Pastor Wes Smith writes:

A few years back, my wife and I took a trip to Italy which included a day trip to Siena. All day long I waited in vain for our tour guide to mention Siena’s most famous citizen: Saint Catherine (1347-1380). Among her many other achievements and accomplishments, St Catherine of Siena is the only woman accorded the title Doctor of the Church (in 1970 by Pope Paul VI). Catherine was prominent in the Dominican Order throughout her life and played a very important and significant role in the aftermath of the Black Death. In a letter she wrote to Pope Urban VI she exhorted him how to truly be “Christ on earth” in words that echo Jesus’ radical call to renewal and discipleship in Matthew 19. (Although her words apply to all Christians, since she specifically has Urban VI in mind when she writes, the masculine pronouns are retained.) Here is an excerpt:

“Nor thereby does the flame of his holy desire slacken and he does not lose the pearl of justice, which he bears in his breast, a pearl that is bright and united with mercy. For if justice were to exist without mercy, it would engulf us in the darkness of cruelty and would soon be injustice rather than justice. And mercy without justice would be in the subject like ointment on a sore, ointment that must be seared with fire; smearing on ointment alone and not setting it aflame would produce corruption and not a cure. But when justice and mercy are joined together they bring life in the pastor in whom they sparkle and health in the subject… “This is the work of pure and simple charity, found in the soul that cares not for itself but for God. The soul searches after God for the glory and praise of His name insofar as it sees that He should be loved for His infinite goodness. Nor does it seek out its neighbor for itself but for God… In truth, garbed in the wedding garment, it follows the teaching of the humble and spotless Lamb, the sweet and good Shepherd, Who, like the Beloved, for our salvation raced to the shameful death of the most holy cross. All this is the work of that ineffable love, which the soul has conceived in the object of Christ crucified.”

[From Medieval Women Writers, ed. Katharina M. Wilson, University of Georgia, 1984, pp. 256-257.]