Feastday: March 9
Patron: of Artists, liberal arts, against temptations and Bologna
Birth: September 8, 1413
Death: March 9, 1463
Beatified: 1524
Canonized: May 22, 1712
St. Catherine of Bologna was an Italian nun and artist born as Catherine de' Vigri on September 8, 1413 in Bologna, Italy.
She was the member of an aristocratic family and the daughter of a diplomat to the Marquis of Ferrara. Catherine received a wonderful education in reading, writing, singing and drawing while being raised at the court of the Duke of Ferrara. Catherine excelled in painting, Latin and the viola.
When the daughter eventually married, she wanted Catherine to remain in her service, but Catherine, feeling a calling to the religious life, left the court.
In 1426, at 13-years-old, she entered the convent of Corpus Domini at Ferrara and became a Franciscan Tertiary.
During this time, her convent disagreed in whether to continue following the Augustinian rule or to instead adhere to the Franciscan rule. A Rule is a specific expression of the Christian life which calls the men or women of a particular religious order to a daily pattern of prayer, work and charity.
Catherine was determined to live a life of perfection, and was admired by her companions for her holiness.
In 1432, Catherine and other young women of Ferrara founded a monastery of the Order of Poor Clares, an order founded by St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi.
Catherine was openly willing to serve the more humble roles in the convent. She was a laundress, a baker and a caretaker for the animals.
Through her efforts with Pope Nicholas V, the Poor Clare convent at Ferrara erected an enclosure, and Catherine was appointed Superioress. That office made her responsible for providing pastoral care and spiritual oversight to all of sisters. The reputation of the Community for its holiness and austerity became widespread.
In 1456, Catherine returned to Bologna with her superiors and the governors there requested she found a second monastery of the same Order and be the Abbess of the convent.
Catherine continued to paint and to write beautiful spiritual guides and poetry. She wrote the Treatise on the 7 Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare. And, her painting of St. Ursula remains on display in a Venice gallery.
Throughout her life, Catherine experienced visions of both Jesus Christ and Satan, which she documented in her treatise. In one instance, she had the baby Jesus placed in her arms by the Blessed Virgin Mary.
During the Lenten season of 1463, Catherine became seriously ill, and on March 9th she passed away.
She was buried without a coffin and her body was exhumed eighteen days later because of many cures attributed to her at her graveside and the sweet scent coming from her grave. Her body was discovered incorrupt and remains so today. That means it has not decayed. Catherine is dressed in her religious habit seated upright on a golden throne behind glass in the chapel of the Poor Clares in Bologna.
Her skin has since been blackened due to exposure from oil lamps and soot.
Saint Catherine was beatified in 1524 by Pope Clement VII and canonized on May 22, 1712 by Pope Clement XI. She is the patron saint of artists, the liberal arts, against temptations and of Bologna.
Her feast day is celebrated on March 9.
St. Catherine's piety, charity, and kindness attracted many to follow her along the road to Christian perfection. The beauty of her life and death encourages us to live in perfect charity as a Lenten goal.
Pope Benedict described this humble saint as, "From the distance of so many centuries she is still very modern and speaks to our lives. She, like us, suffered temptations, she suffered the temptations of disbelief, of sensuality, of a difficult spiritual struggle. She felt forsaken by God, she found herself in the darkness of faith. Yet in all these situations she was always holding the Lord's hand, she did not leave him, she did not abandon him. And walking hand in hand with the Lord, she walked on the right path and found the way of light."
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Catherine of Bologna [Caterina de' Vigri] (8 September 1413 – 9 March 1463) was an Italian Poor Clare nun, writer, teacher, mystic, artist, and saint. The patron saint of artists and against temptations, Catherine de' Vigri was venerated for nearly three centuries in her native Bologna before being formally canonized in 1712. Her feast day is 9 March.
Life
Catherine came from an upper-class family, the daughter of Benvenuta Mammolini of Bologna and Giovanni Vigri, a Ferrarese notary who worked for Niccolò III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara. She was raised at Niccolo III's court as a lady-in-waiting to his wife Parisina Malatesta (d. 1425) and became lifelong friends with his natural daughter Margherita d'Este (d. 1478). During this time, she received 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 for infidelity, Catherine left court and joined a lay community of beguines living a semi-religious life and following the Augustinian rule. The women were divided over whether instead to adhere to the Franciscan rule, which eventually happened. 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. Catherine 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 reported experiencing miracles and several visions of Christ, the Virgin Mary, Thomas Becket, and Joseph, as well as future events, such as the fall of Constantinople in 1453. She wrote a number of religious treatises, lauds, sermons, and copied and illustrated her own breviary (see below).
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. Catherine 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 canonized until 1712.
Literary works
Sette armi spirituali, 1475
Catherine's best known text is Seven Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare 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. The Sette Armi Spirituali became an important part of the campaign for her canonization. It was first printed in 1475, and went through 21 later editions in the sixteenth 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: as "now revealed in their 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: The Twelve Gardens, a mystical work of her youth, Rosarium, a Latin poem on the life of Jesus, and The Sermons, copies of Catherine's words to her religious sisters."
Artistic works
Madonna of the Peach, by St. Catherine of Bologna
Catherine represents the rare phenomenon of a 15th-century nun–an 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 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, and Catherine of Alexandria. Her self-taught style incorporated motifs from needlework and devotional prints. Some saints' images, interwoven with text and rubrics, display an idiosyncratic, inventive iconography also found in German nuns' artworks (nönnenarbeiten). The breviary and its images surely served a didactic function within the convent community. 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. Recently one scholar has tried to question certain attributions.
A drawing of a Man of Sorrows or Resurrected Christ found in a miscellany of lauds (Ms. 35 no.4, Archivio Generale Arcivescovile, Bologna) has also been attributed to her. 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 "to increase devotion for herself and others".
