Neri di Landoccio dei Pagliaresi is one of the attractive group of
Catherine's secretaries, which included also Stefano Maconi and Barduccio
Canigiani. There is something very charming, wholly Italian and mediaeval,
in the thought of the three highly-born and gently-bred young Tuscans,
who, without leaving the world or taking religious vows, attached
themselves with a pure and passionate devotion to the person of the Beata
Populana, dedicated their time and powers to her service, caught the fire
of her ideals, and after her death followed her wishes for their future.
The faces that appear a little later in such pictures as Botticelli's
"Adoration of the Magi," help us to understand the type of these young
men.
Of the three secretaries, Neri was the first to enter Catherine's service.
It was he who introduced to her most of the people who later became her
disciples, and many letters yet extant from one and another show that he
was devotedly loved by the little group. He was of a sensitive, subtle,
and despondent temperament--a reader of Dante, himself a poet, a man given
to self-torment, and, as his later life showed, with a tendency to
melancholia. He must have possessed tact, force, and probably charm, for
Catherine more than once sent him on important embassies--once as
harbinger of her own coming to Pope Gregory at Avignon, and again, at a
later time, to the corrupt and brilliant court of Queen Giovanna at
Naples. In obedience to the dying wish of his spiritual mother--who
probably well understood his needs--he became a hermit after her death.
Catherine writes to this fine but fearful soul with an exquisite
tenderness. "Confusion of mind," with its inhibiting sadness and
helplessness, is of all evils in the world the one most abhorrent to her
clear, decisive, intuitive nature. Against this, his besetting danger, she
seeks with all her customary vigour to protect her beloved disciple. The
love rather than the wrath of God was, as we have seen, ever the chief
burden of Catherine's teaching. Never did she dwell on it more earnestly
than here, as with searching insight into the unfathomable depths of the
Divine mercy, she writes firmly: "His truth is this, that He created us to
give us life eternal." Her words must have brought reassurance to any
darkened vision, while her practical counsels were never more adapted to
individual need than in these peculiarly gentle letters, written to one
whose temptations and spiritual perils were far different from her own.
In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:
Dearest son in Christ sweet Jesus. I Catherine, servant and slave of the
servants of Jesus Christ, write to thee in His precious Blood: with desire
to see thee in the true light, that in the light may be known the truth of
thy Creator. His truth is this, that He created us to give us life
eternal. But because man rebelled against God, this truth was not
fulfilled, and therefore He descended to the greatest depths to which
descent is possible, when Deity assumed the vesture of our humanity. So we
see in this glorious light that God has been made man, and this He has
done to fulfil His truth in us: and He has shown this to us verily by the
Blood of the Loving Word, inasmuch that what we held by faith is proved to
us with the price of that Blood. The creature that has reason in itself
cannot deny that this is so.
I will, then, that thy confusion be consumed and vanish in the hope of the
Blood, and in the fire of the immeasurable Love of God; and that nothing
remain but the true knowledge of thyself, in which thou shalt humble thee
and grow, and nourish light in thy soul. Is not He more ready to pardon
than we to sin? And is not He the Physician and we the sick, the Bearer of
our iniquities? And does not He hold confusion of mind as worse than all
other faults? Yes, truly. Then, dearest son, open the eye of thine
intellect in the light of most holy faith, and behold how much thou art
beloved of God. And from beholding His love, and the ignorance and
coldness of thy heart, do not fall into confusion; but let the flame of
holy desire increase, with true knowledge and humility, as I said. And the
more thou seest that thou hast not responded to such great favours as thy
Creator has shown thee, humble thyself the more, and say with holy
resolution: "What I have not done to-day, I will do now." Thou knowest
that confusion is wholly discordant with the doctrine which has always
been given thee. It is a leprosy that dries up soul and body, and holds
them in continual affliction, and binds the arms of holy desire, and does
not let one do what one would; and it makes the soul unendurable to
itself, disposing the mind to conflicts and varying fantasies; it robs the
soul of supernatural light, and darkens its natural light. So one falls
into great faithlessness, because one does not know the truth of God, in
which He has created us--that is, that He created us in truth to give us
life eternal. Then with living faith, with holy desire, and with hope in
the Blood of Christ, let the devil of confusion be defeated.
I say no more. Remain in the holy and sweet grace of God. I pray Him to
give thee His sweet benediction. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.
In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:
Dearest and sweetest son in Christ sweet Jesus. I Catherine, servant and
slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write to thee in His precious
Blood: with desire to see in thee the light of most holy faith, in order
that thou mayest never be shocked by anything that may happen to thee; but
may thy mind be pacified concerning all the mysteries of God, as thou
beholdest the ineffable love which moved Him to draw forth from Himself
reasonable creatures, and to give us His image and likeness, and to buy us
with the Blood of the humble and spotless Lamb. Thus doing, thou wilt hold
all that happens to thee in due reverence, and in true humility thou wilt
deny mere appearances, when sometimes through the illusion of the devil
things seem to thee to get out of their right proportion, through thy many
mental occupations and sweet physical torments. I say no more. Remain in
the holy and sweet grace of God. May Christ the Blessed give thee His
eternal benediction. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.
In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:
Dearest and sweetest son in Christ sweet Jesus. I Catherine, servant and
slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write to thee in His precious
Blood: with desire to see thee ever grow from virtue to virtue, till I
behold thee return to that sea of peace where thou shalt never have any
fear of being separated from God. For the foul perverse law that fights
against the Spirit shall be left on earth, and shall have rendered its due
thereto. I will, sweet my son, that while thou livest in this life thou
exert thee to live dead to all self-will, and in such death thou shalt win
virtue. Thus living, thou shalt resign to earth the law of perverse
desire. So thou shalt not fear lest God permit in thy case what He
permitted in that other, nor shalt thou suffer, because for a little while
the human part of thee is separated from me and from the rest of the
family. Comfort thee, and may that which Truth says abide in thy mind--
that not one person shall be lost out of His hands. I say out of His
hands, because all things are His. And I know that thou understandest me
without many words. I say no more. Remain in the holy and sweet grace of
God. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.