La double expérience de Catherine Benincasa (Sainte-Catherine de Sienne) by Robert Fawtier, Louis Canet (review)

BOOK REVIEWS La double experience de Catherine Benincasa (Sainte-Catherine de Sienne). By RoBERT FAWTIER and Loms CANET. Paris: Librairie Gallimard, 1948. Pp. 368. Fr. 550. This is an important book-not important for what it is in itself, but for what it connotes. The authors are Catholic laymen of the most erudite attainments in their respective fields: M. Fawtier in history; M. Canet in the history of Christian thought. It is not a joint work, for the former treats of Catherine's human experience, the latter of the spiritual aspects of her life. While their views are sometimes at variance, there is, nevertheless , a striking note of unity. A brief evaluation of the work of M. Fawtier appears in a recent issue of The Catholic Historical Review. A few observations there made should receive more extended notice here. l\1. Fawtier is no stranger to St. Catherine, and he professes the utmost admiration and veneration for her. In his Essai de critique des sources (2 vols. Paris, 1921-30), however, he provoked sharp criticism by the animus and violence of his attack upon the early biographers of the saint. He also touched off a scholarly restudy of the sources, many of which have since been published for the first time, and others may follow. From what have appeared up to now, it is apparent that he has won this battle against certain somewhat exaggerated (and, incidentally, undefended) estimates of the political role the saint played in the life of her times. But the role was not inconsiderable; Catherine cannot be eliminated therefrom (cf. No~ne M. Denis-Boulet, La carriere politique de Sainte Catherine de Sienne, Paris, 1939, which M. Fawtier cites with approval, and Arrigo Levasti, S. Caterina da Siena, Rome, 1947). In his attack upon the reliability of the hagiographical sources, however, M. Fawtier failed completely (cf. DenisBoulet , op. cit., 33, and M. H. Laurent, Il processo Castellano fasc. IX in Fontes vitae S. Catherinae historici, Rome, 1942). Nevertheless, M. Fawtier returns to the attack, chastened by the events of 1940-45, more mellow, but still aggressive and at times petulant if not violent. On April 29, 1942, the anniversary of St. Catherine's death, the Gestapo came to his home in the middle of the night. Three years later, almost to the very day, he sought hospitality in Switzerland, after a harrowing experience in Nazi concentration camps. Three years of meditation on the strange coincidence that deprived him of his liberty on that particular day determined him to stand like Catherine, firm in his convictions, and write a life of the saint, whether is was worthy of her or not. We may admire his courage, but not his tenacity. Scholarship and erudition should recognize that history deals with facts. A Catholic scholar, 500 BOOK REVIEWS 501 however critical, must take note of facts that the philosophy of the materialist and the Deist and the Protestant may refuse or fail to recognize. The supernatural life, the mystical life cannot be ignored. And this is not merely a question of miracles and the medieval attitude toward them. Saints are not ordinary folk. There are extraordinary men and women whom God has raised up for a definite work in the world under His provident care of mankind, and especially of His Church. The saints, above all mystics, are men and women in whom the supernatural life is in full operation, for it is dominant and it governs in diverse ways their natural and ordinary activities. To repeat, it is not merely a question of supernatural phenomena-whether this or that was a miracle, whether it really happened, or whether the credulity of the witness was excessive. It is a question of whether or not the spirit of God is at work, and of this exceedingly few are competent to judge. Now.. the supreme authority in the Dominican Order, the General Chapter, after investigating Catherine, recognized the spirit of God at work. The Master General of the Order committed her to the direction and guidance of one whose competency was beyond cavil. Later, the Holy Father confirmed the action and choice of the Dominican Gt:neral. Later still, the Church...