The wonderful ceremony of her Mystical Marriage took place during the
night of the 23rd of October, 1887, between the feast of the Holy
Redeemer and that of St. Raphael. She wrote at once to Father Snow and a
few days later sent a somewhat fuller account in reply to a request
from Father Powell. Her eyes had beheld that which it is not given to
man to utter and she speaks as one still dazed from the glory of that
vision. Her very writing, wavering and almost illegible, betrays that
she was trembling on the verge of ecstasy as she wrote. The following is
what she wrote to Father Powell:
Mystical marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria
AMDG et in hon BVM et St J
“In the Name of the most august and blessed Trinity and in holy
obedience I write of the unspeakable favours which Jesus Christ true God
and true Man, my divine Spouse and only Treasure through the excess of
His infinite Love has bestowed on me, the very least of His little ones.
Oh my Father, how can I find words to express this wonderful mystery,
this excess of His mercy and love which is more astounding to me than
the great mystery of the Incarnation. Oh my Love, my Love, my beautiful
One, My Jesus, my Own, my All, my God, my (the writing becomes
illegible).
“Oh my Father it seems to me almost impossible to
continue, or rather I should say I am unable to begin and describe what I
would. This is the third paper I have spoiled; I am carried away at the
recollection of His wonderful condescension. I have twice before
written the four pages and when I read them over I found it full of
little prayers, and now again I find myself like one only half awake,
for my whole being seems lost in His infinite immensity, His wonderful
Attributes, the unspeakable dignity to which He has raised this little
nothing. And so prostrating myself before the thrice holy Trinity and
before Jesus, my own Jesus, my spouse and my Treasure, I beg of Him to
guide my hand and my understanding that I may write without these little
wanderings and make clear to you all that you would wish to know, to
the praise and glory of His Holy Name. Oh my soul bless the Lord and
magnify, for He has regarded the nothingness of His handmaid and has had
compassion on my weakness and misery. He has drawn up this little drop
of water from the earth into the ocean of His infinity, into the Essence
of the Unity and Trinity of the Almighty God of Wisdom and Love, the
all-pure and uncreated One, and made me one with Himself in the most
holy and solemn bond of marriage. He has really and truly united Himself
to me in the presence of the whole court of heaven, presenting me as
His beloved Spouse to the Eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, and His
Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, the Cherubim and Seraphim, etc. etc. and
making me feel and understand how this sacred alliance was as real and
as true as the union of His divine and human Nature in the one Person of
Himself, Jesus Christ the Coeternal Son and the Son of Mary since the
moment of the Incarnation. And in His Name and with His help, I will tell the way as far as I can that all has been accomplished.
“Remember
oh my Love and my Lord that I am all Thine and Thou art the God of
Truth, the Word that is God, and that now I am one with Thee as the body
and soul of man are one person, so my words must be a reflection of
Thine, must be, as Thou hast said to me they shall be, Wisdom and Truth,
as the honey that drips from the hive, pure and sweet, and all men may
confess that these things are the works of Thy Wisdom and Love.
“Since the feast of our holy Father St. Francis,
when my divine Spouse gave me the general absolution (as I complained
to Him that I had not been able to receive it from the hands of a priest
and we had no Franciscans here), He caressed my soul as it were and
told me that He would give me the absolution, not to take away sins from
which He had preserved me, but to saturate me with His most Precious
Blood and make me more like Himself. And He let me feel that my soul
(through His presence and the holy Sacraments) gave great glory to the
adorable Trinity and was a reflection of Themselves in the powers in
which He had and they had taken up their abode and which was glistening
and saturated with His adorable precious Blood. He told me frequently
that, as I had given myself wholly to Him to be His entirely, so He
would be all mine, and that He would glorify me in the sight of the
angels and saints, because I had emptied myself and become as naught to
myself and had gladly clothed myself with the sins of others for the
price they had cost Him and for the love of His image and likeness. And
because I desired Him with a longing nigh unto death, He would unite
Himself to me in the closest union possible and clothe me with the
brightness of His glory, and because I had rejoiced and united myself to
Him when I was reviled by men and had clothed myself in the fool’s
garment (as it were), as He was during His bitter Passion, so He was
about to clothe me with the wedding garment of Purity, Charity and
Truth.
He also shot those fiery darts of love from His Sacred Heart into
the very centre of my poor soul so frequently that I felt as though my
breast was a liquid fire: a boiling seemed to be going on in and through
my entire being, and the pain it caused was so excessive that I
continually cried aloud to Him for pity and told Him again and again
that He knew how I loved and desired Him and begged of Him to burn away
all that was not Himself and so unite me and make me all His own, though
never for one moment dreaming of the unutterable favour which His love
has accomplished. In this fire which burns very clearly for there is no
smoke or wet fuel – in this consuming flame all is brightness, and the
light thereof is very pure so that the soul sees very clearly what God
is and what He has done for her and that she has nothing of her own, all
being the gift of her great and wise Creator and Redeemer, and she
knows and understands how the Holy Spirit has sanctified her, and seeing
what she is and what God is, she is as it were annihilated in His
sacred presence. Oh how He has taught me what I am and what I owe Him
and His excessive love!
St. Raphael with Tobias
“Well, on Sunday the 23rd, the feast of
our Holy Redeemer, I thought of the holy Sacrifice being offered for me,
I tried to make the same act of oblation to God of myself as my divine
Spouse made to His Eternal Father during His most bitter Passion, and I
felt that He graciously accepted the offering I made. Then in the
evening I begged of the angel Raphael to guide me to my divine Spouse as
he did of old the young Tobias, and I sent the angel of the Incarnation
to present my soul to Him with all its affections, my body with all its
senses to be all His forever, and I begged him to present me through
the hands of Mary His Queen and my Mother as a clean oblation in His
sight. Then I repeated several times: ‘Oh Wisdom of the Sacred Head,
guide me in all my ways, oh love of the Sacred Heart consume me with Thy
fire’, when I found my soul fluttering on my lips almost and my spirit
softly stealing through the gates of death and I was fainting away with
desire, and yet such a calm sweet peace was in my soul that it seemed to
check the throbbing of my poor heart that tried to break, because it
was overwhelmed with His goodness and love and yearned to be united with
Him whom it loves with all its affections.
Oh how I hunger and thirst after Him for He alone can satisfy! And as I was thus literally dying I think of desire of Him, He appeared holding the b. Sacrament before me and I thought He had come as He so frequently does to feed me with His adorable Body and refresh me with His most precious Blood, but refrained for some time (it seemed an age to me) and stood gazing into the very centre of my poor trembling soul, which would have left this poor prison of the flesh if it could to fly to and rest in Him, her only Good.
Then He gave me Himself in Holy Communion and the Sacred Host liquified and I seemed to drink of the Precious Blood till I was saturated through and through. And it changed all into Itself, and my divine Spouse spoke to my soul and said He would now fulfil the promise He had made to me so often and present me to the adorable Trinity, and unite Himself to me in presence of the whole court of heaven. I felt annihilated at these words, for I felt my nothingness and unworthiness and I think I would really have died if He had not supported me by a new miracle of power and love. Then He said, ‘Arise my Beloved that I may glorify the triune God in Unity and espouse thee in Their adorable presence.’ And turning then to His blessed Mother, He gave me to her as her daughter, and Mary taking hold of my hand gave it to Jesus and He withdrew the ring that He had before placed upon it and then replaced it on the same finger, saying: ‘I espouse thee in the Name and in the presence of the uncreated Trinity and in presence of My Immaculate Mother, and I give you to her as a daughter and my Spouse for ever.’
Oh how I hunger and thirst after Him for He alone can satisfy! And as I was thus literally dying I think of desire of Him, He appeared holding the b. Sacrament before me and I thought He had come as He so frequently does to feed me with His adorable Body and refresh me with His most precious Blood, but refrained for some time (it seemed an age to me) and stood gazing into the very centre of my poor trembling soul, which would have left this poor prison of the flesh if it could to fly to and rest in Him, her only Good.
Then He gave me Himself in Holy Communion and the Sacred Host liquified and I seemed to drink of the Precious Blood till I was saturated through and through. And it changed all into Itself, and my divine Spouse spoke to my soul and said He would now fulfil the promise He had made to me so often and present me to the adorable Trinity, and unite Himself to me in presence of the whole court of heaven. I felt annihilated at these words, for I felt my nothingness and unworthiness and I think I would really have died if He had not supported me by a new miracle of power and love. Then He said, ‘Arise my Beloved that I may glorify the triune God in Unity and espouse thee in Their adorable presence.’ And turning then to His blessed Mother, He gave me to her as her daughter, and Mary taking hold of my hand gave it to Jesus and He withdrew the ring that He had before placed upon it and then replaced it on the same finger, saying: ‘I espouse thee in the Name and in the presence of the uncreated Trinity and in presence of My Immaculate Mother, and I give you to her as a daughter and my Spouse for ever.’
Mystical marriage of St. Catherine of Siena
“I was wrapped in the
Essence of the Eternal Godhead and I heard and saw things which it is
not given to man to utter, and when I began to come to myself I beheld
the ring (which encircled the finger next the little finger of my left
hand) which was a circle of thorns as it were, set with seven beautiful
crystals more beautiful than diamonds which looked like liquid gems, the
centre representing the Holy Soul of my divine Spouse in which the
adorable Trinity is represented by the three powers, and are as it were a
reflecting glass in which They behold their Unity in Essence. Then to
the right is represented the Sacred Head as the Seat of divine Wisdom,
and on the other side the Sacred Heart is represented, and the other
four are to represent the Wounds in His sacred Hands and Feet. Oh what
brightness and beauty issues from this little ring; what glory it gives,
that I could not behold it I think and live if it were not that He who
gave it sustains me with His power. Then He allowed me to see the soul I
have often seen before but now more beautiful than ever,
and He told me, as I sang with the angels hymns of praise, that was the
soul of His beloved Spouse, that that glory was my nuptial robe and
that He with the Father and Holy Spirit were glorified in me and that I
should dwell with them and His Blessed Mother and St. Joseph for ever.
He also told me to remember that I was His, that He was Almighty God and
I like Him must be about my Father’s business. I understand I have a
great deal to do for souls and many difficulties will surround me, but I
must take courage and have great confidence in Him. Since then it seems
to me that so many saints are with me, and the angels as a guard of
honour watch in admiring wonder the mercies of the adorable Trinity to
this very least of His little ones, and I could and do continually unite
with my dear Mother Mary in singing the Magnificat and singing praises
to the Father, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ my Divine Spouse.
“DEAR REV. FATHER,
“I
could not describe what God has taught me while held in His infinite
and divine Essence, for it seems to me that no form is represented to
the understanding, but that the soul is in God’s Immensity, and she sees
and knows mysteries which are hidden in God and which it is not given
to her to utter, and she enjoys without actually knowing what she
enjoys. The secrets of God are made known, but the understanding, being
lost in God, cannot comprehend what He has taught her.
“But when I see you I will try and tell you more.
“Begging your prayers and blessing and promising to do all I can for you and yours, I remain dear rev. Father
“Your obedient and devoted child
“In the S. Head and loving Heart
“TERESA HIGGINSON
“Enfant de Marie.”
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