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Bellarmine Magazine_Fall2012

NAMeDroPPiNG Catie’s Café By Carla Carlton ccarlton@bellarmine.edu elsewhere in this issue of troduction to Catherine of Siena: Passion for of Siena smuggled her head out of rome Bellarmine Magazine you’ll the Truth, Compassion for Humanity. in a bag; when roman guards stopped find a list of students’ favor- Catherine Benincasa was born in Siena them and looked into the bag, they saw ite campus hangouts from in 1347, the year before the Black Death hundreds of rose petals. throughout the years. one began to spread through italy and the rest Catherine was a prodigious letter fairly new hangout is Catie’s Café, on of europe. The Middle Ages were coming writer; nearly 400 of her letters survive, the ground floor of Siena Primo. A cof- to an end, and many people had lost faith and her Dialogue is written as a series of feeshop/general store, Catie’s Café gives in the church, which was riddled with conversations between her and God. She students a place to grab a cup of Heine corruption. When Catherine decided to often wrote of the quest for self-knowledge, Bros. coffee and socialize until 10 p.m. dedicate herself to the Dominican order, emphasizing that knowledge fosters love most days of the week. she did not enter a monastery, instead – love of God and love of others, which So who was Catie? choosing to join the Mantellate, a group Catherine believed were intrinsically Catherine of Siena was a lay Dominican of laywomen who wore white tunics and connected. “in loving me you will realize known for her letters of advice, her call long black mantles, or veils. it was obvi- love for your neighbors, and if you love to peace-making and her writing about ous, Sr. o’Driscoll writes, that Catherine your neighbors you have kept the law,” spirituality, which in 1970 led Pope Paul Vi loved St. Dominic, who she described God tells her in The Dialogue. “if you are to name her a Doctor of the Church – the as “an apostle in the world” who spread bound by this love you will do every- first woman to receive this distinction in the Word wherever he went, “dispelling thing you can to be of service wherever the Church’s history. She was canonized darkness and giving light.” you are.” Her writing is passionate and “Saint Catherine” in 1461 and named one After three years of solitude at home, filled with metaphor. “if you are what of italy’s two patron saints (the other is Catherine chose this path as well, believing you should be,” she wrote in one famous St. Francis of Assisi) in 1940. that God had called her to be a peacemaker. letter, “you will set all of italy ablaze” – a “She was very outspoken about spiritu- in this role she became involved in politi- phrase that Campus Ministry has adapted ality,” said Dr. Melanie-Prejean Sullivan, cal advising between the Florentines and in its orientation materials as “you will director of campus ministry. “She is a the papacy at the time of the Avignon set the world ablaze.” strong role model for women on campus.” separation, eventually persuading Pope Heady stuff for a coffeeshop? Maybe. Although Catherine of Siena lived more Gregory Xi to return from Avignon to But as a tribute to an apostle in the world, than 600 years ago, her times in many rome. Catherine died in rome in 1380 a woman who chose not to cloister herself ways mirrored our own. “Both periods at the age of 33 and is enshrined there – but to fully engage in the issues of her are characterized by upheaval, change, except for her head, which is displayed in day – mainly through the art of conver- insecurity and fear concerning the future,” a reliquary in the Church of St. Dominic sation – “Catie’s Café” might just be the Sister Mary o’Driscoll writes in her in- in Siena. Legend has it that the people perfect fit. fall 2012 13


Bellarmine Magazine_Fall2012
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