Letters of Catherine Benincasa | Page 9

and family to her desires.
1363-1364. She is vested with the black and white habit of Saint
Dominic, becoming one of the Mantellate, or Dominican tertiaries,
devout women who lived under religious rule in their own homes.
1364-1367. She leads in her own room at home the life of a religious
recluse, speaking only to her Confessor. She is absorbed in mystical
experiences and religious meditation. During this time she learns to
read. The period closes with her espousals to Christ, on the last day of
Carnival, 1367.
1367-1370. In obedience to the commands of God, and impelled by her
love of men, she returns gradually to family and social life. From this
time dates her special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. She joyfully
devotes herself to household labours, and to a life of ministration to the
sick and needy. In 1368 her father dies, and the Revolution puts an end
to the prosperity of the Benincasa family, which is now broken up.
Catherine seems to have retained to the end the care of Monna Lapa. In

1370 she dies mystically and returns to life, having received the
command to go abroad into the world to save souls.
1370-1374. Her reputation and influence increase. A group of disciples
gathers around her. Her correspondence gradually becomes extensive,
and she becomes known as a peacemaker. At the same time, her
ecstasies and unusual mode of life excite criticism and suspicion. In
May, 1374, she visits Florence, perhaps summoned thither to answer
charges made against her by certain in the Order. She returns to Siena
to minister to the plague-stricken. She meets at this time Fra Raimondo
of Capua, her Confessor and biographer. Her gradual induction into
public affairs is accompanied by growing sorrow over the corruptions
of the Church.
1375. At the invitation of Pietro Gambacorta, Catherine visits Pisa. Her
object is to prevent Pisa and Lucca from joining the League of Tuscan
cities against the Pope. She meets the Ambassador from the Queen of
Cyprus, and zealously undertakes to further the cause of a Crusade. On
April 1st she receives the Stigmata in the Church of Santa Cristina; but
the marks, at her request, remain invisible. She prophesies the Great
Schism. A brief visit to Lucca.
1376. Catherine receives Stefano Maconi as a disciple, and at his
instance reconciles the feud between the Maconi and the Tolomei. She
attempts by correspondence to reconcile Pope Gregory XI. and the
Florentines. On April 1st the Divine Commission to bear the olive to
both disputants is given her in a vision. In May, at the request of the
Florentines, she goes to Florence. Sent as their representative to
Avignon, she reaches that city on June 18th. Gregory entrusts her with
the negotiations for peace. The Florentine ambassadors, however, delay
their coming, and when they come refuse to ratify her powers.
Thwarted in this direction, she devotes all her efforts to persuading the
Pope to return to Rome, and triumphing over all obstacles, succeeds.
She leaves for home on September 13th, but is retained for a month in
Genoa, at the house of Madonna Orietta Scotta. After a short visit at
Pisa, she reaches Siena in December or January.
1377. Catherine converts the castle of Belcaro, conveyed to her by its
owner, into a monastery. She visits the Salimbeni in their feudal castle
at Rocca D'Orcia, for the purpose of healing their family feuds. While
here she learns miraculously to write. She also visits Sant' Antimo and

Montepulciano.
1378. Gregory, in failing health, perhaps regretting his return, becomes
alienated from Catherine. He sends her, however, to Florence, where
she stays in a house built for her by Niccolò Soderini, at the foot of the
hill of St. George. She succeeds in causing the Interdict to be respected,
but almost loses her life in a popular tumult, and keenly regrets not
having won the crown of martyrdom. After the death of Gregory, and
the establishment of the longed-for peace by Pope Urban, Catherine
returns to Siena, where she devotes herself to composing her
"Dialogue." After the outbreak of the Schism, Urban, whom she had
known at Avignon, summons her to Rome. She reluctantly obeys, and
takes up her abode in that city on November 28th, accompanied by a
large group of disciples, her "Famiglia," who live together, subsisting
on alms. From this time Catherine devotes her whole powers to the
cause of Urban. She is his trusted adviser, and seeks earnestly to curb
his impatient temper on the one hand, and to keep the sovereigns of
Europe faithful to him on the other. She writes on his behalf to the
Kings of France and Hungary, to Queen Giovanna of Naples, to the
magistrates of Italian cities, to the Italian cardinals who have joined the
Schism, and to others.