Editing Catherine of Siena (section)

==Theology==
Catherine's theology can be described as [[Christian mysticism|mystical]], and was employed toward practical ends for her own spiritual life or those of others.<ref>Noffke, Suzanne. "Catherine of Siena." In Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition c. 1100–c. 1500. Alastair J. Minnis and Rosalynn Voaden, eds. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010. 613.</ref> She used the language of medieval [[scholastic philosophy]] to elaborate her experiential mysticism.<ref>Foster, Kenelm. "St Catherine's Teaching on Christ." Life of the Spirit (1946–1964) 16, no. 187 (1962): 313. {{JSTOR|43705923}}.</ref> Interested mainly with achieving an incorporeal union with God, Catherine practiced extreme fasting and [[Ascetical theology|asceticism]], eventually to the extent of living solely on the Eucharist every day.<ref>Finnegan, Mary Jeremy. "Catherine of Siena: The Two Hungers." Mystics Quarterly 17, no. 4 (1991): 173–80. {{JSTOR|20717082}}.</ref> For Catherine, this practice was the means to fully realize her [[Agape|love of Christ]] in her mystical experience, with a large proportion of her [[Religious ecstasy|ecstatic visions]] relating to the consumption or rejection of food during her life.<ref>Noffke, Suzanne. "Catherine of Siena." In Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition c. 1100–c. 1500. Alastair J. Minnis and Rosalynn Voaden, eds. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010.</ref> She viewed Christ as a "bridge" between the soul and God and transmitted that idea, along with her other teachings, in her book ''The Dialogue''.<ref>Catherine of Siena. The Dialogue. Translated by Suzanne Noffke. The Classics of Western Spirituality. Paulist Press, 1980.</ref> ''The Dialogue'' is highly systematic and explanatory in its presentation of her mystical ideas; however, these ideas themselves are not so much based on reason or logic as they are based in her ecstatic mystical experience.<ref>Noffke, Suzanne. "Catherine of Siena." In Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition c. 1100–c. 1500. Alastair J. Minnis and Rosalynn Voaden, eds. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010. 601–615.</ref> Her work was widely read across Europe, and survives in a Middle English translation called ''The Orchard of Syon''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rozenski |first1=Steven |title=Wisdom's Journey: Continental Mysticism and Popular Devotion in England, 1350–1650 |date=15 July 2022 |publisher=University of Notre Dame Pess |isbn=978-0-268-20275-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1nVVEAAAQBAJ |access-date=19 December 2023 |ref=RozWisdom |language=en}}</ref>

In one of her letters she sent to her confessor, [[Raymond of Capua]], she recorded this revelation from her conversation with Christ, in which he said: "Do you know what you are to Me, and what I am to you, my daughter? I am He who is, you are she who is not".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Benincasa |first1=Catherine |title=The Dialogues |date=1980 |publisher=Paulist Press |isbn=0809122332 |edition=Translated }}{{page needed|date=August 2021}}</ref> This mystical concept of God as the wellspring of being is seen in the works and ideas of [[Aquinas]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aquinas |first1=Tomas |title=Summa Theologica |date=12 December 2012 |publisher=Emmaus Academic |isbn=978-1623400149 |page=I, q.3 |edition=Blackfrairs Translation}}</ref> and can be seen as a simplistic rendering of [[apotheosis]] and a more rudimentary form of the [[divine simplicity|doctrine of divine simplicity]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barron |first1=Robert |last2=Murray |first2=Paul |title=Saint Catherine of Siena: Mystic of Fire, Preacher of Freedom |date=2002 |publisher=Catholic Publishers |isbn=9780567693181}}{{page needed|date=August 2021}}</ref> She describes God in her work, ''The Dialogue'' (which she referred to simply as "her book"), as a "sea, in which we are the fish", the point being that the relationship between God and man should not be seen as man contending against the Divine and vice versa, but as God being the endless being that supports all things.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Benincasa |first1=Catherine |last2=Dutton Scudder |first2=Vida |title=the Letters of St. Catherine |date=2019 |publisher=Good Press |isbn=9781406512175 |edition=Translation }}{{page needed|date=August 2021}}</ref>

According to the writings attributed to Catherine, in 1377 she had a vision in which the Virgin confirmed to her a thesis supported by the Dominican Order, to which Catherine belonged: the Virgin said that she had been conceived {{em|with}} the original sin. The Virgin thus contradicted the future dogma of the [[Immaculate Conception]]. Cardinal Lambertini (later [[Pope Benedict XIV]]) in his treatise {{lang|la|De servorum Dei beatificatione et de beatorum canonizatione}}, 1734–1738, cites theologians who believed that Catherine's directors or editors had falsified her words; he also cites Father Lancicius,<ref>Lancicius, opuscule ''De praxi divinæ præsentiæ'', chapter 13.</ref> who believed that Catherine had made a mistake as a result of preconceived ideas.<ref>R.P. Aug. Poulain, ''Des grâces d'oraison. Traité de théologie mystique'', 10th ed., Paris, Beauchesne, 1922, p. 355-356.</ref>