578
THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
in Rome by command of Pope Urban, in unwearied labors for the unity and reform of the Church and the peace of Italy. We hear of her addressing the assembled Cardinals in the Consistory, on the Schism and other Church questions, the Pope himself summing up her remarks, and giving frank expression to the encouragement and help which he himself derived from her advice. Catherine is said to have ruled in Rome at this time; she had daily interviews with the magistrates and chiefs of the army and other prominent citizens, and also, assisted by her faithful band of followers, visited daily the prisons and hospitals. Her pen seems to have been never idle, and her last letters are of great interest both from a political and a human point of view.
The chronicler of her last moments gives us no account of miraculous ecstasies or visions, but tells us of her humble estimation of herself and of her continual prayers for others. She died on April 29, 1380, and was buried in the Church of the Minerva, at Rome, her head being later removed to Siena and deposited in her own dearly- loved Church of St. Dominic. She was canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in the year 1461, eighty-one years after her death.
The memory of Catherine has never ceased to be cherished in her native city. The mothers still teach their children one of her prayers, and many other traces of her real existence may still be found and separated from the legends and superstitions which so easily grow up around the memories of those who rise above the common level of humanity. What conclusions may be drawn from this outline of a woman’s life? Leaving aside many points of great interest, suggested by a closer study of Catherine’s life and writings, may we select as a close to this brief sketch, and as appropriate to our present purpose, the three following:
First. Mediaeval saints will usually be found upon closer inspection to have really been saints, but not widely differing from what men and women have been, and still may be, in the present day; and we need a new Acta Sanctorum for the use of the present day, with the lives of the saints as they really were, free from legend and miracle, and including all whose influence has made for righteousness.
Second. Catherine was eminently a political woman, and owed her influence and power to the honorable and direct qualities of her individual character and strength of principle, and not to the indirect ones of rank or beauty. Such women prove better than arguments that there may be a place for women in politics, and suggest that they may be even necessary for the government of the perfect state.
Third. Studies of this description make us feel the unity of the ages, as we perceive men and women in all times working together for the advancement of the world; living for the improvement of their own age, and giving expression to its best thoughts; and dying in the faith that their work will be carried on by future generations. “Their works do follow them.”
We feel that we who enter into their labors should enjoy and appreciate them, be grateful for them, and be encouraged by them to labor to do our own part in working for our own generation, and in increasing and handing on the heritage which we have received from the men and women of bygone days.