ST CATHARINE OF BOLOGNA, VIRGIN, SECOND ORDER

The birth of Catharine was foretold to her devout father by the Blessed Virgin with the announcement that the child would be a brilliant light throughout the world. Catharine was born on the Feast of the Assumption in the year 1413. She was taken to the court of the Marquis of Este to be educated in foreign languages, painting and the culture of a young woman of high rank. The court with all its splendor could not hold Catharine. When she was seventeen, she joined a pious company of young women in Ferrara who led a religious life but had not yet adopted a definite rule. Four years later a royal princess founded a convent for this society according to the rule of Saint Clare. Catharine spent twenty four years in the convent, during which she trained many sisters in the way of sanctity. She was sickly from the time she was twenty-two and never complained. She would say to herself, “O bundle of corruption, that will soon turn into dust, shy should you complain? It appears as if you had not yet learnt to be a true servant of Christ.” She died March 9, 1463. Her incorrupt body can still be seen in Bologna.