Women and Women's Writings from Antiquity Through the Middle Ages | Catherine Of Siena (Essay Date 1370)
CATHERINE OF SIENA (ESSAY DATE 1370)
SOURCE: Catherine of Siena. The Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin Catherine of Siena, translated by Algar Thorold. Westminster, Md.: The Newman Bookshop, 1943.
In the following excerpted translation of Catherine of Siena's 1370 Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin, originally published in 1907, Catherine describes the sufferings and ecstasies of the soul on its path toward blissful union with God.
How a soul, elevated by desire of the honor of God, and of the salvation of her neighbors, exercising herself in humble prayer, after she had seen the union of the soul, through love, with God, asked of God four requests.
The soul, who is lifted by a very great and yearning desire for the honor of God and the salvation of souls, begins by exercising herself, for a certain space of time, in the ordinary virtues, remaining in the cell of self-knowledge, in order...
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