. The spell of Italy. o dream dreams, and to see visions. A bitof the ancient pavement which she is known to havetrod was pointed out, and the pillar against whichshe leaned in her ecstasies; but the chief and mostprecious treasure is the authentic portrait of theSaint by Andrea di Vanni, her friend and contem-porary. Saint Catherines feast-day in Siena is April that day the awful relic, the Saints head, is ex-posed to view behind the bars of the shrine in herchapel. Embalmed immediately after death, theface is described as fair and white, like parchment,the features having the aspect of
. The spell of Italy. o dream dreams, and to see visions. A bitof the ancient pavement which she is known to havetrod was pointed out, and the pillar against whichshe leaned in her ecstasies; but the chief and mostprecious treasure is the authentic portrait of theSaint by Andrea di Vanni, her friend and contem-porary. Saint Catherines feast-day in Siena is April that day the awful relic, the Saints head, is ex-posed to view behind the bars of the shrine in herchapel. Embalmed immediately after death, theface is described as fair and white, like parchment,the features having the aspect of sleep rather thandeath, the lips dehcately ascetic, the nostrils finelychiseled, altogether no slightest room for sense, butonly for spirit. I cannot do better for my readers than to condensehere a brief summary of Caterina Benincasas lifestory from a standard source. St. Catherine was one of twenty-five children bornin wedlock to Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa, citizensof Siena. Her father exercised the trade of dyer and. ECSTASY OF ST. CATHERINE, BY IL SODOMA. ** Siena the Sorceress 255 fuller. In the year of her birth, 1347, Siena reachedthe climax of its power and splendour. It was thenthat the plague of Boccaccio began to rage, whichswept off eighty thousand citizens, and interruptedthe building of the great Duomo. In the midst ofso large a family, and during these troubled times,Catherine grew almost unnoticed; but it was notlong before she manifested her peculiar six years old she saw visions and longed for amonastic Ufe; about the same time she used to collecther childish companions together and preach to she grew, her wishes became stronger; she re-fused the proposals of marriage which her parentsmade, and so vexed them by her obstinacy that theyimposed on her the most servile duties of the house-hold. These she patiently fulfilled, pursuing atthe same time her own vocation with unweariedardour. She scarcely slept at all, and ate no food butvegetable
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