George MacDonald - "Adela Cathcart, Vol. 3"

Moliere - "The Love Tiff"

Walter Horatio Pater - "Miscellaneous Studies: A Series of Essays"

Various - "Scientific American Supplement, No. 430, March 29, 1884"

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Letters of Catherine Benincasa by Catherine Benincasa

C >> Catherine Benincasa >> Letters of Catherine Benincasa




We said that they abode ten days, and then came the Holy Spirit. So the
soul, which wishes to arrive at this perfection, must observe ten days,
that is the ten commandments of the law. And with the legal commandments
it will observe the Counsels; for they are bound together, and the one
cannot be observed without the other. True, those who are in the world
must observe the Counsels mentally, through holy desire, and those who are
freed from the world must observe them both mentally and actually. Thus,
if the soul receives the abundance of the Holy Spirit, with true wisdom of
true and perfect light and knowledge, and with fortitude and power to make
it strong in every battle, it becomes mighty chiefly against itself,
lording it over its own fleshly nature. But all this you could not do if
you went roaming about, in much conversation, keeping far from the cell,
and neglecting the choir. Whence, considering this, I said to you when you
left me that you should study to flee conversation and to visit the cell,
and not to abandon the choir or the refectory (so far as might be possible
to you), and to keep vigil with humble prayer: and thus to fulfil my
desire, when I told you that I desired to see you seek God in truth,
without anything between. I say no more to you. Remain in the holy and
sweet grace of God. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.




TO A MANTELLATA OF SAINT DOMINIC CALLED CATARINA DI SCETTO


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

My dearest sister and 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 a true servant and bride of Christ
crucified. Servants we ought to be, because we are bought with His blood.
But I do not see that we can be of any profit to Him by our service; we
ought, then, to be of profit to our neighbour, because he is the means by
which we test and gain virtue. Thou knowest that 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; loving Him, we shall embrace virtue
through the force of love, and shall hate vice and spurn it.

So thou seest that we conceive virtues through God, and bring them to the
birth for our neighbour. Thou knowest well that for the necessity of thy
neighbour thou bringest forth the child charity that is within thy soul,
and patience in the wrongs which thou receivest from him. Thou givest him
prayer, particularly to those who have done thee wrong. And thus we ought
to do; if men are untrue to us, we ought to be true to them, and
faithfully to seek their salvation; loving them of grace, and not by
barter. That is, do thou beware not to love thy neighbour for thine own
profit; for that would not be faithful love, and thou wouldst not respond
to the love which God bears thee. For as God has loved thee of grace, so
He wills that since thou canst not return this love to Him, thou return it
to thy neighbour, loving him of grace and not by barter, as I said.
Neither if thou art wronged, nor if thou shouldst see love toward thee, or
thy joy or profit lessened, must thou lessen or stint love toward thy
neighbour; but love him tenderly, bearing and enduring his faults; and
beholding with great consolation and reverence the servants of God.

Beware lest thou do like mad and foolish people who want to set themselves
to investigate and judge the deeds and habits of the servants of God. He
who does this is entirely worthy of severe rebuke. Know that it would not
be different from setting a law and rule to the Holy Spirit if we wished
to make the servants of God all walk in our own way--a thing which could
never be done. Let the soul inclined to this kind of judgment think that
the root of pride is not yet out, nor true charity toward the neighbour
planted--that is, the loving him by grace and not by barter. Then let us
love the servants of God, and not judge them. Nay, it befits us to love in
general every rational creature: those who are outside of grace we must
love with grief and bitterness over their fault, because they wrong God
and their own soul. Thus thou shalt be in accord with that sweet enamoured
Paul, who mourns with those who mourn, and joys with those who joy; thus
thou shalt mourn with those who are in mournful state, through desire for
the honour of God and for their salvation; and thou shalt joy with the
servants of God who rejoice, possessing God through loving tenderness.

Thou seest, then, that through charity to God we conceive virtues, and
through charity toward our neighbours they are brought to the birth. Being
thus--loving thy neighbour sincerely, without any falsity of love or
heart, freely, without any regard to thine own profit, spiritual or
temporal--thou shalt be a true servant, and respond by means of thy
neighbour to the love which thy Creator bears thee; thou shalt be a
faithful, not a faithless bride. Then does the bride fail in faith to her
bridegroom, when she gives to another creature the faith which she ought
to give to him. Thou art a bride, for Christ in His circumcision showed
that He would wed the human race. Thou, beholding love so ineffable,
shouldst love Him without any means that might be apart from God. Thus art
thou made the servant of thy neighbour, serving him in all things to the
measure of thy power. Verily thou art the bride of Christ, and shouldst be
the servant of thy neighbour. If thou art a faithful bride, since we can
neither be of profit nor of service to God by the love which we bear Him,
we ought, as I said, to serve our neighbour with true and heartfelt love.
In no other way nor wise can we serve Him. Therefore I said to thee that I
desired to see thee the true servant and bride of Christ crucified. I say
no more. Remain in the holy and sweet grace of God. Sweet Jesus, Jesus
Love.




LETTERS TO NERI DI LANDOCCIO DEI PAGLIARESI


Neri di Landoccio dei Pagliaresi is one of the attractive group of
Catherine's secretaries, which included also Stefano Maconi and Barduccio
Canigiani. There is something very charming, wholly Italian and mediaeval,
in the thought of the three highly-born and gently-bred young Tuscans,
who, without leaving the world or taking religious vows, attached
themselves with a pure and passionate devotion to the person of the Beata
Populana, dedicated their time and powers to her service, caught the fire
of her ideals, and after her death followed her wishes for their future.
The faces that appear a little later in such pictures as Botticelli's
"Adoration of the Magi," help us to understand the type of these young
men.

Of the three secretaries, Neri was the first to enter Catherine's service.
It was he who introduced to her most of the people who later became her
disciples, and many letters yet extant from one and another show that he
was devotedly loved by the little group. He was of a sensitive, subtle,
and despondent temperament--a reader of Dante, himself a poet, a man given
to self-torment, and, as his later life showed, with a tendency to
melancholia. He must have possessed tact, force, and probably charm, for
Catherine more than once sent him on important embassies--once as
harbinger of her own coming to Pope Gregory at Avignon, and again, at a
later time, to the corrupt and brilliant court of Queen Giovanna at
Naples. In obedience to the dying wish of his spiritual mother--who
probably well understood his needs--he became a hermit after her death.

Catherine writes to this fine but fearful soul with an exquisite
tenderness. "Confusion of mind," with its inhibiting sadness and
helplessness, is of all evils in the world the one most abhorrent to her
clear, decisive, intuitive nature. Against this, his besetting danger, she
seeks with all her customary vigour to protect her beloved disciple. The
love rather than the wrath of God was, as we have seen, ever the chief
burden of Catherine's teaching. Never did she dwell on it more earnestly
than here, as with searching insight into the unfathomable depths of the
Divine mercy, she writes firmly: "His truth is this, that He created us to
give us life eternal." Her words must have brought reassurance to any
darkened vision, while her practical counsels were never more adapted to
individual need than in these peculiarly gentle letters, written to one
whose temptations and spiritual perils were far different from her own.


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 thee in His precious Blood: with desire
to see thee in the true light, that in the light may be known the truth of
thy Creator. His truth is this, that He created us to give us life
eternal. But because man rebelled against God, this truth was not
fulfilled, and therefore He descended to the greatest depths to which
descent is possible, when Deity assumed the vesture of our humanity. So we
see in this glorious light that God has been made man, and this He has
done to fulfil His truth in us: and He has shown this to us verily by the
Blood of the Loving Word, inasmuch that what we held by faith is proved to
us with the price of that Blood. The creature that has reason in itself
cannot deny that this is so.

I will, then, that thy confusion be consumed and vanish in the hope of the
Blood, and in the fire of the immeasurable Love of God; and that nothing
remain but the true knowledge of thyself, in which thou shalt humble thee
and grow, and nourish light in thy soul. Is not He more ready to pardon
than we to sin? And is not He the Physician and we the sick, the Bearer of
our iniquities? And does not He hold confusion of mind as worse than all
other faults? Yes, truly. Then, dearest son, open the eye of thine
intellect in the light of most holy faith, and behold how much thou art
beloved of God. And from beholding His love, and the ignorance and
coldness of thy heart, do not fall into confusion; but let the flame of
holy desire increase, with true knowledge and humility, as I said. And the
more thou seest that thou hast not responded to such great favours as thy
Creator has shown thee, humble thyself the more, and say with holy
resolution: "What I have not done to-day, I will do now." Thou knowest
that confusion is wholly discordant with the doctrine which has always
been given thee. It is a leprosy that dries up soul and body, and holds
them in continual affliction, and binds the arms of holy desire, and does
not let one do what one would; and it makes the soul unendurable to
itself, disposing the mind to conflicts and varying fantasies; it robs the
soul of supernatural light, and darkens its natural light. So one falls
into great faithlessness, because one does not know the truth of God, in
which He has created us--that is, that He created us in truth to give us
life eternal. Then with living faith, with holy desire, and with hope in
the Blood of Christ, let the devil of confusion be defeated.

I say no more. Remain in the holy and sweet grace of God. I pray Him to
give thee His sweet benediction. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.


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

Dearest and sweetest son 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 in thee the light of most holy faith, in order
that thou mayest never be shocked by anything that may happen to thee; but
may thy mind be pacified concerning all the mysteries of God, as thou
beholdest the ineffable love which moved Him to draw forth from Himself
reasonable creatures, and to give us His image and likeness, and to buy us
with the Blood of the humble and spotless Lamb. Thus doing, thou wilt hold
all that happens to thee in due reverence, and in true humility thou wilt
deny mere appearances, when sometimes through the illusion of the devil
things seem to thee to get out of their right proportion, through thy many
mental occupations and sweet physical torments. I say no more. Remain in
the holy and sweet grace of God. May Christ the Blessed give thee His
eternal benediction. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.


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

Dearest and sweetest son 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 ever grow from virtue to virtue, till I
behold thee return to that sea of peace where thou shalt never have any
fear of being separated from God. For the foul perverse law that fights
against the Spirit shall be left on earth, and shall have rendered its due
thereto. I will, sweet my son, that while thou livest in this life thou
exert thee to live dead to all self-will, and in such death thou shalt win
virtue. Thus living, thou shalt resign to earth the law of perverse
desire. So thou shalt not fear lest God permit in thy case what He
permitted in that other, nor shalt thou suffer, because for a little while
the human part of thee is separated from me and from the rest of the
family. Comfort thee, and may that which Truth says abide in thy mind--
that not one person shall be lost out of His hands. I say out of His
hands, because all things are His. And I know that thou understandest me
without many words. I say no more. Remain in the holy and sweet grace of
God. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.




TO MONNA GIOVANNA AND HER OTHER DAUGHTERS IN SIENA


"Teach us, O Lord, and enable us to live the life of saints and angels!"
cried Cardinal Newman. There is a lovely parallel to Catherine's prayer in
the Paternoster of Dante's blessed souls in Purgatory:

"Come del suo voler gli angeli tuoi
Fan sacrificio a te, cantando osanna,
Cosi facciano gli uomini de' suoi."

From the gentle thoughts on non-resistance with which this letter opens,
Catherine turns with transition as fine as sudden to the splendid figure
of the holy soul as a horse without bridle, running most swiftly "from
grace to grace, from virtue to virtue." One is accustomed by Plato--not to
speak of Browning in "The Two Poets of Croisic"--to the image of the soul
as a charioteer. Catherine's metaphor is less familiar but not less
forceful. The will, to her, is only free when pure: impure and sinful
desires, far from being the sign of liberty, are the bit and bridle that
hinder its fiery course toward God. The same thought, less vividly put, is
found in a modern theologian--Dr. Moberly. "The real consummation of
either moral or immoral character," he writes, "would exclude the
ambiguity which was offered as the criterion of free will.... Full power
to sin is not the key to freedom. On the contrary, all inherent power to
do wrong is a direct infringement of the reality of free-will.... Free-
will is not the independence of the creature, but rather his self-
realisation in perfect dependence. Freedom is self-identity with
goodness."


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

Dearest and most beloved daughters in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine,
servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, and your mother in
Christ, write to you and comfort you in the Precious Blood of the Son of
God, who was a gentle Lamb, spotless and slain not by power of nails or
lance, but by power of love and measureless charity which He felt and
still feels to His creatures. Oh, charity unspeakable of our God! Thou
hast taught me, Love most sweet, and hast shown me, not by words alone--
for Thou sayest that Thou dost not delight in many words--but by deeds,
in which Thou sayest that Thou dost delight, and which Thou dost demand
from Thy servants. And what hast Thou taught me, O Love Uncreate? Thou
hast taught me that I should bear, patiently like a lamb, not only harsh
words, but even blows harsh and hard and injury and loss. And with this
Thou dost will that I be innocent and spotless, harmful to no one of my
neighbours and brethren; not only in case of those who do not persecute
us, but in that of those who injure us; Thou dost will that we pray for
them as for special friends who give us a good and great gain. And Thou
dost will that we be patient and meek not only in injuries and temporal
losses, but universally, in everything that may be contrary to my will: as
Thou didst not will Thine own will to be done in anything, but the will of
Thy Father. How then shall we lift up our head against the goodness of
God, wishing that our perverted wills should be fulfilled? How shall we
not will that the will of God be fulfilled?

O Jesus, Most Sweet Love, make Thy will to be fulfilled in us ever, as in
Heaven by Thy Angels and saints! Dearest my daughter in Christ, this is
the meekness which our sweet Saviour wants to find in us: that we, with
hearts wholly peaceful and tranquil, be content with everything which He
plans and does concerning us, and wish neither times nor seasons in our
own way, but in His alone. Then the soul, so divested of its every wish
and clothed with the will of God, is very pleasing to God. Like an
unbridled horse, it runs most swiftly from grace to grace, from virtue to
virtue; for it has no bridle that holds or prevents it from running, since
it has severed from itself every inordinate appetite and impulse of its
own self-will, which are bands and bridles that do not allow the souls of
spiritual men to run.

The affairs of the Crusade are going constantly better and better, and the
honour of God is increasing every day. Increase constantly in virtue, and
furnish the ship of your soul, for our time draws near. Comfort and bless
Francesca, from Jesus Christ and me; and tell her to be zealous that I may
find her increased in virtue when I shall return. Bless and comfort all my
sons in Christ. Now this very day the ambassador of the Queen of Cyprus
came and talked to me. He is going to the Holy Father, Christ on earth, to
urge him concerning the affairs of the holy Crusade. And, moreover, the
Holy Father has sent to Genoa to urge them concerning the same thing.

Our sweet Saviour give you His eternal benediction! Remain in the holy and
sweet grace of God. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.




TO MESSER JOHN
THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE AND HEAD OF THE COMPANY
THAT CAME IN THE TIME OF FAMINE


_Which letter is one of credentials, certifying that he may put faith in
all things said to him by Fra Raimondo of Capua. Wherefore the said Fra
Raimondo went to the said Messer John, and the other captains, to induce
them to go over and fight against the infidels should it happen that
others should go. And before leaving he had from them and from Messer John
a promise on the sacrament that they would go, and they signed it with
their hands and sealed it with their seals._

So runs the old heading to this letter. It is piquant to contemplate
Catherine writing to that picturesque gentleman, Sir John Hawkwood. Her
attitude of friendly and almost sisterly sympathy with the audacious free-
lance appears in her unwonted addition of the word "glory" to her usual
formula, "The honour of God and the salvation of souls," in the last
sentence. We are told that the letter and Fra Raimondo produced a real
impression, and that Hawkwood not only vowed himself to the Crusade, but
that, no Crusade occurring, he from this time bore arms only in regular
warfare. He who follows the Englishman's subsequent career may perhaps
wonder a little what "regular warfare" meant to his mind. Yet let us
remember to his credit that Hawkwood protested against the massacre of
Cesena--nor was this the only occasion on which his nature flashed for a
moment a chivalrous light. May his bones rest in peace in the Duomo of
Florence, that city to the gates of which he brought terror and dismay,
but which bore him no grudge, and at the end decreed him splendid
funerals, and sepulchre among her honoured sons!


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

To you, most beloved and dear brothers in Christ Jesus: I Catherine,
servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write in His precious
Blood: with desire to see you a true son and knight of Christ, in such
wise that you may desire to give your life a thousand times, if need were,
in service of sweet and good Jesus. This is a gift which would pay off all
our sins, which we have committed against our Saviour. Dearest and
sweetest brother in Christ Jesus, it would be a great thing now if you
would withdraw a little into yourself, and consider, and reflect how great
are the pains and anguish which you have endured by being in the service
and pay of the devil. Now my soul desires that you should change your way
of life, and take the pay and the cross of Christ crucified, you and all
your followers and companions; so that you may be Christ's company, to
march against the infidel dogs who possess our Holy Place, where rested
the Sweet Primal Truth and bore death and pains for us. I beg you, then,
gently in Christ Jesus, that since God and also our Holy Father have
ordered a crusade against the infidels, and you take such pleasure in war
and fighting, you should not make war against Christians any more--for
this is a wrong to God; but go against the infidels! For it is a great
cruelty that we who are Christians, and members bound in the Body of Holy
Church, should persecute one another. We are not to do so; but to rise
with perfect zeal, and to uplift ourselves above every evil thought.

I marvel much that you, having, as I heard, promised to be willing to go
to die for Christ in this holy crusade, are wanting to make war in these
parts. This is not that holy disposition which God demands from you if you
are to go to so holy and venerable a place. It seems to me that you ought
now, at this present time, to dispose you to virtue, until the time shall
come for us and the others who shall be ready to give their lives for
Christ: and thus you shall show that you are a manly and true knight.

There is coming to you this father and son of mine, Brother Raimondo, who
brings you this letter. Trust in what he tells you; because he is a true,
faithful servant of God, and will advise you and say to you nothing except
what will be to the honour of God and the safety and glory of your soul. I
say no more. I beg you, dearest brother, to keep in memory the shortness
of your time. Remain in the holy and sweet grace of God. Sweet Jesus,
Jesus Love.




TO MONNA COLOMBA IN LUCCA


Let us hope that the frivolous Monna Colomba listened to Catherine's
gentle but very explicit exhortations and turned away from her levities.
If she had a sense of humour--and it is a not uncommon possession of
light-minded elderly widows--she must have been lovingly entertained at
the pale virgin's identification of herself with those who "walk in the
way of luxuries and pleasures," and "set themselves up as an example of
sin and vanity." But Catherine's use of the first person in this
connection, strained though it may appear, is more than a figure of
speech, to soften the severity of her rebuke. We learn from the legend
that till the end of her life she never ceased to repent, bitterly and
with tears, for having at the age of twelve allowed an older sister to
dress her prettily, and blanch her hair after the fashion of the day. The
reason for this terrible lapse, as she told her confessor, was simply a
delight in beautiful things--but she always looked back on it with horror.

The application of the finding of Christ in the Temple, in this letter, is
curious, but not devoid of grace.


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

To you, dearest sister and daughter in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine,
servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write in His precious
Blood, with desire that I might see you a fruitful field, receiving the
seed of the Word of God, and bringing forth fruit for yourself and others.
I want to see you, who are now getting to be an old woman, and who are
free from worldly ties, a mirror of virtue to younger women, who are still
bound to the world by the tie of their husbands.

Alas, alas, I perceive that we are unfruitful ground, for we are letting
the Word of God be smothered by the inordinate affections and desires of
the world, and are walking in the way of its luxuries and pleasures,
studying to please our fellow-beings rather than our Creator. And there is
a more wretched thing yet, for our own evil-doing is not enough for us;
where we ought to be an example of virtue and modesty, we set ourselves up
as an example of sin and vanity. And as the devil was not willing to fall
alone, but wanted a large company with him, so we are enticing other
people to those same vanities and amusements that we indulge in ourselves.
You ought to withdraw, by love of virtue and your salvation, from vain
diversions and worldly weddings--for they do not suit your condition--and
try to keep others away, who would like to be there. But you talk bad
talk, and entice young women, who are wanting to withdraw from going to
these things through love of virtue, because they see that it is wronging
God. I do not wonder, then, if no fruit appears, since the seed is
smothered as I said. Perhaps you would find some excuse in saying,
"Still, I have to condescend to my friends and relatives by doing this, so
that they will not be annoyed and irritated with me." So fear and
perverted self-indulgence sap our life, and often kill us; rob us of the
perfection to which God chose and calls us. This excuse is not acceptable
to God; for we ought not to condescend to people in a matter which wrongs
God and our own soul; nor to love or serve them, except in those matters
which come from God and befit our condition.

John Crace digests A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell

My English teacher is wearing a barrister's wig. He turns and points towards me as I sit trembling in the dock. "Members of the jury, I put it to you that this man, Tom Robinson, is innocent," he says, rather lugubriously. I want to protest. I want to shout that no, I am not Tom Robinson, but yes, I am innocent! But the words won't come out.

Then I wake up. It's another literary dream – one that's troubled me ever since I studied Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird for GCSE.

Most of the time I'm disappointed to leave my literary dreams, waking to realise that I'm not really ensconced with with the boozing Welsh pensioners from Kingsley Amis's The Old Devils or haven't really been thrashing Harry Potter's Quidditch team. I remember with fondness a skiing trip with William Shakespeare and the delightful discovery that Don DeLillo was serving drinks behind the bar in my local pub.

It's not all sunshine, though. Tom Wolfe once ruined a trip to New York, shouting at me across Fifth Avenue: "You're not even familiar with my work – get outta town, asshole!" But that's nothing on Howard Jacobson. I spent a summer discovering his novels during my waking hours and bumping into him in my sleep. I'd see him in a local restaurant and tell him how much I was enjoying his novels. "Oh right," he'd snap, "that old chestnut, huh?" When I met him for real last year he was, in fact, charm personified. I didn't tell him about the dreams.

But enough about my subconscious, what about yours? It's Friday: forget about work and tell me all about your literary dreams. Don't hold back – it's not like we'll read anything into it.

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