Saint Catherine of Bologna, O.S.C. (8 September 1413 – 9 March 1463) was an Italian nun

Nun

A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

, artist and saint.

The patron saint

Patron saint

A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...

 of artists and against temptations, Catherine de'Vigri was venerated for nearly three centuries in her native Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

 before being formally canonized

Canonization

Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...

, in 1712. Her feast day is March 9.

Life

Catherine came from an aristocratic Bolognese family, raised from the age of nine at the court of the Marquis

Marquis

Marquis is a French and Scottish title of nobility. The English equivalent is Marquess, while in German, it is Markgraf.It may also refer to:Persons:...

 Nicholas IV, Duke of Ferrara

Ferrara

Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...

, whose ambassador was her father. In 1431 together with other young women of Ferrara, she founded a Monastery of the Order of Poor Clares.

She returned to Bologna in 1456 when her superiors and the governors of Bologna requested that she be the founder and Abbess

Abbess

An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....

 of a monastery of the same Order, which was to be established in association with the Church of Corpus Domini. Catherine is the author, among other things, of Treatise on the 7 Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare. She was attributed with having visions both of God and of Satan

Satan

Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

, which are discussed at length in Treatise, and with performing miracles.

Some of her art and manuscripts survive, including a depiction of St. Ursula from 1456, now in the Galleria Academica in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

. Some historians have called her style naive. That these works of Catherine de'Vigri remain existent might be due to their status as relics of a saint.

When she died at the age of 49, Catherine was buried and after eighteen days of reported graveside miracles, her incorrupt body was exhumed and relocated to the chapel of the Poor Clares in Bologna, where it remains on display, dressed in her religious habit

Religious habit

A religious habit is a distinctive set of garments worn by members of a religious order. Traditionally some plain garb recognisable as a religious habit has also been worn by those leading the religious eremitic and anachoritic life, although in their case without conformity to a particular uniform...

 and seated upright behind glass.

Recent Discoveries

In the last years of the millennium, new works by Catherine de'Vigri came to light and were published in Italian, in her native Bologna. Here is their description by Cardinal Giacomo Biffi: "The works of Catherine of Bologna, many of which have long remained unknown, are now revealed in their surprising beauty. We can ascertain that she was not undeserving of her renown as a highly cultivated person, nor was it due to a complicated series of historical circumstances. We are now in a position to meditate on a veritable monument of theology which, after the Treatise on the Seven Spiritual Weapons, is made up of distinct and autonomous parts: The Twelve Gardens, a mystical work of her youth, Rosarium, a Latin poem on the life of Jesus, and The Sermons, i.e. Catherine's words to her religious sisters.[....]"
- (translated from the Presentation of the first published edition of I Sermoni, Ed. Barghigiani, Bologna 1999)
She is also the Patroness of Artists. She is honored because of her clean and centered heart which helped her turn away from sin,and is also a virgin.

Works

• Treatise on the Seven Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare
• Laudi, Trattati e Lettere
• I dodici giardini
• Rosarium
• I sermoni

External links

• Saint Catherine of Bologna Parish, Ringwood, New Jersey,http://www.scobolognaringwoodusa.org/index.html