Miracles of the Gods: A New Look at the Supernatural (79 page)

It would be a terrible omission in a summary of historical and present-day visions if two world-famous ladies, Katherine of Siena and the Maid of Orleans, were left out.

The visions of these maidens occupy a special position over and above the relevant religious phenomena, because both ladies had a profound effect on politics that was directly connected with their visions. The maxim of the Jesuit Father Hermann Busenbaum (1600-1668) from his book Medulla theologiae moralis (Of moral theology) was already valid:

'Cum finis est licitus, etiam media sunt licita': ('When the end is allowed, the means are allowed, too').

The Church's strategy is admirable: it is especially impressive in retrospect.

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Katherine was born circa 1347, the twenty-third or twenty-fourth child (she had a twin sister) of the master-dyer Benin-casa. At the age of seventeen she entered the Tertiary Order of the Dominicans, who did not live a communal conventual life but followed their own rules of Caritas. She lived, so it was said, 'entirely in her mystical contemplations'.

In the book Katharina von Siena - Politische Briefe [18], which received the imprimatur of the Bishop of Chur on 6. 12. 1943, it says:

Circa 1370 she experienced the 'mystical death' in order to receive from her beloved master her mission to the new life of the apostolate.

In 1357 Katherine prided herself on immediate association with her fiance Jesus Christ with whom she had exchanged hearts and whose stigmata she had received. The story goes that even as a child she was different from other girls.

Scarcely had she come to the age of reason when the Lord appeared to her, wearing the papal robes and crowned with a tiara. He stretched out his hand towards her in blessing. This image stamped the unity of Christ and Church indelibly on her heart, from then on she saw in the Pope the epiphany of

'Christ on earth.... '

When I hear of such a useful start on her pilgrimage through life, Psalm 4 (German version), occurs to me: 'God leads his saints in a wonderful way', but I should like to change the text to 'The Church leads its saints in a wonderful way!'

It was the purely mystical period of her youth, culminating in the mystical death, the great turning point of her life. For four whole hours people thought she was dead. During this time the Lord showed