Saint of the day March 26, 2025

Catarinetta (little Catherine) Fieschi, child of a noble family of Genoa, was born in 1447. At thirteen, she wanted to enter a convent but was refused admission because of her youth. When she was sixteen, she was given in marriage to a young nobleman, Julian Adorno by name. For this reason, she is sometimes called St. Catherine Fieschi-Adorno.

Saint Catherine of Genoa's husband turned out to be pleasure-loving, quick-tempered, and unfaithful. This was a great trial for Catarinetta, and for a while, she tried to drown her disappointment in a whirl of pleasure. However, she retained her trust in God and did not give up her religious exercises.

One day in 1473 she visited the convent where her sister was a nun and there went to confession. That confession was a turning point in her life. In her sadness and desperation, she had turned to God; and He now filled her soul with a large measure of grace, making her realize vividly her own sins and inflaming her heart with seraphic love.

Saint Catherine of Genoa began to receive holy Communion every day and continued to do so for the rest of her life. She entered upon a most intense spiritual life. After reforming herself, she converted her husband and then lost herself in service to the poor and the sick.

Financial ruin, brought on by the spendthrift life her husband had been living, served as a reason for disposing of their palatial home on the Via Lomellini and to take up their abode in the Pammatone, largest hospital of Genoa. Living henceforth as brother and sister, Catherine and her husband now devoted themselves completely to the works of mercy. In 1490 Catharine was made matron of the women’s division of the hospital; and she held this position for twenty-one years until her death.

After her husband’s death in 1497, a terrible plague broke out in Genoa and lasted for four years, carrying off four-fifths of the population. Catherine heroically sacrificed herself for the sick, day and night. At the same time, she continued her accustomed penances and religious exercises. Frequently, she was lost in ecstasy, and even when she was busily engaged in work, her mind was occupied with the things of heaven. She succeeded in a marvelous manner in combining complete “other-worldliness: with the most capable “practicality.” She also wrote an excellent treatise on Purgatory and another, which is a Dialogue of the soul and the body. The Holy Office declared that these works alone are proof enough of her genuine holiness.

Purgatory, she points out, is not a joyless place, but rather one full of joy in God, which, however, does not abate one particle of its excruciating suffering. Bidding farewell to her goddaughter, Tomasina Vernazza, Catherine said to her:

“Tomasina! Jesus in your heart! Eternity in your mind! The will of God in all your actions! But above all, love, God’s love, entire love!” That, too, had been the program of her own life.

A mystical and mysterious illness, which was really the fire of divine love, consumed the last nine years of her life. One night in August 1510, Saint Catherine of Genoa requested that the windows of her room be opened so that she could see the starry sky. A large number of candles were lit, and the dying seraphic lover sang the Veni Creator Spiritus.

“Let us go!” she exclaimed. “No more of earth, no more of earth!” She died two weeks later, on September fifteenth, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

The body of St. Catherine was exhumed eighteen months after her death. Her body was found to be perfectly intact even through her burial shroud was damp and decayed. There were many miracles that occurred at this time.

Pope Clement XII canonized Saint Catherine of Genoa in 1737.

Reflection

St. Catherine reminds us that the grace offered by the Sacrament of Reconciliation is not a nicety gifted to us by the Church, nor is it only needed by murderers and adulterers (to name a few more obvious mortal sins). All sin separates us from God, albeit by different degrees. It is Confession that heals that rift and brings us back to him, and the grace we receive from absolution fortifies us against committing further sins.
Regular confession and frequent Communion can help us see the direction–or drift–of our life with God. People who have a realistic sense of their own sinfulness and of the greatness of God are often the ones who are most ready to meet the needs of their neighbors. Saint Catherine began her hospital work with enthusiasm and was faithful to it through difficult times because she was inspired by the love of God, a love that was renewed in her by the Scriptures and the sacraments.
We can honor St. Catherine and her life of heroic virtue by learning from her holy example and going to Confession before Easter.