Today,
in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of St. Catherine de
Rici, virgin of the Order of Preachers.
The feast is III Class, yet it contains the full propers as if the feast
were II Class. At Lauds, the Psalms of
Sunday are prayed.
From the
Martyrology:
At Prato in Etruria, St. Catherine de'Ricci of Florence, virgin, of the Order of Preachers. She was remarkable for the abundance of her divine gifts, and was canonized by the Sovereign Pontiff, Benedict XIV. She died rich in virtues and merit on February 2, but her feast is celebrated today.
From
“Short Lives of the Dominican Saints” (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trübner
& Co., Ltd., 1901):
St. Catherine de Ricci was born at Florence, Feb. 13 A.D. 1522, and from her earliest years gave manifest proofs of her future sanctity. When only three years old she prayed with the utmost recollection, and sought out silent and solitary places wherein to devote herself to this favorite exercise. She was daily visited by her guardian angel, who instructed her in sacred mysteries, trained her to meditate upon them, and taught her the devotion of the Holy Rosary, that she might early begin to love and honor the Mother of Him whose spouse she was destined to become.
At the age of thirteen she received the habit of the Third
Order of Saint Dominic in the Convent of Saint Vincent at Prato, which had been
founded about thirty years previously by some disciples of the celebrated Savonarola.
During her noviceship and the early years of her religious life, her continual
interior conversation with the Divine Lover of her soul kept her in a state of
almost constant abstraction; and as the holy maiden, in her simplicity, had
never revealed, even to her Confessor, the supernatural favors which had been
lavished on her from infancy, the Community thought her stupid and incapable
and were very near dismissing her from the Convent. Shortly after her
profession, she had several long illnesses, during which she suffered
excruciating pains, and of which she was miraculously cured by repeated
apparitions of Father Jerome Savonarola and his companions, or of some Saint of
the Order.
In the year 1542 began those memorable ecstasies which were
renewed every week for the space of twelve years, beginning at noon on Thursday
and ending on Friday afternoon. During these ecstasies the closing scenes of
our Lord's life were reproduced before her, and the movements of her body and
the words which fell from her lips denoted the various stages of the Sacred
Passion in which she was permitted thus mysteriously to take part.
On Easter Sunday of the same year, our Lord was pleased to
celebrate Catherine's espousals with Himself, placing a ring on her finger with
the words, "Receive, daughter, this ring as a pledge and token that thou
art and ever shalt be Mine. "On the
following Friday the sacred stigmata were impressed on her hands, feet, and
side, and from that time till her death they caused her great and continual
pain. Later on, the crown of thorns was placed on her brow by her Divine
Spouse, and those who nursed her in her illnesses were witnesses of another feature
of resemblance to Him whom her soul loved. From her right shoulder down to her
waist there was a wide, deep, livid furrow, impressed upon her by the Cross,
which she bore in a mysterious manner every week with her Divine Master from
the Praetorium of Pilate to the summit of Calvary.
Catherine had in her cell a large wooden crucifix to which
she bore a tender devotion. Our Lord often spoke to her from this crucifix;
and, on one occasion when she was praying before it, the figure detached itself
from the cross and came to her. "Beloved Spouse," said Our Lord,
" I come to seek in thy heart and in those of My daughters a refuge
against the crimes of sinners which overwhelm Me." Of this miraculous
event the whole Community were witnesses.
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In the year 1552 the Saint was elected Prioress, and from
that time until her death, a period of nearly forty years, she always held
either that or the office of Subprioress. She set no bounds to her maternal
solicitude for the well-being of those under her care. When obliged to reprove her subjects for their
faults, she made a point of always, before bedtime, speaking a kind word or
giving some mark of tenderness to those whom she had had occasion to correct
during the day. She perfectly realized in her life that union of action and
contemplation which is the spirit of the Dominican Order. Whilst attending with the utmost care and
prudence to every detail of the temporal and spiritual needs of a Community of
nearly a hundred and sixty nuns, and busying herself also for the salvation and
perfection of many souls outside the walls of her Convent, she was all the
while closely united to God and raised to the highest states of prayer. Young
maidens, pious matrons, professional men, wealthy Florentine nobles, even
Bishops, gloried in calling her by the name of mother ; and she took a truly
maternal interest in them all, as her letters amply testify. The poor were the
objects of her special tenderness, and she desired that they should always be
kindly received at the Convent, no matter how importunate they might be. "Manage” she would say to the portress,
"that no person shall ever leave the door without being comforted and
relieved in some way or other."
Saint Catharine was on terms of sweet and holy friendship
with Saint Philip Neri. They earnestly wished to meet; and God, who delights in
fulfilling the desires of His servants, brought them face to face in a
miraculous manner, as both Saints afterwards testified. The poor souls in Purgatory often appeared to
her soliciting her prayers, and she would take their sufferings upon herself to
obtain their release. Often, too, she suffered as a victim of expiation for the
sins of the world. Her prayer appeared to be continual. In going from one
exercise to another, her lips were always in motion, reciting psalms, hymns, or
rosaries; and everything she saw seemed to raise her mind to God.
Towards the close of January, A.D. 1590, the Saint was
attacked by her last illness, which was of only a few days' duration; and,
after receiving the Holy Sacraments with the utmost devotion, she happily
departed to our Lord on the Feast of the Purification, whilst the angels were
heard over the Convent singing harmoniously the words, " Come, O Spouse of
Christ, receive the crown which the Lord hath prepared for thee from all
eternity."
Many miracles were worked through her intercession. She was
beatified by Clement XII, A.D. 1732, and canonized by Benedict XIV., A.D. 1746.
Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, it was your will that the blessed
virgin, Catherine, who loved you so intensely, should become illustrious by
contemplating your passion; grant, through her intercession, that, devotedly recalling
the mysteries of the passion, we may be worthy to poses its fruit. For you live…