SOURCE: Introduction to Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue, by St. Catherine of Siena, translated by Suzanne Noffke, Paulist Press, 1980, pp. 1-22.

In the following excerpt, Noffke examines Catherine of Siena's ecstatic experiences as they are articulated in her writings and recorded by her contemporaries.

… What, in terms of human inheritance, were the springs of Catherine's knowledge and teaching? She had no formal schooling. Just how extensively she read is not certain, but she was a tireless conversationalist. She never wrote what could be called theology reduced to a system; in fact, it is her lack of an established system that lends her writings their marvelous if sometimes frustrating and tiring style of layer on layer of interwoven development: No thread is ever let go of or left unrelated to every other thread. Yet critics continue to debate her academic pedigree: Her teaching is clearly scholastic and Thomistic (e...