The Spiritual Doctrine of St. Catherine of Genoa ─ Consisting of the Life and Doctrine of St. Catherine of Genoa and Spiritual Dialogue and Treatise on Purgatory

The Spiritual Doctrine of St. Catherine of Genoa is one of the most unusual Catholic books ever written. The subject of this book explains what the spirit of Christ opposed to the spirit of the world can mean in the life of a soul. St. Catherine of Genoa, a member of an illustrious Italian noble family, was married but had no children. She and her husband worked in a hospital in Genoa, of which she later became director.

This volume contains three separate works: The life and Doctrine of St. Catherine of Genoa, the Spiritual Dialogue and the Treatise on Purgatory. The latter alone is worth the price of the entire book and sets the theme for all three writings. St. Catherine sees the entire Christian life as one of purgation. If the cleansing of the soul in this life is not completed it is simply continued in the next. The Treatise on Purgatory explains the attitude of the Poor Souls, their sufferings of Purgatory and those of Hell.

The Spiritual Doctrine of St. Catherine of Genoa teaches us that the only truly important progress made in this life is the development of the human soul and that all else is insignificant in comparison. St. Catherine demonstrates that what we do with our precious allotment of time will determine what we shall be for all eternity.

St. Catherine of Genoa was born of notable ancestry in 1447 at Genoa, Italy. Although she desired to enter the religious life at the age of thirteen, her parents arranged her marriage to Giuliano Adorno three years later. After experiencing a mystical conversion, she began to lovingly serve the patients of a local hospital with her also newly-converted husband. Catherine died on the fifteenth of September, 1510, and was canonized by Pope Clement XII in 1737. Her Spiritual Doctrine was compiled by Don Catteneo Marabotto, who served as her confessor. The work was printed by TAN in 1989 and again in 2010.