Catholic Fire

The saint of the day for February 13 is the great Dominican mystic and stigmatist, St. Catherine de' Ricci (1522-1590), who was a Dominican nun, of the Third Order, enclosed in a convent at that time. Alessandrina Lucrezia Romola de' Ricci was born in Florence, Italy on April 23, 1522 to a pious and well-respected family. Her mother died when she was an infant and she was raised by her devoted stepmother, who encouraged her to live a holy life. When she has about 71/2 years old, her father placed her in the Convent of Monticelli, in Florence, where her aunt, Louisa de Ricci, was a nun. Her aunt and the other sisters watched over her and taught her catechism there. Alessandrina was fourteen years old when she entered the Dominican Community of Prat, taking the religious name Catherine. Initially and for the first four-fve years after her profession, Catherine experienced many trials and humiliations within the order. She received visions and had ecstasies, which caused s...

Alessandra Lucrezia Romola de' Ricci was born in Florence, Italy on April 23, 1522 to a pious and well-respected family. Her mother died when she was a child and she was raised by her devoted stepmother, who encouraged her to live a holy life. She entered the Dominican convent of Prat at fourteen, taking the religious name Catherine. Plagued by terrible physical pains for two years, she found comfort in meditation upon the Passion of Christ, a devotion that she came to practice with great fervor every week from noon on Thursday to three o’clock on Friday. Catherine received the stigmata of the wound in the side and of the crown of thorns on the brow. In addition to her rich mystical life, she cared for the sick on her knees, especially the poor of the countryside. Having become the prioress of her convent at the age of twenty-five, Catherine gave spiritual counsel to three future popes. Catherine died on February 2, 1590, was beatified in 1732 by Clement XII, and was canonized by...