. The Great Schism, of which she saw the beginning,
undermined the idea of Christian unity till the thought of the Saint of
Siena was in natural sequence followed by the thought of Luther.
Outwardly her life was spent in labouring for a hopeless cause,
discredited by the subsequent movement of history. But the material
tragedy was a spiritual triumph, not only through the victory of faith in
her own soul, but through the value of the witness which she bore.
Neither of the great conceptions of unity which possessed the middle
ages was identical with the modern democratic conception; yet both,
and in particular that of the Church, pointed in this direction. That ideal
of world-embracing brotherhood to which men have been slowly
awakening throughout the Christian centuries was the dominant ideal
of Catherine's mind. She hoped for the attainment of such a
brotherhood through the instrument of an organized Christendom,
reduced to peace and unity under one God-appointed Head. History, as
some of us think, has rejected the noble dream. We seem to see that the
undying hope of the human spirit--a society shaped by justice and
love--is never likely to be gained along the lines of the centralization of
ecclesiastical power. But if our idea of the means has changed, the
same end still shines before us. The vision of human fellowship in the
Name of Christ, for which Catherine lived and died, remains the one
hope for the healing of the nations.

CHIEF EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF SAINT CATHERINE
[Processor's note: this timeline and the one that follows appeared in the
opposite order in the 1905 edition on which this etext is based. Their
order has been reversed to correctly reflect the order in which they
appear in the table of contents.]
1347. On March 25th, Catherine, and a twin-sister who dies at once, are
born in the Strada dell' Oca, near the fountain of Fontebranda, Siena.
She is the youngest of the twenty-five children of Jacopo Benincasa, a
dyer, and Lapa, his wife.
1353-4. As a child, Catherine is peculiarly joyous and charming. When
six years old she beholds the vision of Christ, arrayed in priestly robes,
above the Church of St. Dominic. She is inspired by a longing to
imitate the life of the Fathers of the desert, and begins to practise many
penances. At the age of seven she makes the vow of virginity. She is
drawn to the Order of St. Dominic by the zeal of its founder for the
salvation of souls.
1359-1363. Her ascetic practices meet with sharp opposition at home.
She is urged to array herself beautifully and to marry, is denied a
private chamber, and forced to perform the menial work of the
household, etc. In time, however, her perseverance wins the consent of
her father