Saint Who?
Saints Who Were Poets
Saint Catherine of Bologna
Religious († 1463)Feast: March 9
Invoked as a patron of artists, Catherine de’ Vigri spent much of her childhood at court in the city of Ferrara, a center of art and culture. She studied music and the visual arts and learned to write poetry, all the while maintaining a devout spirit amidst the environment of palace intrigue. At about thirteen, she joined a community of beguines, lay women observing the Augustinian rule without taking vows.
Eventually, Catherine and some other members of the community chose to form a convent of Poor Clares. Catherine was no stranger to darkness and doubts, but she did not give in to them, and she wrote a beautiful poetic work to encourage her religious sisters in their life: The Seven Spiritual Weapons or Spiritual Combats. “Let every lover who loves the Lord/ Come to the dance singing of love,/ Let her come dancing all afire/ Desiring only him who created her.”
In the convent, she often worked at humble tasks, including laundry and parlor duty. In 1456, she was asked to lead in establishing a new convent in the city of Bologna. Here she died in 1463. A sweet odor emanating from her grave caused her to be disinterred about three weeks after her burial. Her body was found to be incorrupt. She was canonized in 1712.
Beloved Father, through the intercession of
Saint Catherine of Bologna, grant consecrated religious perseverance in their vocations.
