• =?UTF-8?Q?9_March_=E2=80=93_St_Catherine_of_Bologna_OSC?=

    From rich@1:396/4 to All on Mon Mar 8 09:05:04 2021
    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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