Post #5816

In 1363, after she saw a dove hovering over her head while she was in ecstasy, her father agrees as long as she joined the Mantellate of the Third Order of St. Dominic (Sisters of Penance). Her job was to help the poor and the sick. The Lord HImself appeared to her in the guise of a beggar and Catherine gifted Him her cloak: she got it back adorned with precious stones. At the end of the Carnival of 1367 she was mystically married to Jesus Christ. Her abstinence was extreme and the austerity of her life admirable. Sometimes she saw her fasting prolonged from the day of the Ashes until the Ascension of the Lord, content with the Eucharistic communion alone. She struggled very frequently with the demons, and suffered much from their mistreatment; she was plagued by burning fevers and various other diseases. The name of Catherine was so famous and venerated that sick and tormented by evil spirits were brought to her from all over. She commanded diseases and fevers in the name of Christ, and forced the demons to come out of the bodies of the possessed. Her doctrine was infused and not acquired: she read and wrote despite being illiterate and, questioned by distinguished doctors on very difficult theological questions, she answered without any effort. No one approached her without her getting better off again. Around 1370, the so-called " Gabel Brigade " also gathered around her, a group of men and women who followed her, watched her in her long ecstasies, helped her in every way in charitable activities and also in the correspondence that people of every part entertained with her. Because of this popularity, some murmured so in 1374 she was called to appear before the General Chapter of the Dominican Order in Florence: she was found without fault and as personal confessor she was assigned Bro Raymond of Capua (future blessed). On Palm Sunday of 1375, while she was staying in Pisa, after receiving celestial nourishment (Communio), she was rapt in ecstasy, she saw the crucified Lord come to her with a great light, and five rays out of five descend from the scars of his wounds. parts of his body; whereby, understanding its mystery, and praying the Lord that the stigmata would not be seen, the rays immediately changed the color of blood into a marvelous splendor, and in the form of very pure light they reached her hands, feet and heart; and the sensitive pain she felt from it was so strong that, if God had not lessened it, she would soon have thought she would die. The most loving Lord thus added new grace to this grace, making her feel pain for the Sacred Stigmata received, but that the bleeding scars did not appear. Thus she was fully conformed to her divine Spouse. What happened to her, the servant of God told her confessor Bro Raymond, and the pious industry of the faithful, to visibly represent Him, painted on the images of Blessed Catherine some luminous rays falling on the five aforementioned parts. But while immersed in the meditation of divine things, she was nevertheless a mediator of peace in the political events of her time, having correspondence with the most important personalities of her time, including the Pope. To obtain peace for the Florentines, who were in disagreement with the Holy See and therefore struck by interdiction, she went to Avignon to the Supreme Pontiff Gregory XI. Arrived on 18th of June 1376 at the papal court of Avignon, she also showed the Pontiff that she had known by revelation the vow, known to God alone, that he had made to return to Rome: and also following her advice, the Pontiff decided to return personally to take possession of his see in Rome, widow of her Pastor for too many years; as he really did. However, serious problems arose when Gregory's successor was elected: some cardinals, mostly foreigners, had declared the election of Urban VI invalid and on the 20th of September 1378 they elected another antipope Clement VII in Fondi, who was then forced to flee to Avignon with the cardinals who had elected him.