Saint Catherine of Genoa
(1447-1510)
Patronage: Brides, Childless Couples, Difficult Marriages, and Widows
St Catherine was a woman of prayer. Her life shows a great example of how one can stray from the will of God and return through repentance and God’s continual forgiveness.
St Catherine was married at the young age of sixteen, out of obedience to her family even though she had longed to be a religious for many years. Throughout her marriage her husband was unfaithful.
St Catherine hid for five years trying to make herself happy. She tried worldly goods to attain happiness yet this only deepened her grief. She was very lonely.
One day she was kneeling before a Chaplin when she felt the presence of God. She feel in love with God all over again. She was made aware of her sinfulness and repented by going to confession. She began her life again, following the will of God. She went to daily Communion and felt closer to God than ever.
Miraculously her marriage changed also, her husband repented his sinful ways from the help of Catherine’s prayers. The couple then ventured together away from their home to help the poor, needy and sick at a hospital in Pammatone. There the couple worked continuously for the good of others.
Catherine died of a long battle of illness, mainly the plague. Which she would have caught from helping the ill patients at the hospital.
Her writings include ‘Treatise on Purgatory’ and ‘Dialogue of the Soul and the Body’.
Saint Catherine of Genoa, Pray for us.
Originally posted 2014-09-16 22:19:35.