ounders of the Church--from Paul, who saw the vision of
the Lord, or Magdalen, who cried, 'He is risen!' An age accustomed
to veil thought in symbols, easily reversed the process and
discerned essential qualities beneath the common or indifferent
objects of the outer world. It was therefore Christ whom S.
Christopher carried in the shape of a child; Christ whom Fra
Angelico's Dominicans received in pilgrim's garb at their convent
gate; Christ with whom, under a leper's loathsome form, the flower
of Spanish chivalry was said to have shared his couch.

In all her miracles it will be noticed that S. Catherine showed no
originality. Her namesake of Alexandria had already been proclaimed
the spouse of Christ. S. Francis had already received the stigmata;
her other visions were such as had been granted to all fervent
mystics; they were the growth of current religious ideas and
unbounded faith. It is not as an innovator in religious ecstasy, or
as the creator of a new kind of spiritual poetry, that we admire S.
Catherine. Her inner life was simply the foundation of her
character, her visions were a source of strength to her in times of
trial, or the expression of a more than usually exalted mood; but
the means by which she moved the hearts of men belonged to that
which she possessed in common with all leaders of
mankind--enthusiasm, eloquence, the charm of a gracious nature, and
the will to do what she designed. She founded no religious order,
like S. Francis or S. Dominic, her predecessors, or Loyola, her
successor. Her work was a woman's work--to make peace, to succour
the afflicted, to strengthen the Church, to purify the hearts of
those around her; not to rule or organise. When she died she left
behind her a memory of love more than of power, the fragrance of an
unselfish and gentle life, the echo of sweet and earnest words. Her
place is in the heart of the humble; children belong to her
sisterhood, and the poor crowd her shrine on festivals.

Catherine died at Rome on the 29th of April 1380, in her
thirty-third year, surrounded by the most faithful of her friends
and followers; but it was not until 1461 that she received the last
honour of canonisation from the hands of Pius II., AEneas Sylvius,
her countryman. AEeneas Sylvius Piccolomini was perhaps the most
remarkable man that Siena has produced. Like S. Catherine, he was
one of a large family; twenty of his brothers and sisters perished
in a plague. The licentiousne