Catherine de Gênes

1447-1510 15th century Feast day: September 15

Pure love: to seek nothing for oneself in prayer, but God alone.

Who was Catherine de Gênes?

Married young to a dissolute man, she endured years of weariness and sadness before a sudden conversion cast her into the love of God. She spent the rest of her life serving the sick in the hospital of Genoa, leaving a luminous teaching on pure love and on purgatory as the work of love.

In their own words

My me is God, nor do I know my selfhood except in God.

Life and Doctrine (reported sayings)

I do not believe that any contentment can be found to compare with that of a soul in purgatory, except that of the saints in paradise.

Treatise on Purgatory, ch. II (translated from the Italian by the Manna team)

That love which looks to nothing but love can fear nothing, for it has no regard for its own interest.

Life and Doctrine, ch. XXI (translated from the Italian by the Manna team)