ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH
Saints celebrated on the 24th of March
SAINT CATHARINE OF SWEDEN, ABBESS
Saint Catharine of Sweden was daughter of Ulpho, [Ulf], Prince of Nericia in Sweden, and of St Bridget of Sweden. The love of God seemed almost to prevent in her the use of her reason. At seven years of age she was placed in the nunnery of Risburgh, and educated in piety under the care of the holy abbess of that house.
A VOW OF PERPETUAL CHASTITY
Being very beautiful, she was, by her father, contracted in marriage to Egard, a young nobleman of great virtue; but the virgin persuaded him to join with her in making a mutual vow of perpetual chastity. He became desirous only of heavenly graces, arid, to draw them down upon his soul more abundantly, he readily acquiesced in the proposal. The happy couple, having but one heart and one desire, by a holy emulation excited each other to prayer, mortification, and works of charity.
SHE ACCOMPANIED HER MOTHER ON PILGRIMAGES
After the death of her father, St Catharine, out of devotion to the Passion of Christ and to the relics of the martyrs, accompanied her mother in her pilgrimages and practices of devotion and penance. After her mother's death at Rome, in 1373, Catharine returned to Sweden, and died abbess of Vadstena, or Vatzen, on March 24, 1381. For the last twenty-five years of her life she every day purified her soul by a sacramental confession of her sins.
REFLECTION:
Whoever has to dwell in the world stands in need of great prudence; the Holy Scripture itself assures us that "the knowledge of the holy is prudence."
From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Catharine may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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