The Nuns at the Monastery were devastated. They were grief stricken. Catherine of Bologna, their living loving saint was dead! Yet they saw Catherine’s remains transformed into a figure of celestial beauty covered with a fragrant heavenly scent. As her body was brought into the chapel for the customary funeral rites, and as Catherine’s body faced the Blessed Sacrament, her face was suddenly changed into a smile. It showed the eternal bliss she was already enjoying in heaven in the presence of her beloved Jesus.
The Sisters carried her body to the Monastery cemetery to be buried without a casket. An incredibly sweet fragrance emanated from her body as it was lowered into the grave. That fragrance filled the entire cemetery and all the regions immediately beyond. The fragrance lingered even though there were no trees, or flowers, or herbs near her grave or even within the cemetery. That scent was still there for days when the sisters visited her grave.
And then, the miracles began to happen at the grave eighteen days after the interment. People incurably sick were miraculously cured. Then a rush of guilt overwhelmed the nuns they had buried her body without a casket! They imagined masses of earth crushing her face. They imagined every inconceivable thing and they immediately agreed, among themselves, that Catherine’s body should be exhumed and placed in a proper well-made casket. They went to the convent’s confessor and asked his advice. He was amazed that the fragrance remained and so he consented with them for the exhumation.
Carefully digging, when the nuns reached Catherine’s body, they saw that her face appeared only slightly distorted, caused probably by the pressure of the earth upon it. They reverently carried her still flexible and amazingly well preserved body back to the chapel.
Catherine of Bologna knew and appreciated that inherent need of the human soul for things of beauty. It was one of the prominent features in her multi-faceted fascinating personality. Appreciating art with its many beautiful expressions endeared her all the more to others. Her naturally gifted intelligence had been further enhanced by the education she received at court. This enabled her to write and paint with ease, whenever she found time from her duties and prayers at the Monastery.
The first and probably most important work that she wrote was “The Weapons Necessary to the Spiritual Fight”. This was written to teach her novices that the path to perfection was difficult. Catherine knew this first hand, and so it was written mainly from her own experiences. Those experiences against the devil by which she, with the Lord’s assistance, was victorious!
