September 15–St. Catherine of Genoa, Holy Woman

Saint Catherine of Genoa painted by artists Inna and Denys Savchenko. Church of St. Catherine, Genoa, Italy. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

What makes a saint a saint? Saints are saints because of their lives and the circumstances they face and the choices they make; and thus, the holiness derived from living their lives and giving their lives to God in love, worship, and service. St. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510) was a noblewoman who, although attempting to enter a convent at a young age, agreed to marry a man from a rival political family to help bring about peace. However, her husband cheated on her and wasted their money to the point of bankruptcy. She suffered terribly due to this arrangement. Then, in 1473, she experienced the overwhelming love of God in her life, which revealed to her her own sinfulness. She stopped focusing on what she could not do and dedicated her life to what she could do: love, worship, and serve the poor. Her efforts had an impact on her husband Julian, who reformed his ways, and together they served the sick at the Pammatone Hospital in Genoa, the largest charity hospital in Europe. Catherine eventually became manager and treasurer of the hospital and Julian, who had become a Franciscan tertiary, became its religious director.

“After her change of heart, Catherine wrote: ‘Since I began to love, love has never forsaken me. It has ever grown to its own fullness within my innermost heart.’” Each of us has our own worries, difficulties, frustrations, and sufferings which afflict us. That is not what makes us saints! We become saints by how we respond to these trials with the love of Jesus. We each need to be converted each day to Jesus so he may transform us into saints. She also wrote: “We should not wish for anything but what comes to us from moment to moment exercising ourselves nonetheless for good.”