Subj : =?UTF-8?Q?March_24th_=E2=80=93_Saint_Catherine_of_Sweden?=
To   : All
From : rich
Date : Sat Mar 23 2019 09:01:28

From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

March 24th =E2=80=93 Saint Catherine of Sweden
=C2 (Also known as
Catherine Vastanensis
Catherine of Vadstena
Katarina av Vadstena)

Born at Ulfasa, Sweden, in 1331; died March 24, 1381; cultus approved
in 1484 by Pope Innocent VIII.

Fourth of the 8 children of Saint Bridget and her husband, Ulf
Gudmarsson of Nierck, Saint Catherine was sent to Risberg Convent to
be educated at a very young age. She wished to remain in the convent
to pursue a religious vocation, but she was married at age 13 or 14 to
Eggard (Edgard) Lydersson von K=C3=BCrnen, a lifelong invalid and
long-suffering man. She and Eggard took a vow to remain celibate and
she tended to him with great devotion. He allowed her to do anything
she pleased under the direction of the Church.

Catherine grew extremely sad when her father died and Saint Bridget
went to live in Rome. For a time (as she herself told Saint Catherine
of Siena), she never smiled. In 1349, Eggard permitted Catherine to
travel to Rome to visit her mother during the Jubilee of 1350. While
in Rome she learned of her husband's death, which Saint Bridget had
prophesied. (Farmer says that she returned to Sweden and nursed her
husband until his death.) Even then she was for some time extremely
unhappy, because Rome in the 14th century was a dissolute place and
her mother would not let her go out.

From the time of her husband's death, she lived the life of devotion
that she had desired, refusing persistent suitors who wished to marry
the beautiful young widow. Some of them even lay in wait for her to
carry her off. One was distracted when a hart ran by just as Bridget
and Catherine passed. Others, it is said, were blinded. To try to
repulse such suitors, and also as an act of humility, Catherine always
went about in the most ragged and threadbare clothing.

Soon Catherine was her mother's devoted, reliable, and constant
assistant, and served her for the next 25 years. In 1372, she and her
mother made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, returning by way of Rome,
where Saint Bridget died the following year. Catherine returned with
her mother's body to Sweden and there she became abbess of the convent
of Vadstena, founded by her mother, and the motherhouse of the
Bridgettine (Salvatorian) Order.

Now followed intense work to promote the Bridgettine Order. Bound
together in double monasteries, men and women pledged themselves to
live in poverty, save for the right to buy as many books as they
needed for study and devotion

In 1375, she returned to Rome to win papal approval for the order. She
succeeded in getting Urban VI's approval but failed in bringing about
the canonization of her mother. She died soon after her return from
Rome. Her vita was written by Ulpho, a Brigittine friar, thirty years
after her death (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney,
Encyclopedia, Husenbeth, White).

In art, Saint Catherine is commonly depicted as a Bridgettine abbess
with a hind, which, according to legend, protected her from harm on
many occasions, including attacks on her chastity (Roeder, White). She
may also be shown (1) holding a lily; (2) dressing a poor man's
wounds; or (3) as the Blessed Sacrament is brought to her after her
death (Roeder).

Saint Catherine's patronage is invoked as protection against abortion,
perhaps because of the chastity of her life (White).


Saint Quote:
"The Just Judge will give you the rewards of your patience and will
punish your adversaries with what they deserve.=C2  He sits at the door
where he can watch everything you do, and he will come quickly to give
each one whatever he or she deserves."
--The Venerable Bede

Bible Quote:
And from a violent heart come violent actions.

He sits in ambush in the villages;
=C2  =C2  in hiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
=C2  =C2  he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;
=C2  =C2  he lurks that he may seize the poor;
=C2  =C2  he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
The helpless are crushed, sink down,
=C2  =C2  and fall by his might. (Ps. 10:8-10)


<><><><>
"To you, O Master, who loves all mankind
I hasten on rising from sleep.
By your mercy I go out to do your work
and I make my prayer to you.
Help me at all times and in all things.
Deliver me from every evil thing of this world
and from pursuit by the devil.
Save me and bring me to your eternal kingdom,
For you are my Creator,
You inspire all good thoughts in me.
In you is all my hope and to you I give glory,
now and forever."
--Saint Macarius

Piously baptized Christopher in Constantinople, he took the name
Macarius upon becoming a monk at Pelekete nearby. Eventually he was
elected abbot and became known for the miracles he wrought. He died
on Aphusia Island, Bithynia, on August 18, c. 830.

--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)

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