Seeing Jesus: Women Mystics

For those of you who regularly read this blog, you know that the role of women in Catholicism is something I spend a lot of time contemplating. One of the things that helps me most in my faith life is studying strong female role models. This week, I’d like to focus on some women I find both fascinating and inspiring: women mystics.

Women mystics are women to whom Jesus has appeared. They are scattered from early times (such as St. Hildegard) to more modern (such as St Faustina[KM1] ). My mom leads retreats that spend time scoping out the lives of these women and I thought it was time to discover their lives for myself. Here are three that I found most in intriguing.[KM2] 

Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447- 1510)

Catherine was forced into an awful marriage at an early age. Her husband was unfaithful, violent, and irresponsible with money. Despite her suffering, she decided to follow her own path and care for the sick of Genoa, Italy. She also took in her husband’s mistress and child when they were in need. Eventually her husband decided to convert and join her in her ministry. She continued to go above and beyond, becoming a manager and treasurer of a hospital. Finally, on her death bed she had visions of Jesus and her experiences were recorded, leading to her eventual saint hood.

Julian of Norwich (1342- 1416)

There is not much known about this woman; in fact they don’t even know her real name, calling her only “Julian” because she lived at the Church of St. Julian[KM3] . When she was 30 years old, she became very ill and was believed to be on her death bed. During this time, Jesus appeared to her in several visions. At the time, people saw God as a figure of wrath, punishing the world with plague and peasant revolts. Julian changed that notion as her vision revealed a more compassionate and peaceful God. The main message she took away from Jesus was the phrase, “All shall be well.”

Saint Catherine of Sienna (1347- 1380)

She experienced visions from an early age and vowed at age 7 to give her life to God. Arranged to marry a man she detested, she started a hunger strike to protest him, winning her freedom to live reclusively. When she was 21 she experienced a “Mystical Marriage” in which Christ gave her a ring of flesh and asked her to go back out into the world and serve others.  She eventually went on to do many things including opening a women’s monastery and advocating for Pope Urban VI during the Western Schism.

It is easy to find lots of modern inspirations for faith, service, and perseverance but it is also easy to forget that we have women who have been leaders of their faith and vessels of God’s love since the beginning of Christianity. These women come to us from the Middle Ages and Renaissance but don’t fail to be as interesting and faithfilled as modern role models.