Saint Catherine of Siena is one of the great saints of the Church and one of the patron saints of Europe. She received divine visions. Her main work is the Dialogue, but hundreds of her letters have also survived. During her lifetime, she experienced the Great Western Schism (1378–1417), a crisis in the Church when there were two, and later three rival claimants to the papacy.
During the conclave of 1378, a mob surrounded the palace and demanded that someone from Rome be elected. The cardinals felt pressured and elected Archbishop Bartolomeo Prignano, who was not Roman but Italian. The archbishop was crowned and took the name Urban VI. The coronation as pope signaled that the cardinals considered the election valid. However, Urban had violent tendencies. Several cardinals left Rome, went to Fondi, and announced that the election was invalid due to coercion. They elected Cardinal Robert of Geneva as pope, who took the name “Clement VII”
Saint Catherine recognized Urban as the true pope. Below is an excerpt from a letter she wrote to the Italian cardinals who had defected from Urban VI, asking them to recognize the true pope. Her harsh words can also be applied to today’s “cardinals” who refuse to acknowledge that Robert Prevost cannot be the true pope.
The full text can be found here.
A painting of Saint Catherine of Siena in the St. Dominic church in Valletta, Malta. Image by Lawrence Lew OP, CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0, here.
“Dearest brothers and fathers in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine, servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in His precious Blood: with desire to see you turn back to the true and most perfect light, leaving the deep shadows of blindness into which you are fallen. Then you shall be fathers to me; otherwise not. Yes, indeed, I call you fathers in so far as you shall leave death and turn back to life (for, as things go now, you are parted from the life of grace, limbs cut off from your head from which you drew life), when you shall stand united in faith, and in that perfect obedience to Pope Urban VI., in which those abide who have the light, and in light know the truth, and knowing it love it.”
“The persecution which you, together with others, are inflicting on that sweet Bride, at a time when you ought to be shields, to ward off the blows of heresy. In spite of which, you clearly know the truth, that Pope Urban VI is truly Pope, the highest Pontiff, chosen in orderly election, not influenced by fear, truly rather by divine inspiration than by your human industry. And so you announced it to us, which was the truth. Now you have turned your backs, like poor mean knights; your shadow has made you afraid. […] What made you do this? The poison of self-love, which has infected the world. That is what has made you pillars lighter than straw.”
“Now you have committed all these faults in regard to this devil [the antipope]: that is, to confess him as Pope, which he surely is not, and to show reverence to whom you should not. You have deserted the light, and gone into darkness: the truth, and joined you to a lie. On what side soever, I find nothing but lies.”
“My soul considering this, that we can neither know nor love the truth without light, I said and say that I desire intensely to see you arisen from darkness, and one with the light.”
“Return, return, and wait not for the rod of justice, since we cannot escape the hands of God! We are in His hands either by justice or by mercy; better it is for us to recognize our faults and to abide in the hands of mercy, than to remain in fault and in the hands of justice. For our faults do not pass unpunished, especially those that are wrought against Holy Church.”
“Make no more resistance to the tears and sweats which the servants of God shed for you, but wash you in them from head to foot. For did you despise them, and the eager sweet and grieving desires which are offered by them for you, you would receive much greater rebuke. Fear God, and His true judgment. I hope by His infinite goodness that He will fulfil in you the desire of His servants.”