Catherine of Racconigi, (1486 – 1574,

Racconigi Racconigi ( pms, Racunis) is a town and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy. It is located in the province of Cuneo, south of Turin, and north of Cuneo by rail. History The town was founded in medieval times. It was a possession of the marquisses of ...

) was an Italian member of the

Third Order of St. Dominic The Third Order of Saint Dominic ( la, Tertius Ordo Praedicatorum; abbreviated TOP), also referred to as the Lay Fraternities of Saint Dominic or Lay Dominicans since 1972, is a Roman Catholic third order affiliated with the Dominican Order. Lay ...

, who is recognized for being a mystic and a

stigmatic Stigmata ( grc, στίγματα, plural of , 'mark, spot, brand'), in Roman Catholicism, are bodily wounds, scars and pain which appear in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ: the hands, wrists, and feet. Stigma ...

Biography

Most of the information regarding Catherine Mattei is derived from a ''vita'' written by her friend, John Francis Pico, Prince of Mirandola.O'Connor, R.F., "Blessed Catherine of Racconigi", ''The American Catholic Quarterly Review'', (James Andrew Corcoran, Patrick John Ryan, Edmond Francis Prendergast eds.), Volume 41, p.211, Hardy and Mahony, Philadelphia, 1916
/ref> Catherine Mattei ( it, Caterina Mattei) was born in the

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

region of Northwest Italy in 1487 into an impoverished household in the

Province of Cuneo Cuneo (Italian), or Coni (Piedmontese), is a province in the southwest of the Piedmont region of Italy. To the west it borders on the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur ( departments of Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Haut ...

. Intermittent conflicts in the area brought widespread poverty. Her parents were Giorgio and Bilia de Ferrari Mattei. Her father was an unemployed tool-maker, while her mother was a

weaver Weaver or Weavers may refer to: Activities * A person who engages in weaving fabric Animals * Various birds of the family Ploceidae * Crevice weaver spider family * Orb-weaver spider family * Weever (or weever-fish) Arts and entertainment ...

who was able to support the family. Her father was often despondent and quarrelsome, thus the family environment was usually one of conflict. She is said to have had, at about the age of nine, a vision of Jesus, who appeared to her as a boy of about ten. She would also begin to have visions of other saints such as the Dominicans Catherine of Siena and Peter Martyr. The Virgin told her that Jesus wanted to have her as his bride, as a token of which she was given a wedding ring, which she had all her life—but which only she could see. She began to have frequent ecstasies and visions of Jesus, who always appeared to her as the same age she was at the time of the vision. Many miracles would result from her visions: a broken dish was made whole again, and money and food would be provided when the family's poverty was extreme. In times of trial she received great consolation from the aspiration, "Jesus, is my only hope!" Catherine eventually joined the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

herself, but, like Catherine of Siena, she was opposed in this wish by her family. As a result, instead of entering a monastery of the

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

ed nuns of the Order, she became a

tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

of the Order, continuing to live with her family. As the visions increased she received the stigmata, although, the wounds were not visible until after her death. Her mystical experiences roused a storm of gossip among her neighbors, who were terrified at the lights and sounds that came from her home; even the Dominican

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

s began to ostracize her. Eventually she was forced out of the town and settled in the city of Racconigi. During her lifetime, Catherine was sought for counsel and prayer. She would keep in her prayers in a special way the salvation of soldiers who were dying in battle.

Veneration

Many miracles took place before and after her death and her detractors came to acknowledge the holiness of her life. She was beatified on 9 April 1808 by Pope

Pius VII Pope Pius VII ( it, Pio VII; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. Chiaramonti was also a m ...

Footnotes

External links

Saint of the Day, September 4: ''Blessed Catherine Mattei''
at ''saintpatrickdc.org''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Catherine of Racconigi 1487 births 1574 deaths 16th-century Christian mystics 16th-century venerated Christians People from the Province of Cuneo People from Racconigi Roman Catholic mystics Dominican mystics Dominican beatified people Dominican tertiaries Lay Dominicans Stigmatics Italian beatified people Venerated Dominicans Beatifications by Pope Pius VII