The Life and Doctrine is a biographical sketch of St. Catherine, filled with her thoughts and experiences with God. In this, there are many examples of how we too can reach perfection in our relationship with God. Saint Catherine of Genoa (Caterina Fieschi Adorno, 1447 - 15 September 1510) is an Italian Roman Catholic saint and mystic, admired for her work among the sick and the poor and remembered because of various writings describing both these actions and her mystical experiences. She was a member of the noble Fieschi family, and spent most of her life and her means serving the sick, especially during the plague which ravagedGenoa in 1497 and 1501. She died in that city in 1510.
Saint Catherine of Genoa (Caterina Fieschi Adorno, 1447 – 15 September 1510) was an Italian Roman Catholic saint and mystic, admired for her work among the sick and the poor and remembered because of various writings describing both these actions and her mystical experiences. She was a member of the noble Fieschi family, and spent most of her life and her means serving the sick, especially during the plague which ravaged Genoa in 1497 and 1501. She died in that city in 1510.
Her fame outside her native city is connected with the publication in 1551 of the book known in English as the Life and Doctrine of Saint Catherine of Genoa.
She and her teaching were the subject of Baron Friedrich von Hügel's classic work The Mystical Element of Religion (1908).
Wanting to read a biography of this very astonishing woman, and when I found one on – line, I dropped everything I had planned to do in the afternoon, and read it. Now, I admire this woman even more, as for period she was born in, she used her talents and wisdom, to create a wonderful life, for a woman at that time. Indeed, an incredible woman.
I liked the first half much better where it flicked back and forth between her writings and the biography. The second half where it's just her writings on various topics was a little slower to get through. I'd have preferred if it all retained the format of the first half.