The Dialogue, by Catherine of Siena, is the crowning spiritual work of the only woman other than Theresa of Avila to be granted the title of Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church. This volume was simply called 'my book' by the fourteenth-century Italian saint. The aim of her work (one of the first books to see print in Spain, Germany, Italy, and England), says Dr. Noffke in her Foreword, was 'the instruction and encouragement of all those whose spiritual welfare was her concern.' Catherine was 'a mystic whose plunge into God plunged her deep into the affairs of society. Church and the souls of all who came under her influence.' Professor Noffke goes on to call The Dialogue 'a great tapestry to which Catherine adds stitch upon stitch until she is satisfied that she has communicated all she can of what she has learned of the way of God.'
|
