St. Catherine of Siena is well-known for her mysticism, preaching, and piercing intellect—she’s the only layperson to ever be named a Doctor of the Church—but her work is written with a fiery passion that is not common to theological works.

But for all the attention to St. Catherine, surprisingly little has been said about her understanding of freedom. While she knew well the “unspeakably crazy” love of God, she also recognized the slavery of sin and the necessity of facing our own inner darkness. Her passion, the passion that inflamed almost all of her works, was to lead those enslaved by sin to freedom and self-knowledge in God.

In this profound new book from the Word on Fire Institute, the Irish Dominican poet and writer Fr. Paul Murray, OP, draws us into the fire of St. Catherine’s love for God and humanity. This unique book looks at her life through not only the lens of Dominican spirituality but also the work of Renaissance philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and the modern psychologist Carl Jung. Murray ultimately draws a compelling portrait of a saint and thinker whose writing still speaks to us forcefully.

Product Details

• 168 pages

• Book dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2

• Published year: 2020

About the Author

Fr. Paul Murray, OP, an Irish Dominican friar, lives in Rome where he teaches courses at the Angelicum University on the literature of the Western mystical tradition.

A longtime friend of Bishop Robert Barron, he is a Fellow of the Word on Fire Institute and has published many books, poems, meditations, and more on Christian mysticism and the saints.