Council of Catholic Women -- "Women Doctors of the Church"

Yesterday, I went to an Arlington Diocese Council of Catholic Women meeting that our parish was honored to be able to host at our church hall. After the delicious dinner, there was a presentation on the spiritual journey of the Women Doctors of the Church. Most of the presentation centered on St. Teresa of Avila and St. Catherine of Siena. What facinating and inspiring women they were! Both taught about how to reach a closer relationship with God.

St. Teresa's journey was not always an easy one- she had her periods of not paying much attention to God, and so she is the one I felt closest to while hearing the presentation.

However, St. Catherine was one of 25 children-- 25 children!! (I thought I had it tough with FIVE!!! So here's a note to my kids-- if St. Catherine could have been so holy after having been raised with 24 siblings-- I don't want to hear about how awful it was being one of five!)

I did some preliminary research and found several online blogs and other resources that I can't wait to check out on these two amazing women:

Catherine of Siena:

1. (Her own writings-- The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena
   
   St. Catherine of Siena deliberately told popes, queens and kings how to behave. She was spontaneous, unafraid of authority and fearless in the face of death. She was a Dominican religious who corresponded with Popes and peasants alike.
   
   Born in 1347, at Siena, Italy, Saint Catherine lived through the Black Death, famine and numerous civil wars. During her lifetime the papal residence moved from Rome to Avignon and back again, and the great western Schism pitted Pope against anti-pope.
   
   Even at a young age, Catherine sensed the troubled society around her and wanted to help. Childishly she dreamed of dressing up like a man to become a Dominican friar; more than once she ran into the street to kiss the ground where Dominicans walked. l
   
   Catherine's parents tried hard to discourage her from becoming religious, but eventually, when she was about sixteen-years-old, Catherine, with the help of the Holy Spirit, was permitted to enter the sisters of Penance of St Dominic, the Mantellate.
   
   During her life as a religious, St. Catherine had numerous visions and long ecstasies, but she is most remembered for her writings, which eventually led to her being declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
   
   Truth be known, she didn't learn how to write until the end of her life, but that never stopped her. She dictated her literary masterpieces, sometimes reciting three documents to three secretaries at the same time.
2. Inner Reflections on Leadership
3. Drawn By Love
   Although much has been written about her life, relatively little attention has been given to her spiritual teaching as found in the compendium of her mystical thought known as the Dialogue, her 381 letters, and 26 prayers. In this website we have brought together some of the very best but often hard-to-find resources on Catherine's thought in the hope of filling this lacuna in spirituality. Every effort has been made to post materials on this website in such a way that citations for academic papers can be made without having to find the originals in a library. We hope to add new materials to this site from time-to-time--so please come back often.

Teresa of Avila:

1. Her own writings: The Way of Perfection
2. Interior Castle: St. Teresa of Avila
   St. Teresa of Avila
   
   "I BEGAN TO THINK OF THE SOUL AS IF IT WERE A CASTLE MADE OF A SINGLE DIAMOND..."
   
   INTERIOR CASTLE is one of the most celebrated books on mystical theology in existence. It is the most sublime and mature of Teresa of Avila's works, and expresses the full flowering of her deep experience in guiding souls toward spiritual perfection. In addition to its profound mystical content, it is also a treasury of unforgettable maxims on such ascetic subjects as self-knowledge, humility, detachment, and suffering. But above all, this account of a soul's progress in virtue and grace is the record of a life -- of the interior life of Teresa of Avila, whose courageous soul, luminous mind, and endearingly human temperament hold so deep an attraction for the modern mind.