Letters of Catherine Benincasa by Catherine Benincasa

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In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:

Dearest daughter in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine, servant and slave of
the servants of Jesus Christ, write to thee in His precious Blood, with
desire to see thee clothed in true and perfect humility--for that is a
little virtue which makes us great in the sweet sight of God. This is the
virtue which constrained and inclined God to make His most sweet Son
incarnate in the Womb of Mary. It is as exalted as the proud are humbled;
it shines in the sight of God and men; it binds the hands of the wicked,
it unites the soul with God, it purifies and laves away the soil of our
sin, and calls on God to show us mercy. I will then, sweetest daughter,
that thou strive to embrace this glorious virtue, so that thou mayest pass
over the stormy sea of this world free from storm and peril.

Now comfort thee in this sweet and sincere virtue, and bathe thee in the
Blood of Christ crucified. And when thou canst empty thy time for prayer,
I pray thee to do it. And love tenderly every rational being. Then, I beg
and command thee not to fast, except, when thou canst, on the days
commanded by Holy Church. And when thou dost not feel strong enough to
fast then, do not observe them. At other times, do not fast, except when
thou feelest able, on Saturday. When this heat is over, fast on the days
of Holy Mary, if thou canst, and no more. And drink something beside water
every day. Labour hard to increase thy holy desire, and let these other
things alone for the future. Do not be anxious or depressed over us, for
we are all well. When it shall please the Divine Goodness, we shall see
one another again. I say no more to thee. Remain in the holy and sweet
grace of God. Comfort my sweet daughters, Ursula and Ginevra. Sweet Jesus,
Jesus Love.

LETTERS IN RESPONSE TO CERTAIN CRITICISMS

Catherine had ample opportunity to suffer from those keenly critical
instincts of the respectable which she reproved in the last group of
letters. Her life was full of eager unconventionalities that drew down on
her the frequent distrust of her co-religionists and fellow-townsmen. We
cannot tell what special cause had excited the indignation of the loyal
friends to whom the following note is written; but we may enjoy the spirit
of fresh and pure humility in which Catherine gives them the difficult
injunction to acquiesce in any criticism made upon her.

The very matters which were later to be considered as proofs of her
sanctity, were during her lifetime grounds of suspicion. Some unknown,
exercised in his mind over the reports of her extraordinary abstinence,
took evidently what would to-day appear the somewhat impertinent course of
writing her a letter of remonstrance. Catherine's inability or reluctance
to eat as much as others was one of the most interesting marvels of her
life to her simple contemporaries. It is clear, that partly from the
extreme mortification which according to mediaeval custom she inflicted on
her flesh from childhood, her condition became at an early age thoroughly
abnormal. Salads and water were practically her only diet; the curious are
referred to the copious details furnished by her biographers. Meantime,
the present letter shows how reasonable was her own attitude in the
matter. It shows also with what gentle dignity she received criticism. The
little touch at the end--"I pray you not to be light in judging, if you
are not surely illumined in the sight of God"--is the only hint at a
natural impulse of resentment: unless one reads, as it is tempting to do,
a delicate irony in the opening portion of the letter.

TO MONNA ORSA
WIFE OF BARTOLO USIMBARDI
AND TO MONNA AGNESE
WIFE OF FRANCESCO DI PIPINO TAILOR OF FLORENCE

In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:

Dearest daughter in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine, servant and slave of
the servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in His precious Blood: with
desire to see you persevere in holy desire, so that you may never look
back. For otherwise you would not receive your reward, and would
transgress the word of the Saviour, which says that we are not to turn
back to look at the furrow. Be persevering, then, and contemplate not what
is done, but what you have to do. And what have we to do? To turn our
affections constantly back toward God, despising the world with all its
joys, and loving virtue, bearing with true patience what the divine
goodness permits us; considering that whatever He gives is given for our
good that we may be sanctified in Him. We shall find in the Blood that the
truth is thus. So we ought to fill our memory with this glorious Blood,
which shows us so sweet a truth, that we may never be without the
recollection of it. Thus I want you to do, dearest daughters: that in this
life you shall persevere until death, and at the close of your life shall
receive the Eternal Vision of God. I say no more here.

I reprove thee, dearest my sweet daughter, because thou hast not kept in
mind what I told thee--not to answer anyone who should say to thee
anything about myself that seemed to thee less than good. Now I do not
wish thee to do so any more, but I wish both of you to reply to anyone who
narrated my faults to you in this wise--that they are not telling so many
that a great many more might not be told. Tell them to be moved by
compassion within their hearts in the sight of God, as they appear to be
by their tongues--and to pray the Divine Goodness earnestly for me, that
It will correct my life. Then say to them that it is the Highest Judge who
will punish my every fault, and reward every labour that shall be borne
for His Name. As to Monna Paula, I do not wish thee to be in the least
indignant with her: but think that she is acting like a good mother, who
wants to test her daughter to see whether she has virtue or not. I confess
truthfully that I have found little success in myself; but I have hope in
my Creator, who will make me correct myself and change my way of life.
Comfort you, and give yourselves no more pain; for we shall find ourselves
united in the fire of divine Charity, a union that shall be taken from us
neither by demon nor by creature. I say no more to you. Remain in the holy
and sweet grace of God. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.

TO A RELIGIOUS MAN IN FLORENCE
WHO WAS SHOCKED AT HER ASCETIC PRACTICES

In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:

Dearest and most beloved father in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine, a
useless servant of Jesus Christ, commend me to you: with the desire to see
us united and transformed in that sweet, eternal and pure Truth which
destroys in us all falsity and lying. I thank you cordially, dearest
father, for the holy zeal and jealousy which you have toward my soul: in
that you are apparently very anxious over what you hear of my life. I am
certain that nothing affects you except desire for the honour of God and
for my salvation, which makes you fear the assaults and illusions of
devils. As to your special fear, father, concerning my behaviour about
eating, I am not surprised; for I assure you, that not only do you fear,
but I myself tremble, for fear of devilish wiles. Were it not that I trust
in the goodness of God, and distrust myself, knowing that in myself I can
have no confidence. For you sent, asking me whether or no I believed that
I might be deceived, saying that if I did not believe so, that was a wile
of the devil. I answer you, that not only about this, which is above the
nature of the body, but about all my other activities also, I am always
afraid, on account of my frailty and the astuteness of the devil, and
think that I may be deceived; for I am perfectly well aware that the devil
lost beatitude, but not wisdom, with which wisdom, as I said, I recognized
that he might deceive me. But then I turn me, and lean against the Tree of
the Most Holy Cross of Christ crucified, and there will I fasten me; and I
do not doubt that if I shall be nailed and held with Him by love and with
profound humility, the devils will have no power against me--not through
my virtue, but through the virtue of Christ crucified.

You sent me word to pray God particularly that I might eat. I tell you, my
father, and I say it in the sight of God, that in all ways within my power
I have always forced myself once or twice a day to take food. And I have
prayed constantly, and do pray God and shall pray Him, that in this matter
of eating He will give me grace to live like other creatures, if it is His
will--for it is mine. I tell you, that often enough, when I have done what
I could, I enter within myself, to recognize my infirmity, and God, who by
most special grace has made me correct the sin of gluttony. I grieve much
that I have not corrected that miserable fault of mine through love. I for
myself do not know what other remedy to adopt, except that I beg you to
pray that Highest Eternal Truth, that He give me grace, if it is more for
His honour and the salvation of my soul, to enable me to take food if it
please Him. And I am sure that the goodness of God will not despise your
prayers. I beg you that if you see any remedy you will write me of it; and
provided it be for the honour of God, I will accept it willingly. Also I
beg you not to be light in judging, if you are not clearly illumined in
the sight of God. I say no more to you. Remain in the holy and sweet grace
of God. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.

TO BROTHER BARTOLOMEO DOMINICI
OF THE ORDER OF THE PREACHERS WHEN HE WAS BIBLE READER AT FLORENCE

Belief in the wrath to come is sufficiently real to Catherine, and the
current demonology of her day slips readily from her tongue. These things
she accepted as she found them. But the atmosphere in which her spirit
breathes is the perception of the love of God. The spiritual history of
the race, from the creation to the coming of the Spirit and the perpetual
support of the soul in the Sacrament of the Altar, is to her a revelation
of the One encompassing Love, poured forth in fresh measure and under new
forms at each stage in the movement of human destiny.

And so, in this little letter, she invites us to enter with her the
"peaceful and profound sea" found in the words "God is Love." Elsewhere,
both in her Dialogue and in a letter to one Brother Matteo Tolomei, she
analyses with keen insight the relations which redeemed humanity can bear
to the Loving God; she tells us how the servant, obedient through fear,
may become the friend, obedient through gratitude and desire for spiritual
blessings; and how these lower loves, through the operation of the Holy
Spirit, may be transformed into the love of the son, who seeks God for His
own sake, "with nothing between." And how shall human love, when it has
reached this point, reflect the love of Him who "needs not man's work nor
His own gifts?" How become, not merely receptive, but active and creative?
Catherine gives the simple Christian answer: "God has loved us without
being loved, but we love Him because we are loved.... We cannot be of any
profit to Him, nor love Him with this first love. Yet God demands of us,
that as He has loved us without any second thoughts, so He should be loved
by us. In what way can we do this, then, since He demands it of us and we
cannot give it to Him? I tell you: through a means which He has
established by which we can love Him freely, and without the least regard
to any profit of ours: we can be useful, not to Him, which is impossible,
but to our neighbour.... To show the love we have to Him, we ought to
serve and love every rational creature.... Every virtue receives life from
love, and love is gained in love, that is, by raising the eye of our mind
to behold how much we are beloved of God. Seeing ourselves loved, we
cannot do otherwise than love.... So thou seest that we conceive virtues
through God and bring them to the birth for our neighbour."

Thus do Catherine's loftiest meditations end on the practical note. Her
fundamental thought, here as elsewhere, is strikingly akin to the thought
of St. Bernard. Love yourself not for your own sake, but for God! she
constantly repeats. To the same effect, Bernard describes at length the
progress of the soul till it reaches the highest stage, in which self-love
is so lost that even gratitude is left behind, and man loves himself and
God for the sake of God alone.

In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:

To you, most beloved and dear father, through reverence of the most sweet
Sacrament, and son in Christ Jesus: I Catherine, servant and slave of the
servants of Jesus Christ, write and send comfort in His precious Blood,
with desire to see you kindled, on fire, and consumed in His most ardent
charity, since I know that he who is on fire and consumed with this
charity sees not himself. This, then, I will that you do. I summon you to
enter through this most ardent charity, a sea that is peaceful and
profound. This I have just now found anew--not that the sea is new, but
that it is new to me in the feeling of my soul--in that word, God is Love.
And in this word, as the mirror reflects the face of man, and the sun its
light upon the earth, so it is reflected in my soul, that all His works
whatsoever are Love alone, for they are not wrought of anything save love.
Therefore He says, "I God am Love." From this a light is thrown on the
unsearchable mystery of the Incarnate Word, who by force of love was given
with such humility that it confounds my pride, and teaches us not to
regard His works, but the burning devotion of the Word given to us. He
says that we should do as he who loves: who, when his friend comes with a
present, looks not at the hands for the gift which he brings, but opens
the eye of love, and regards his heart and affection. So He wills that we
should do, when the Highest eternal goodness of God, sweet above all
things, visits our soul. It visits us then with measureless benefits. Let
memory act swiftly to receive the intention in the divine charity: and let
the will arise with most ardent desire, and receive and behold the
sacrificed Heart of sweet and good Jesus the Giver: and thus you shall
find you kindled and clothed with fire, and with the gift of the Blood of
the Son of God; and you shall be free from all pain and disease. This it
was which took away the pain of the holy disciples, when it behoved them
to leave Mary and one another, and gladly they endured that separation, to
sow the word of God. Run then, run, run.

Concerning the affairs of Benincasa, I cannot reply unless I am at Siena.
Thank Messer Nicolao for the charity which he has shown for them. Alessa
and I and Cecca, poor women, commend ourselves to you a thousand thousand
times. May God be ever in your soul, amen. Jesus, Jesus.

Catherine, servant of the servants of God.

TO BROTHER MATTEO DI FRANCESCO TOLOMEI
OF THE ORDER OF THE PREACHERS

In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:

Dearest son in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine, servant and slave of the
servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in His precious Blood, with desire
to see you seek God in truth, not through the intervention of your own
fleshliness or of any other creature, for we cannot please God through any
intervening means. God gave us the Word, His Only-Begotten Son, without
regard to His own profit. This is true, that we cannot be of any profit to
Him; but the reverse is not the case, because, although we do not serve
God for our profit, nevertheless we profit just the same. To Him belongs
the flower of honour, and to us the fruit of profit. He has loved us
without being loved, and we love because we are loved: He loves us of
grace, and we Him of duty, because we are bound to love Him. We cannot be
of any profit to God just as we cannot love Him of grace, without duty.
For we are bound to Him, and not He to us, because before He was loved, He
loved us, and therefore created us in His Image and Likeness. There it is,
then: we cannot be of any profit to Him, nor love Him with this first
love. Yet I say that God demands of us, that as He has loved us without
any second thoughts, so He should be loved by us. In what way can we do
this, then, since He demands it of us, and we cannot give it Him? I tell
you: through a means which He has established, by which we can love Him
freely, and without the least regard to any profit of ours; that is, we
can be useful, not to Him, which is impossible, but to our neighbour. Now
by this means we can obey what He demands of us for the glory and praise
of His Name; to show the love that we have for Him, we ought to serve and
love every rational creature, and extend our charity to good and bad, to
every kind of people, as much to one who does us ill service and
criticises us as to one who serves us. For God is no respecter of persons,
but of holy desires, and His charity extends over just men and sinners.

One man, to be sure, He loves as a son, and one as a friend, and another
as a servant, and another as a person who has departed from Him, for whose
return He longs--these last are the wicked sinners who are deprived of
grace. But wherein does the Highest Father show His love to these? In
lending them time, and in time He gives them many opportunities, either to
repent of their sins, taking from them place and power to do as much ill
as they would, or He has many other ways to make them hate vice and love
virtue, the love of which takes away the wish to sin. And so, through the
time which God gave them in love, from foes they are made friends, and
have grace and are fit to become the Father's heirs.

He loves as sons those who serve Him in truth without any servile fear,
who have annulled and killed their self-will, and are through God obedient
till death to every rational creature: no mercenaries they, who serve Him
for their own profit, but sons; and they despise consolations and joy in
tribulations, and seek only in what way they can conform them to Christ
crucified, and nourish them on His shames and labours and sorrows. Such
men seek not God nor serve Him for sweetness or consolation, spiritual or
temporal, which they receive from God or the fellow-creature; they seek
not God for their own sakes, nor the neighbour, but God for God, inasmuch
as He is worthy of being loved, and themselves for God, for the glory and
praise of His Name; and they serve their neighbour for God, being of what
profit they may to Him. These men follow the footsteps of the Father,
rejoicing wholly in charity toward their neighbour, loving the servants of
God through the love with which they love their Creator; and they love
imperfect men through love that they should reach perfection, devoting to
them holy desire and continual prayers. They love wicked men, who lie in
the death of mortal sin, because they are rational beings, created by God,
and bought by the same Blood as they, wherefore they mourn over their
condemnation, and to rescue them would give themselves to bodily death. As
to the persecutors and slanderers and judges who take offence at them,
they love these both because they are creatures of God, as I said, and
also because they are the means and cause of testing their virtue, and
helping them reach perfection--especially as to that royal virtue
patience, a sweet virtue, which is never offended or disturbed, nor cast
down by any contrary wind or any molesting of men. Such men are those who
seek God with nothing between, and love Him truly as dear and lawful sons;
and He loves them as a true father, and shows them the secret of His
charity, to make them heirs of His eternal kingdom, wherefore they run,
refreshed by the Blood of Christ, kindled by the fire of divine charity,
by which they are perfectly illumined. Such men do not run in the path of
virtue after their own fashion, nay, but after the fashion of Christ
crucified, following in His steps. Were it possible for them to serve God
and win virtue without labour, they would not wish it. These men do not
act like the second kinds of men, the friend and the servant, for the
service of these last has some ulterior thought. Sometimes it has regard
to the man's own profit; one can reach great friendship in this way, when
he knows his need, and his benefactor, who, as he sees, can and will help
him. Yet first he was a servant, for he knew his own wrong-doing, on which
followed punishment; so from the fear of punishment he drives out his sin,
and lovingly embraces virtue, serving his Lord, whom he has wronged; and
he begins to draw hope from His benignity, considering that He wills not
the death of a sinner, but that he be converted and live. If the man abode
in fear alone, it would not suffice to give him life, nor would he attain
to the perfect favour of his Lord; but he would be a mercenary servant.
Nor ought he to remain only in the love of the fruit and the consolation
which he might receive from his Lord, after he has been made a friend; for
this kind of love would not be strong, but would fail when it was deprived
of sweetness or consolation and joy of mind, or else when some contrary
wind struck it, of persecution or temptation from the devil; then at once
it would fail under temptations of the devil or vexations of the flesh. So
it would fall into confusion through being deprived of mental consolation;
and in the persecutions and insults wrought against it by fellow-
creatures, it would fall into impatience.

So you see, that this kind of love is not strong. Nay, he who loves with
this love does as St. Peter, who before the Passion loved Christ tenderly;
but he was not strong, therefore he failed in the time of the Cross: but
then, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, he separated him from the love
of sweetness, and lost fear, and reached a love strong, and tried in the
fire of many tribulations. Thence, having reached the love of a son, he
bore all such with true patience--nay, ran under them in great gladness,
as he had been going to a marriage feast and not to torment. This was
because he had been made a son. But had Peter remained absorbed in the
sweetness and the fear which he felt in the Passion and after the Passion
of Christ, he would not have reached such perfection as to be a son and
champion of Holy Church, a lover and seeker of souls. But note the way
that Peter took, and the other disciples, to gain power to lose their
servile fear and love of consolations, and to receive the Holy Spirit, as
had been promised them by the Sweet Primal Truth. Therefore says the
Scripture that they shut them in the house, and stayed there in vigil and
continual prayers; they stayed ten days, and then came the Holy Spirit.

Now this is the teaching which we and every rational creature ought to
receive; to shut ourselves into the house, and remain in vigil and
continual prayer: to stay ten days, and then we shall receive the
plenitude of the Holy Spirit. Who, when He was come, illumined them with
truth; and they saw the secret of the immeasurable love of the Word, with
the will of the Father, who willed naught but our sanctification. This has
been shown us by the Blood of that sweet and enamoured Word: who was
restored to His disciples, when the plenitude of the Holy Spirit came. He
came with the power of the Father, the wisdom of the Son, the mercy and
clemency of the Holy Spirit; so the truth of Christ is fulfilled, which He
spake to His disciples: I shall go and shall return to you. Then did He
return, because the Holy Spirit could not come without the Son and the
Father, because He was one thing with them. Thus He came, as I said, with
the power that is assigned to the Father, and the wisdom that is assigned
to the Son, and the benevolence and love that is assigned to the Holy
Spirit. Well did the Apostles show it, for suddenly through love they lost
their fear. So in true wisdom they knew the truth, and went with great
power against the infidels; they threw idols to the ground and drove out
devils. This was not with the power of the world, nor with bodily
fortitude, but with strength of spirit and the power of God, which they
had received through Divine grace. Now thus it will happen to those who
have arisen from the filth of mortal sin and the misery of this world, and
begin to taste the Highest Good and enamour themselves of His sweetness.
But as I have said, by remaining in fear alone, one would not escape hell;
but would do like the thief, who does not steal, because he is afraid of
the gallows; but he would not abstain from stealing if he did not expect
to be punished. It is just such a case when one loves God for the
sweetness of it; that is, one would not be strong and perfect, but weak
and imperfect.

The way to arrive at perfection is that of the disciples, as I said. That
is, as Peter and the others shut themselves into the house, so those have
done and should do who have attained the love of the Father, who are sons.
Those who wish to reach this state should enter the house, and shut
themselves in; that is, the house of the knowledge of themselves, which is
the cell that the soul should inhabit. Within this cell another cell is
found, that of the knowledge of the goodness of God in Himself. So from
knowledge of self the soul draws true humility, with holy hatred of the
wrong which it has done to its Creator, and by this it attains to true and
holy patience. And from the knowledge of God, which it finds in itself, it
wins the virtue of most ardent charity: whence it draws holy and loving
desires. In this wise it finds vigil and continual prayer--that is, while
it abides enclosed in so sweet and glorious a thing as is the knowledge of
itself and of God. It keeps vigil, I say, not only with the eye of the
body, but with the eye of the soul; that is, the eye of the intellect
never sees itself closed, but remains opened upon its Object and ineffable
Love, Christ crucified: and there it finds love, and its own guilt. For
that guilt, Christ gave us His Blood. Then the soul uplifts itself with
deepest devotion, to love what God loves and to hate what He hates. And it
directs all its works in God, and does everything to the glory and praise
of His Name. This is the continual prayer of which Paul says, "Pray
without ceasing." Now this is the way to rise from being only a servant
and a friend--that is, from servile fear and from tender love of one's own
consolation--and to arrive at being a true servant, true friend, true son.
For when one is truly made a son, he does not therefore lose being a
servant and true friend; but is a servant and friend in truth, without any
regard to himself, or to anything except pleasing God alone.

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