Letter of Ser Barduccio di Piero Canigiani, containing the Transit of
the Seraphic Virgin, Saint Catherine of Siena, to Sister Catherine Petriboni in
the Monastery of San Piero a Monticelli near Florence
In the Name of Jesus Christ.
Dearest Mother in Christ Jesus, and Sister in the
holy memory of our blessed mother Catherine, I, Barduccio, a wretched and
guilty sinner, recommend myself to your holy prayers as a feeble infant,
orphaned by the death of so great a mother. I received your letter and read it
with much pleasure, and communicated it to my afflicted mothers here, who, supremely
grateful for your great charity and tender love towards them, recommend
themselves greatly, for their part, to your prayers, and beg you to recommend
them to the Prioress and all the sisters that they may be ready to do all that
may be pleasing to God concerning themselves and you. But since you, as a
beloved and faithful daughter, desire to know the end of our common mother, I
am constrained to satisfy your desire; and although I know myself to be but
little fitted to give such a narration, Iwill write in any case what my feeble
eyes have seen, and what the dull senses of my soul have been able to
comprehend.
This blessed virgin and mother of thousands of
souls, about the feast of the Circumcision, began to feel so great a change
both in soul and body, that she was obliged to alter her mode of life, the
action of taking food for her sustenance becoming so loathsome to her, that it
was only with the greatest difficulty that she could force herself to take any,
and, when she did so, she swallowed nothing of the substance of the food, but
had the habit of rejecting it. Moreover, not one drop of water could she
swallow for refreshment, whence came to her a most violent and tedious thirst,
and so great an inflammation of her throat that her breath seemed to be fire,
with all which, however, she remained in very good health, robust and fresh as
usual. In these conditions we reached Sexagesima Sunday, when, about the hour
of vespers, at the time of her prayer, she had so violent a stroke that from
that day onwards she was no longer in health. Towards the night of the
following Monday, just after I had written a letter, she had another stroke so
terrific, that we all mourned her as dead, remaining under it for a long time
without giving any sign of life. Then, rising, she stood for an equal space of
time, and did not seem the same person as she who had fallen.
From that hour began new travail and bitter pains
in her body, and, Lent having arrived, she began, in spite of her infirmity, to
give herself with such application of mind to prayer that the frequency of the
humble sighs and sorrowful plaints which she exhaled from the depth of her
heart appeared to us a miracle. I think, too, that you know that her prayers
were so fervent that one hour spent in prayer by her reduced that dear tender
frame to greater weakness than would be suffered by one who should persist for
two whole days in prayer. Meanwhile, every morning, after communion, she arose
from the earth in such a state that any one who had seen her would have thought
her dead, and was thus carried back to bed. Thence, after an hour or two, she
would arise afresh, and we would go to Saint Peter's, although a good mile
distant, where she would place herself in prayer, so remaining until vespers,
finally returning to the house so worn out that she seemed a corpse.
These were her exercises up till the third Sunday
in Lent, when she finally succumbed, conquered by the innumerable sufferings,
which daily increased, and consumed her body, and the infinite afflictions of
the soul which she derived from the consideration of the sins which she saw
being committed against God, and from the dangers ever more grave to which she
knew the Holy Church to be exposed, on account of which she remained greatly
overcome, and both internally and externally tormented. She lay in this state
for eight weeks, unable to lift her head, and full of intolerable pains, from
the soles of her feet to the crown of her head, to such an extent that she
would often say: "These pains are truly physical, but not natural; for it
seems that God has given permission to the devils to torment this body at their
pleasure." And, in truth, it evidently was so; for, if I were to attempt
to explain the patience which she practiced, under this terrible and unheard-of
agony, I should fear to injure, by my explanations, facts which cannot be
explained. This only will I say, that, every time that a new torment came upon
her, she would joyously raise her eyes and her heart to God and say:
"Thanks to You, oh eternal Spouse, for granting such graces afresh every
day to me, Your miserable and most unworthy handmaid!"
In this way her body continued to consume itself
until the Sunday before the Ascension; but by that time it was reduced to such
a state that it seemed like a corpse in a picture, though I speak not of the
face, which remained ever angelical and breathed forth devotion, but of the
bosom and limbs, in which nothing could be seen but the bones, covered by the
thinnest skin, and so feeble was she from the waist downwards that she could
not move herself, even a little, from one side to another. In the night
preceding the aforesaid Sunday, about two hours or more before dawn, a great
change was produced in her, and we thought that she was approaching the end.
The whole family was then called around her, and she, with singular humility
and devotion, made signs to those who were standing near that she desired to
receive Holy Absolution for her faults and the pains due to them, and so it was
done. After which she became gradually reduced to such a state that we could
observe no other movement than her breathing, continuous, sad, and feeble. On
account of this it seemed right to give her extreme unction, which our abbot of
Sant' Antimo did, while she lay as it were deprived of feeling.
After this unction she began altogether to change,
and to make various signs with her head and her arms as if to show that she was
suffering from grave assaults of demons, and remained in this calamitous state
for an hour and a half, half of which time having been passed in silence, she
began to say: "I have sinned! Oh Lord, have mercy on me!" And this,
as I believe, she repeated more than sixty times, raising each time her right
arm, and then letting it fall and strike the bed. Then, changing her words, she
said as many times again, but without moving her arms, "Holy God, have
mercy on me!" Finally she employed the remainder of the above-mentioned
time with many other formulas of prayer both humble and devout, expressing
various acts of virtue, after which her face suddenly changed from gloom to
angelic light, and her tearful and clouded eyes became serene and joyous, in
such a manner that I could not doubt that, like one saved from a deep sea, she
was restored to herself, which circumstance greatly mitigated the grief of her
sons and daughters who were standing around in the affliction you can
imagine.
Catherine had been lying on the bosom of Mother
Alessia and now succeeded in rising, and with a little help began to sit up,
leaning against the same mother. In the meantime we had put before her eyes a
pious picture, containing many relics and various pictures of the saints. She,
however, fixed her eyes on the image of the cross set in it, and began to adore
it, explaining, in words, certain of her most profound feelings of the goodness
of God, and while she prayed, she accused herself in general of all her sins in
the sight of God, and, in particular, said: "It is my fault, oh eternal
Trinity, that I have offended You so miserably with my negligence, ignorance,
ingratitude, and disobedience, and many other defects. Wretch that I am! for I
have not observed Your commandments, either those which are given in general to
all, or those which Your goodness laid upon me in particular! Oh mean creature
that I am!" Saying which, she struck her breast, repeating her confession,
and continued: "I have not observed Your precept, with which You commanded
me to seek always to give You honor, and to spend myself in labors for my
neighbor, while I, on the contrary, have fled from labors, especially where
they were necessary. Did You not command me, oh, my God! to abandon all thought
of myself and to consider solely the praise and glory of Your Name in the
salvation of souls, and with this food alone, taken from the table of the most
holy Cross, to comfort myself? But I have sought my own consolation. You did
ever invite me to bind myself to You alone by sweet, loving, and fervent
desires, by tears and humble and continuous prayers for the salvation of the
whole world and for the reformation of the holy Church, promising me that, on
account of them, You would use mercy with the world, and give new beauty to
Your Spouse; but I, wretched one, have not corresponded with Your desire, but
have remained asleep in the bed of negligence.
"Oh, unhappy that I am! You have placed me in
charge of souls, assigning to me so many beloved sons, that I should love them
with singular love and direct them to You by the way of Life, but I have been
to them nothing but a mirror of human weakness; I have had no care of them; I
have not helped them with continuous and humble prayer in Your presence, nor
have I given them sufficient examples of the good life or the warnings of
salutary doctrine. Oh, mean creature that I am! with how little reverence have
I received Your innumerable gifts, the graces of such sweet torments and labors
which it pleased You to accumulate on this fragile body, nor have I endured
them with that burning desire and ardent love with which You sent them to me.
Alas! oh, my Love, through Your excessive goodness You chose me for Your
spouse, from the beginning of my childhood, but I was not faithful enough; in
fact, I was unfaithful to You, because I did not keep my memory faithful to You
alone and to Your most high benefits; nor have I fixed my intelligence on the
thought of them only or disposed my will to love You immediately with all its
strength."
Of these and many other similar things did that
pure dove accuse herself, rather, as I think, for our example than for her own
need, and then, turning to the priest, said: "For the love of Christ
crucified, absolve me of all these sins which I have confessed in the presence
of God, and of all the others which I cannot remember." That done, she
asked again for the plenary indulgence, saying that it had been granted her by
Pope Gregory and Pope Urban, saying this as one an hungered for the Blood of
Christ. So I did what she asked, and she, keeping her eyes ever fixed on the
crucifix, began afresh to adore it with the greatest devotion, and to say
certain very profound things which I, for my sins, was not worthy to
understand, and also on account of the grief with which I was laboring and the
anguish with which her throat was oppressed, which was so great that she could
hardly utter her words, while we, placing our ears to her mouth, were able to
catch one or two now or again, passing them on from one to the other. After
this she turned to certain of her sons, who had not been present at a memorable
discourse, which, many days previously, she had made to the whole family,
showing us the way of salvation and perfection, and laying upon each of us the
particular task which he was to perform after her death. She now did the same
to these others, begging most humbly pardon of all for the slight care which
she seemed to have had of our salvation. Then she said certain things to Lucio
and to another, and finally to me, and then turned herself straightway to
prayer.
Oh! had you seen with what humility and reverence
she begged and received many times the blessing of her most sorrowful mother,
all that I can say is that it was a bitter sweet to her. How full of tender
affection was the spectacle of the mother, recommending herself to her blessed
child, and begging her to obtain a particular grace from God -- namely, that in
these melancholy circumstances she might not offend Him. But all these things
did not distract the holy virgin from the fervor of her prayer; and,
approaching her end, she began to pray especially for the Catholic Church, for
which she declared she was giving her life. She prayed again for Pope Urban
VI., whom she resolutely confessed to be the true Pontiff, and strengthened her
sons never to hesitate to give their life for that truth. Then, with the greatest
fervor, she besought all her beloved children whom the Lord had given her, to
love Him alone, repeating many of the words which our Savior used, when He
recommended the disciples to the Father, praying with such affection, that, at
hearing her, not only our hearts, but the very stones might have been broken.
Finally, making the sign of the cross, she blessed us all, and thus continued
in prayer to the end of her life for which she had so longed, saying:
"You, oh Lord, call me, and I come to You, not through my merits, but
through Your mercy alone, which I ask of You, in virtue of Your Blood!"
and many times she called out: "Blood, Blood!" Finally, after the
example of the Savior, she said: "Father, into Your Hands I commend my
soul and my spirit," and thus sweetly, with a face all shining and
angelical, she bent her head, and gave up the ghost.
Her transit occurred on the Sunday at the hour of
Sext, but we kept her unburied until the hour of Compline on Tuesday, without
any odor being perceptible, her body remaining so pure, intact, and fragrant,
that her arms, her neck and her legs remained as flexible as if she were still
alive. During those three days the body was visited by crowds of people, and
lucky he thought himself who was able to touch it. Almighty God also worked
many miracles in that time, which in my hurry I omit. Her tomb is visited
devoutly by the faithful, like those of the other holy bodies which are in
Rome, and Almighty God is granting many graces in the name of His blessed
spouse, and I doubt not that there will be many more, and we are made great by
hearing of them. I say no more. Recommend me to the Prioress and all the
sisters, for I have, at present, the greatest need of the help of prayer. May
Almighty God preserve you and help you to grow in His grace.
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