Don Marcello Station
Mother Catherine de Vigri died in Bologna at the age of fifty on March 9, 1463, she went down in history as Saint Catherine of Bologna. They buried her the same day in bare earth, but eighteen days later they removed her from the burial, finding her whole and perfumed, only a little crushed on her face and nose, which soon miraculously healed again. After various vicissitudes, his body found the satisfactory position it has retained to this day in its chapel since 1529: incorruptible, without any mask, seated (even if Cardinal Baronio omitted the term “sedens” in memory of the Roman martyrology), visible to all. and unsealed. She was canonized in 1712 after a long and difficult process, during which the convent and the city of Bologna held various positions. She is not only a saint of times gone by, but also a saint who is physically present today. In Bologna, it is enough to enter the church dedicated to her, ask to see the chapel of the saint, and you will still find yourself in front of her, mother Catherine the abbess, who is now looking at you, dressed in the clothes of Poor Claire. , regardless of past centuries. His body is a miracle, because even dried up by time it is still intact. Her remains were buried without a coffin, as stipulated by the rule of her Order of the Franciscan Poor Claris. The events that followed the death of the saint are described by an eyewitness, the blessed Illuminata Bembo, who succeeded Saint Catherine as abbess of the Corpus Domini monastery in Bologna: “When the grave was ready and when the body, not enclosed in a coffin, was lowered, it exuded an aroma of indescribable sweetness, filling the air around. The two sisters who descended into the tomb took pity on her beautiful and radiant face, covered it with a cloth and placed a rough table a few centimeters above the body so that the clods of earth would not touch it. However, they looked at her so awkwardly that when the hole was filled in with earth, her face and body were still in contact with the earth. The sisters often came to visit the grave and always noticed the sweet smell that surrounded it. Since there were no flowers or fragrant herbs near the grave, but only dry earth, they were convinced that the fragrance came from the grave itself. Miracles soon began, and some of the seriously ill who visited the tomb were healed. Meanwhile, the sisters regretted that they had buried her without a coffin, and complained to their confessor, father. He, a man of great intelligence, asked what they were going to do about it. We answered: take it out, put it in a coffin and rebury it. He was surprised by such a request, since eighteen days had already passed since the day of death, and therefore he was sure of the state of decomposition of the corpse. However, we pointed out the sweet smell to him and he finally gave permission. When we found the body and cleaned the face, we noticed that it was crushed and mutilated by the weight of the wooden plank placed on it. In addition, three sisters damaged it with a shovel while digging. We put her in a coffin and were about to rebury her, but a strange impulse prompted us to temporarily place her under the portal. It was then that the pinched nose and the entire face gradually returned to their natural shape. The deceased became white, beautiful, whole, as if still alive, her nails did not turn black, and a delicious smell emanated from Ella. All the sisters were deeply moved; the fragrance spread throughout the church and the monastery, soaking the hands that touched it, and there seemed to be no explanation for this. After She became completely pale, She began to change color, becoming more red, while Her body began to emit a pleasant smelling sweat. Changing color from pale to luminous amber, She exuded a fragrant liquid that sometimes looked like pure water, and sometimes like a mixture of water and blood. Full of surprise and bewilderment, we called our confessor: the rumor had already spread throughout the city, and he rushed off, accompanied by an intelligent doctor, Maestro Giovanni Markanov. They looked carefully and touched the body. For three months after her death, a small cup of blood flowed from her nose. Repeated miracles convinced the nuns to place the body in the room where they performed their duty. Later they decided to build a niche (in front of the main altar), where they placed the body sitting on the seat. However, when it came time for her to sit down, she became so immobile that surgery was impossible. At that moment the abbess knelt before the saint and said:Mother-sister Katerina, by virtue of that holy obedience with which you were in love during your lifetime and which you so recommended to your daughters, I command you to sit on the prepared chair. Having uttered these words, the body, without touching it by anyone, lowered itself, sat down, as any living person would do. For more than seventy years, nails and hair grew like a living person, and the nuns cut them regularly. Even today, the saint’s body exudes a clear liquid that soaks into her clothes; therefore, the nuns have to periodically change clothes and care for her. It remains intact despite the black color of its skin (due to oil lamps and lit candles used over the centuries for various liturgical rites) sitting on a seat in the Corpus Domini church in Bologna. It has happened to many of us, when entering a temple, to stop with admiration before a luxurious urn with the body of a saint, dressed in monastic robes or sacred priestly, episcopal or papal vestments. If in some cases these are wax mannequins containing only bones, then in others, however, the body of the saint himself is exhibited for the veneration of believers. These are remarkably intact bodies, which, due to the serenity of appearance and the holiness of the figure, do not usually cause anxiety or discomfort, but rather evoke a sense of peace and reverence. Of course, to those who are far from the Christian faith and worldview, these crystal coffins may seem like a gloomy demonstration of bad taste, but in the most authentic Catholic vision, they fall under the cult of obedient saints, which constitutes an article of faith, even if this is not necessary for eternal salvation. The Council of Trent declared: “The bodies of the holy martyrs and others now living with Christ, the bodies that were His members and the temples of the Holy Spirit, which one day will rise in the flesh for Him and be glorified in eternal life, can be venerated by believers. Through them, God will give people many blessings.” Therefore, in venerating these incorruptible bodies of canonized saints, we recognize the glory of God, the creator of a miracle, and honor their holiness, which we sincerely desire to imitate. But what theological significance should be attached to this typology of miracles, which is among the most frequent and documented in the history of the Church? Many people remember the biblical passage in which God says to Adam:For you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree that I commanded: do not eat from it, cursed is the ground for you! In pain you will draw food for all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles will grow for you, and you will eat the grass of the field. In the sweat of your face you will eat bread; until you return to the earth, for from it you were taken, dust you are and to dust you will return! (Genesis, 3, 17-19). From this passage we learn that after the original sin, God punished mankind by subjecting them to the power of death. Before the fall of our ancestors, in fact, in God’s plan there was no place for either suffering or corruption of the body. However, the Creator did not leave man in the power of sin, but, on the contrary, promised (cf. Genesis 3:15) that evil would be defeated and man would be resurrected through the Messiah-Redeemer. For this reason, the Church Fathers defined the sin of Adam and Eve as one Felix Vulpa (happy feeling of guilt). These divine promises were fulfilled by the sacrifice and Resurrection of Jesus, through which sin and death were overcome, and we were given the grace of filial adoption, followed at the end of time by the resurrection of our bodies. Therefore, if, on the one hand, the miraculous preservation of the bodies of some saints is a gratuitous sign by which God reveals His glory and confirms the holiness of this or that object, then, on the other hand, they represent an anticipation and confirmation of the resurrection of the saints. choose at the end of time. On the other hand, it would be a mistake to interpret the miracle as a kind of advancement, in the sense that the saints from row A would be incorruptible, and the rest from row B. incomprehensible planes; and certainly not connected with the greatness of the saint; as evidenced by the fact that this special privilege does not seem to have honored the Church, such as St. Bernard of Chiaravalle, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. John the Baptist de La Salle, St. Alphonse Maria de Liguori, St. Luigi Gonzaga, Don Bosco, Saint Teresa of Lisieux, etc. An interesting anecdote is known about this last Carmelite saint. When, on her deathbed, the young novice declared that Divine Mercy would certainly prevent the decay of her body, she replied:Oh no! I do not want this miracle, I would rather be turned to dust than be saved, like St. Catherine of Bologna. Therefore, in her humility, Saint Teresa with the Child Jesus, who went on a pilgrimage to Bologna to the tomb of Catherine, preferred to suffer the usual fate of corruption, and God obviously wanted to fulfill her desire. However, one fact is indisputable: the popularity of Catherine, the saint of Bologna, over the centuries should be considered in close connection with the exceptional state of preservation of her body, which became the object of an exhibition also in honor of the city of Bologna. . Without this feature of an incorruptible body, Vigri would be one of the many holy recluse nuns who receive liturgical and religious worship in their convent and religious order to which they belong, but have no significant influence on the outside world. There is a connection between the body and the soul, if the body is imperishable, this may mean for the contemporaries of mother Catherine that she is certainly in heaven and therefore can intercede not only for her sisters Poor Claire, but for the whole city of Bologna. This body, which does not know corruption, is the physical meeting place between the Church triumphant in heaven and the Church militant on earth. Catherine’s body is perceived as a window to heaven. The imperishable body of Catherine is the greatest consolation against the mother of all fears: death, which, however, true believers conquered in Christ.