Catherine of Siena

One of the things that I found so new & curious in our European trip last spring was the whole idea of relics and dead people (or parts of them) on display. That saints have been chopped into bits and shipped around the world, and then displayed is just weird. The most striking of these, for us, was Saint Catherine of Siena. In the Basilica of San Domenico, at the fringe of the old walled part of Siena, is her head - on display. Now, we weren't allowed to take pictures of her head, or her finger (also on display), which was too bad... but I understand (although I did take a wobbly video snippet of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel).

Due to a class discussion on a reading piece, I got curious about the head and other such things. I started looking for a good picture of her head, as well as some information on her. I was pretty surprised by most all of it. So... here is the scoop on the ol' gal (much paraphrased or just outright plagiarised):

• She died at the age of 33 in 1380.
• From a vision, she believed she had a mystical marriage to Jesus, and that Jesus had placed his shriveled foreskin (post-circumcision) on her finger as a "wedding ring" (of course, it was invisible). Another source said it was gold with four pearls circling a large diamond. Sorta like a "Prince Albert" maybe?
  
• She had stigmata. Five red rays shot out of the crucifix she was praying to and pierced her hands, feet and heart. She then did what anyone with the stigmata would do, & refused to eat or drink (save for the Blessed Sacrament).
• A priest once said that he saw the Holy Communion fly from his hand straight into Catherine’s mouth like a miracle frisbee.
• This is what her little chapel in the basilica looks like.
• After she died, the people of Siena wished to have her body. A story is told of a miracle whereby they were partially successful: Knowing that they could not smuggle her whole body out of Rome, they decided to take only her head which they placed in a bag (how did they get just the head?). When stopped by the Roman guards, they prayed to St Catherine to help them, confident that she would rather have her body (or at least part thereof) in Siena. When they opened the bag to show the guards, it appeared no longer to hold her head but to be full of rose petals. Once they got back to Siena they reopened the bag and her head was visible once more. Whoa. Freaky.

• After being sent to a spa to plump her up and make her more marriable by her mother, Catherine (after cutting her hair) scalded herself in a hot spring to disfigure herself & thwart the threat of marriage.
• She was often seen levitating as she prayed.
• She had the power to heal.
• She was reportedly fireproof.

That's one heck (... uh, heaven?) of a lady!

Read more about her here, in this e-book, or here. Hairshirts, metal belts made with wee crosses (worn tightly to cut herself), whipping herself thrice daily with an iron chain... oh, it goes on.