Although only thirty-three, her life was soon to be over.
Burdened with sorrow over the terrible schism, she offered
herself as a victim to God for the Pope and Church unity.
Her final prayer was “Lord, you are calling me to come to
you, and I am coming to you – not with any merits of my
own but only with your mercy. I am begging you for this
mercy in virtue of your Son’s most sweet blood … Father,
into your hands I surrender my soul and my spirit.”
She died in Rome on April 29, 1380. Not long after her
death the imminent riots and uprising in Rome came to an
end.
St. Catherine’s body was found to be incorrupt in 1430.
She was canonized in 1461 by Pope Pius II, and in 1939
St. Catherine and St. Francis of Assisi were declared co-
patron saints of Italy. Pope Paul VI in 1970 declared
Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Avila the first women
Doctors of the Church.
“O eternal Trinity, you are a bottomless ocean. The more I
throw myself into the ocean, the more I find you, and the
more I find you, the more will I search. I can never say of
you, it is enough… I have seen and tasted your bottomless
depths, O eternal Trinity, the beauty of all that is created.”
- St. Catherine of Siena
Continued from bulletin dated April 13, 2008
From: Sermon in a Sentence
A Treasury of Quotations on the Spiritual Life
Volume 3 – St. Catherine of Siena