Let us hope that the frivolous Monna Colomba listened to Catherine's
gentle but very explicit exhortations and turned away from her levities.
If she had a sense of humour--and it is a not uncommon possession of
light-minded elderly widows--she must have been lovingly entertained at
the pale virgin's identification of herself with those who "walk in the
way of luxuries and pleasures," and "set themselves up as an example of
sin and vanity." But Catherine's use of the first person in this
connection, strained though it may appear, is more than a figure of
speech, to soften the severity of her rebuke. We learn from the legend
that till the end of her life she never ceased to repent, bitterly and
with tears, for having at the age of twelve allowed an older sister to
dress her prettily, and blanch her hair after the fashion of the day. The
reason for this terrible lapse, as she told her confessor, was simply a
delight in beautiful things--but she always looked back on it with horror.
The application of the finding of Christ in the Temple, in this letter, is
curious, but not devoid of grace.
In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:
To you, dearest sister and daughter in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine,
servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write in His precious
Blood, with desire that I might see you a fruitful field, receiving the
seed of the Word of God, and bringing forth fruit for yourself and others.
I want to see you, who are now getting to be an old woman, and who are
free from worldly ties, a mirror of virtue to younger women, who are still
bound to the world by the tie of their husbands.
Alas, alas, I perceive that we are unfruitful ground, for we are letting
the Word of God be smothered by the inordinate affections and desires of
the world, and are walking in the way of its luxuries and pleasures,
studying to please our fellow-beings rather than our Creator. And there is
a more wretched thing yet, for our own evil-doing is not enough for us;
where we ought to be an example of virtue and modesty, we set ourselves up
as an example of sin and vanity. And as the devil was not willing to fall
alone, but wanted a large company with him, so we are enticing other
people to those same vanities and amusements that we indulge in ourselves.
You ought to withdraw, by love of virtue and your salvation, from vain
diversions and worldly weddings--for they do not suit your condition--and
try to keep others away, who would like to be there. But you talk bad
talk, and entice young women, who are wanting to withdraw from going to
these things through love of virtue, because they see that it is wronging
God. I do not wonder, then, if no fruit appears, since the seed is
smothered as I said. Perhaps you would find some excuse in saying,
"Still, I have to condescend to my friends and relatives by doing this, so
that they will not be annoyed and irritated with me." So fear and
perverted self-indulgence sap our life, and often kill us; rob us of the
perfection to which God chose and calls us. This excuse is not acceptable
to God; for we ought not to condescend to people in a matter which wrongs
God and our own soul; nor to love or serve them, except in those matters
which come from God and befit our condition.
Oh me, miserable! Was it our relatives or friends or any fellow-being who
bought us? No; Christ crucified alone was the Lamb who with love
unsearchable sacrificed His Body, making Him our Purification and Healing,
our Food and Raiment, and the Bed where we can rest. He had no regard to
love of self nor fleshly joy, but abased Himself in pain, enduring shames
and insults, seeking the honour of the Father and our salvation. It ill
befits that we poor miserable men should hold by another way than that
held by the Sweet Primal Truth.
You know that God is not found in luxuries and pleasures. We perceive that
when Our Saviour was lost in the Temple, going to the Feast, Mary could
not find Him among friends or relatives, but found Him in the Temple
disputing with the doctors. And this He did to give us an example--for He
is our Rule, and the Way we should follow. Notice that it says that He was
lost when going to the Feast. Know, most beloved sister, that, as was
said, God is not found at feasts or balls or games or weddings or places
of recreation. Nay, going there is a very sure means of losing Him, and
falling into many sins and faults, and inordinate frivolous self-
indulgence. Since this is the reason that has made us lose God by grace,
is there any way to find Him again? Yes; to accompany Mary. Let us seek
Him with her, in bitterness and pain and distaste for the fault committed
against our Creator, to condescend to the will of men. It befits us then
to go to the Temple, and there He is found. Let our hearts, our minds, and
desires be lifted up with this Company of Bitterness, and let us go to the
Temple of our soul, and there we shall know ourselves. Then the soul,
recognizing itself not to be, will recognize the goodness of God towards
it, who is He who is. Then the will shall be uplifted with zeal, and shall
love what God loves and hate what God hates. Then, as it enters into
reason with itself, it will rebuke the memory which has held in itself the
gaieties and pleasures of the world, and has nor held nor retained the
favours and gifts and great benefits of God, who has given Himself to us
with so great fire of love. It will rebuke the mind, which has given
itself to understand the will of fellow-creatures, and the shows and
observances of the world, rather than the will of its Creator, and
therefore will and fleshly love have turned them to love and desire those
gross things of sense, which pass like the wind. The soul should not do
thus, but should note and know the will of God, which seeks and wants
naught but our sanctification, and has therefore given us life.
God has not set you free from the world, for you are smothered and drowned
in the world by your affections and inordinate desires. Now, have you more
than one soul? No. If you had two, you might give one to God and the other
to the world. Nor have you more than one body, and this gets tired over
every little thing.
Be a dispenser to the poor of your temporal substance. Submit you to the
yoke of holy and true obedience. Kill, kill your own will, that it may not
be so tied to your relatives, and mortify your body, and do not so pamper
it in delicate ways. Despise yourself, and have in regard neither rank nor
riches, for virtue is the only thing that makes us gentlefolk, and the
riches of this life are the worst of poverty when possessed with
inordinate love apart from God. Recall to memory what the glorious Jerome
said about this, which one can never repeat often enough, forbidding that
widows should abound in daintiness, or keep their face anointed, or their
garments choice or delicate. Nor should their conversation be with vain or
dissolute young women, but in the cell: they should do like the turtle-
dove, who, when her companion has died, mourns for ever, and keeps to
herself, and wants no other company. Limit your intercourse, dearest and
most beloved Sister, to Christ crucified; set your affection and desire on
following Him by the way of shame and true humility, in gentleness,
binding you to the Lamb with the bands of charity.
This my soul desires, that you may be a true daughter, and a bride
consecrated to Christ, and a fruitful field, not sterile, but full of the
sweet fruits of true virtues. Hasten, hasten, for time is short and the
road is long. And if you gave all you have in the world, time would not
pause for you from running its course. I say no more. Remain in the holy
and sweet grace of God. Pardon me if I have said too many words, for the
love and zeal that I have for your salvation have made me say them. Know
that I would far rather do something for you than merely talk. May God
fill you with His most sweet Favour. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.
TO BROTHER RAIMONDO OF CAPUA
OF THE ORDER OF THE PREACHERS
The following is one of the famous letters of the world. The record in art
and literature of the scene which it depicts has carried knowledge of
Catherine to many who otherwise would have but the vaguest idea of her
personality. The letter has been frequently translated, but most of the
translators have avoided the opening and closing paragraphs, with their
amazing, confused, and to our modern taste almost shocking metaphors.
Surely, however, we want the whole just as Catherine poured it out; full
of intense excitement, her emotions clearer than her ideas, lifted into a
region where taste and logic have no meaning, and using, to convey the
inexpressible feelings quickened by the events she describes, homeliest
figures of speech, such as her commercial surroundings naturally suggest
to her. For the matter of that, modern congregations sing with no
distress:
"Jesus let me still abide
In Thy heart and Wounded Side."
The reiteration of the figure of the Blood is here psychologically
inevitable. Catherine writes still quivering from close contact with the
victim of a mediaeval execution.
A young gentleman from Perugia, Niccolo Tuldo by name, had been condemned
to death for speaking critically of the Sienese Government. It does not
appear that he was a serious political conspirator, but simply a young man
whose aristocratic sympathies led him thoughtlessly to the use of haughty
or bitter speech. But a _parvenu_ Government is always sensitive. We hear
of a man at this time being condemned and executed because he had not
invited one of the Riformatori to a feast!
Death was lightly inflicted in those days: probably it was no more lightly
suffered than in our own. We have vivid accounts of the incredulity with
which Niccolo Tuldo received his sentence--incredulity leading to horror,
to rage, to rebellion, to black despair. Then Catherine went to him; her
own words tell the rest. As one reads of the wonderful effect of her
soothing presence, as one sees the terrified youth becoming quiet and
subdued, clinging wistfully to the spiritual strength of this frail woman,
and catching at the end not only her spirit of calm submission, but even
something of her exaltation, one is irresistibly reminded of another
scene--George Eliot's marvellous description in "Adam Bede" of Dinah's
ministry to Hetty in the prison. But this scene is real, that only
imagined; and here no third person, but the consoler herself, reveals the
meaning of the experience to her own spirit.
In bringing Niccolo Tuldo to so illumined an end that he recognized the
judgment-place as holy, and died in full accord with the will of God,
Catherine achieved a great marvel which only Christianity can compass: she
lifted one of those seemingly purposeless and cruel accidents of destiny
which stagger faith, into unity with the organic work of the world's
redemption.
In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:
Most beloved and dearest father and dear my son in Christ Jesus: I
Catherine, servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write to
you, commending myself to you in the precious Blood of the Son of God;
with desire to see you inflamed and drowned in that His sweetest Blood,
which is blended with the fire of His most ardent charity. This my soul
desires, to see you therein, you and Nanni and Jacopo my son. I see no
other remedy by which we may reach those chief virtues which are necessary
to us. Sweetest father, your soul, which has made itself food for me--(and
no moment of time passes that I do not receive this food at the table of
the sweet Lamb slain with such ardent love)--your soul, I say, would not
attain the little virtue, true humility, were it not drowned in the Blood.
This virtue shall be born from hate, and hate from love. Thus the soul is
born with very perfect purity, as iron issues purified from the furnace.
I will, then, that you lock you in the open side of the Son of God, which
is an open treasure-house, full of fragrance, even so that sin itself
there becomes fragrant. There rests the sweet Bride on the bed of fire and
blood. There is seen and shown the secret of the heart of the Son of God.
Oh, flowing Source, which givest to drink and excitest every loving
desire, and givest gladness, and enlightenest every mind and fillest every
memory which fixes itself thereon! so that naught else can be held or
meant or loved, save this sweet and good Jesus! Blood and fire,
immeasurable Love! Since my soul shall be blessed in seeing you thus
drowned, I will that you do as he who draws up water with a bucket, and
pours it over something else; thus do you pour the water of holy desire on
the head of your brothers, who are our members, bound to us in the body of
the sweet Bride. And beware, lest through illusion of the devils--who I
know have given you trouble, and will give you--or through the saying of
some fellow-creature, you should ever draw back: but persevere always in
the hour when things look most cold, until we may see blood shed with
sweet and enamoured desires.
Up, up, sweetest my father! and let us sleep no more! For I hear such news
that I wish no more bed of repose or worldly state. I have just received a
Head in my hands, which was to me of such sweetness as heart cannot think,
nor tongue say, nor eye see, nor the ears hear. The will of God went on
through the other mysteries wrought before; of which I do not tell, for it
would be too long. I went to visit him whom you know: whence he received
such comfort and consolation that he confessed, and prepared himself very
well. And he made me promise by the love of God that when the time of the
sentence should come, I would be with him. So I promised, and did. Then in
the morning, before the bell rang, I went to him: and he received great
consolation. I led him to hear Mass, and he received the Holy Communion,
which he had never before received. His will was accorded and submitted to
the will of God; and only one fear was left, that of not being strong at
the moment. But the measureless and glowing goodness of God deceived him,
creating in him such affection and love in the desire of God that he did
not know how to abide without Him, and said: "Stay with me, and do not
abandon me. So it shall not be otherwise than well with me. And I die
content." And he held his head upon my breast. I heard then the rejoicing,
and breathed the fragrance of his blood; and it was not without the
fragrance of mine, which I desire to shed for the sweet Bridegroom Jesus.
And, desire waxing in my soul, feeling his fear, I said: "Comfort thee,
sweet my brother; since we shall soon arrive at the Wedding Feast. Thou
shalt go there bathed in the sweet Blood of the Son of God, with the sweet
Name of Jesus, which I will never to leave thy memory. And I await thee at
the place of justice." Now think, father and son, his heart then lost all
fear, and his face changed from sorrow to gladness; and he rejoiced, he
exulted, and said: "Whence comes such grace to me, that the sweetness of
my soul will await me at the holy place of justice?" See, that he had come
to so much light that he called the place of justice holy! And he said: "I
shall go wholly joyous, and strong, and it will seem to me a thousand
years before I arrive, thinking that you are awaiting me there." And he
said words so sweet as to break one's heart, of the goodness of God.
I waited for him then at the place of justice; and waited there with
constant prayer, in the presence of Mary and of Catherine, Virgin and
martyr. But before I attained, I prostrated me, and stretched my neck upon
the block; but my desire did not come there, for I had too full
consciousness of myself. Then up! I prayed, I constrained her, I cried
"Mary!" for I wished this grace, that at the moment of death she should
give him a light and a peace in his heart, and then I should see him reach
his goal. Then my soul became so full that although a multitude of people
were there, I could see no human creature, for the sweet promise made to
me.
Then he came, like a gentle lamb; and seeing me, he began to smile, and
wanted me to make the sign of the Cross. When he had received the sign, I
said: "Down! To the Bridal, sweetest my brother! For soon shalt thou be in
the enduring life." He prostrated him with great gentleness, and I
stretched out his neck; and bowed me down, and recalled to him the Blood
of the Lamb. His lips said naught save Jesus! and, Catherine! And so
saying, I received his head in my hands, closing my eyes in the Divine
Goodness, and saying, "I will!"
Then was seen God-and-Man, as might the clearness of the sun be seen. And
He stood wounded, and received the blood; in that blood a fire of holy
desire, given and hidden in the soul by grace. He received it in the fire
of His divine charity. When He had received his blood and his desire, He
also received his soul, which He put into the open treasure-house of His
Side, full of mercy; the primal Truth showing that by grace and mercy
alone He received it, and not for any other work. Oh, how sweet and
unspeakable it was to see the goodness of God! with what sweetness and
love He awaited that soul departed from the body! He turned the eye of
mercy toward her, when she came to enter within His Side, bathed in blood
which availed through the Blood of the Son of God. Thus received by God
through power--powerful is He to do! the Son also, Wisdom the Word
Incarnate, gave him and made him share the crucified love with which He
received painful and shameful death through the obedience which he showed
to the Father, for the good of the human race. And the hands of the Holy
Spirit locked him within.
But he made a gesture sweet enough to draw a thousand hearts. And I do not
wonder, for already he tasted the divine sweetness. He turned as does the
Bride when she has reached the threshold of her bridegroom, who turns back
her head and her look, bowing to those who have accompanied her, and with
the gesture she gives signs of thanks.
When he was at rest, my soul rested in peace and in quiet, in so great
fragrance of blood that I could not bear to remove the blood which had
fallen on me from him.
Ah me, miserable! I will say no more. I stayed on the earth with the
greatest envy. And it seems to me that the first new stone is already in
place. Therefore do not wonder if I impose upon you nothing save to see
yourselves drowned in the blood and flame poured from the side of the Son
of God. Now then, no more negligence, sweetest my sons, since the blood is
beginning to flow, and to receive the life. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.