Catherine, who lived for 60 years and dided in the 16th century, leads the modern reader directly to the more significant issues of the day. In her life she reconciled aspects of spirituality often seen to be eithermutually exclusive or in conflict. This married lay woman was both a mystic and a humanitarian, a constant contemplative, yet daily immersed int he physical care of the sick and the desitute.
For the last five centuries she has been the inspiration of such spiritual greats as Francis de Sales, Robert Bellarmine, Fenelon, Newman and Hecker, Friedrich von Hugel's famous Mystical Element of Religion was a study of the spirituality of Catherine.
Purgation and Purgatory is a collection of sayings on spiritual purification in this life and the next. The Spiritual Dialogue gives us a readable and coherent inner history of Catherine.
The translation and notes for the volume are by Serge Hughes, Professor of Italian at Hunter College of the City University of New York.
