From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
9 March =E2=80=93 St Catherine of Bologna OSC
=E2=80=93 Religious Poor Clare nun =E2=80=93 born on 8 September 1413 at Bo= logna,
Italy as Caterina dei Vigri and died on 9 March 1453 at Bologna, Italy
of natural causes.=C2 Patronages =E2=80=93 Bologna, Against temptations, Artists, Liberal arts.
Catherine came from an upper class family, the daughter of Benvenuta
Mammolini of Bologna and Giovanni Vigri, a Ferrarese notary. She was
raised at Niccolo III's court as a lady-in-waiting to his wife
Parisina d'Este (d. 1425) and became lifelong friends with his natu=
ral
daughter Margherita d'Este (d. 1478). During this time, she receive=
d
some education in reading, writing, music, playing the viola, and had
access to illuminated manuscripts in the d'Este Court library.
In 1426, after Niccolo III's execution of Parisina d'Este f=
or
infidelity, Caterina left court and joined a lay community of beguines
living a semi-religious life and following the Augustinian rule.=C2 In
1431 the beguine house was converted into the Observant Poor Clare
convent of Corpus Domini, which grew from 12 women in 1431 to 144
women by the end of the century. Sister Caterina lived at Corpus
Domini, Ferrara most of her life from 1431 to 1456, serving as
Mistress of Novices.
She was a model of piety and experienced miracles and several visions
of Christ, the Virgin Mary, Thomas Becket and St Joseph, as well as
future events, such as the fall of Constantinople in 1453.=C2 She wrote
a number of religious treatises, lauds, sermons and copied and
illustrated her own breviary (see on the right).
In 1455 the Franciscans and the governors of Bologna requested that
she become abbess of a new convent, which was to be established under
the name of Corpus Domini in Bologna. She left Ferrara in July 1456
with 12 sisters to start the new community and remained abbess there
until her death on 9 March 1463. Caterina was buried in the convent
graveyard but after eighteen days, a sweet smell emanated from the
grave and the incorrupt body was exhumed. It was eventually relocated
to a chapel where it remains on display, dressed in her religious
habit, seated upright behind glass. A contemporary Poor Clare, Sister Illuminata Bembo, wrote her biography in 1469. A strong local
Bolognese cult of Caterina Vigri developed and she became a Beata in
the 1520s, but was not Canonised until 1712 by Pope Clement XI.
Catherine's best known text is Seven Spiritual Weapons Necessary fo=
r
Spiritual Warfare (Le Sette Armi Spirituali), which she appears to
have first written in 1438 and then rewritten and augmented between
1450 and 1456. Although she probably taught similar ideas, she kept
the written version hidden until she neared death and then handed it
to her confessor with instructions to send a copy to the Poor Clares
at Ferrara. Part of this book describes at length her visions both of
God and of Satan. The treatise was circulated in manuscript form
through a network of Poor Clare convents. It was first printed in 1475
and went through 21 later editions in the 16th and seventeenth
centuries, including being translated in Latin, French, Portuguese,
English, Spanish and German. It therefore played an important role in
the dissemination of late medieval vernacular mysticism in the early
modern period.
In addition, she wrote lauds, short religious treatises and letters,
as well as a 5000-line Latin poem called the Rosarium Metricum, the I
Dodici Giardini and I Sermoni. These were discovered around 2000 and
described by Cardinal Giacomo Biffi =E2=80=93 as =E2=80=9Cnow revealed in t= heir
surprising beauty. We can ascertain that she was not undeserving of
her renown as a highly cultivated person. We are now in a position to
meditate on a veritable monument of theology which, after the Treatise
on the Seven Spiritual Weapons, is made up of distinct and autonomous
parts =E2=80=93 The Twelve Gardens, a mystical work of her youth, Rosarium,=
a
Latin poem on the life of Jesus and The Sermons, copies of Catherine=E2=80= =99s
words to her religious sisters.=E2=80=9D
St Catherine represents the rare phenomenon of a fifteenth-century
nun-artist whose artworks are preserved in her personal breviary. She
meditated while she copied the scriptural text, adding about 1000
prayer rubrics and drew initials with bust-portraits of saints, paying
special attention to images of Saints Clare and Francis. Besides
multiple images of Christ and the infant swaddled Christ Child, she
depicted other saints, including Thomas Becket, Jerome, Paul, Anthony
of Padua, Mary Magdalene, her name saint Catherine of Alexandria. Her self-taught style incorporated motifs from needlework and devotional
prints. Some saints' images, interwoven with text and rubrics, disp=
lay
an idiosyncratic, inventive iconography.
Other panel paintings and manuscripts attributed to her include the
Madonna and Child (nicknamed the Madonna del Pomo) in the Cappella
della Santa, a possible portrait or self-portrait (?) in the autograph
copy of the Sette Armi Spirituali, a Redeemer and another Madonna and
Child in her chapel.
A drawing of a Man of Sorrows or Resurrected Christ found in a
miscellany of lauds has also been attributed to her. St Catherine is significant as a woman artist who articulated an aesthetic philosophy.
She explained that although it took precious time, the purpose of her
religious art was =E2=80=9Cto increase devotion for herself and others=E2= =80=9D.
see
https://anastpaul.com/2019/03/09/
Quote of the Day =E2=80=93 9 March
=E2=80=9CWhoever wishes to carry
the cross for His sake,
must take up the proper weapons
for the contest,
especially those mentioned here.
First, diligence;
second, distrust of self;
third, confidence in God;
fourth, remembrance of His Passion;
fifth, mindfulness of one's own death;
sixth, remembrance of God's glory;
seventh, the injunctions of Sacred Scripture
following the example
of Jesus Christ in the desert.=E2=80=9D
--Saint Catherine of Bologna
Bible Quote:
Where pride is, there also shall be reproach: but where humility is,
there also is wisdom.=C2 (Proverbs 11:2)
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Prayer
How lovely, O God, are Thy tabernacles! My soul longeth and fainteth
for Thy courts, O living God, Who art the crown and reward of the
saints, and repayest their sufferings and sorrows in this world with
eternal joy. How blessed are all they who, in this life, have served
Thee faithfully! They behold Thee and the Lamb of God face to face;
they bear Thy name on their foreheads, and reign with Thee forever. We therefore beseech Thee, O God, through their intercessor, to grant us
Thy grace to serve Thee after their example, in sanctity and justice;
to follow them in poverty, humility, meekness, repentance, in ardent
longing for all virtues, in peace-making and patience, and one day,
like them, to share in the joys of heaven. Amen.
--Goffine's Devout Instructions
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