Customer Reviews

The Life of St. Catherine of Siena

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I like biographies. This gem is well worth the reading. The reader is given a "fly on the wall" view of this exceptional woman. I know more about the 14th century Christian culture and am the richer for it.

This is an easy read. I know as I reread The Dialogue I will have a deeper appreciation of how its message could impact history and the Christian Church.

I like to read the saints because they provide so much usefull information for my own spiritual journey. This book on St. Catherine of Siena opened my eyes to the exceptional human being this woman was. It is well written and not as difficult to keep reading as some other books on saints, which can become tedious after a while. Worth your time.

Alex Gutierrez

Author of Mother Mary's Resurrection

Catherine of Siena makes Joan of Arc seem like a school girl, (which I guess she was.) Raymond, her confessor and the author, had intimate access to her thoughts and inner experiences, and we get to peek over his shoulder, into the mind and life of one of the most amazing people who ever lived. This story is not just for Catholics. (I'm not one.) It is a story of countless miracles, of love itself manifesting in human form. I will treasure her, and this book always.

This work is the best book on saint Catherine I have read. The others that I have looked at are Louis de Wohl's historical novel about her, Lay Siege to Heaven, and the work by Sigrid Undset. I think there have been a few others as well.

Capturing her spirit on just about every page, the words fly off as streams of fire that both communicate her vision and passion for life and at the same time are a great treatment about her. Blessed Raymond does not gloss over her errors and sins, but places them in the context of her whole life. I must admit that it is a bit of a glowing review of her life by one of her greatest admirers, but while this is the case, it is also written by someone closest to her during her life who served as her spiritual director and probably knew Catherine better than any other person.

This is a fantastic work and easily the best one on her I have found because not only does it capture her spirit and tell the amazing stories of the miracles and her life, it also does so at a good pace and is easily readable.