Preface to the American Edition
The providence of God in the government of the world, but especially the divine economy with regard to the children of his Church, is best learned from the study of the lives of His faithful servants. The world, with its own views, and means, and end, being always antagonistic to the spirit of God, must not be taken as a standard or as a testimony of God's providence towards his people. The Apostle St. Paul warns us "not to be conformed to the world," and St. James urges the motive " that the world is the enemy of God." Profane history even, is often elucidated by this principle, while its light is almost always necessary to follow correctly the path which sacred or ecclesiastical history points out.
The life of St. Catharine of Sienna by the Blessed Raymond of Capua, is now, for the first time, presented to the American reader in the English language. Its perusal will, at times, be sustained with interest by remembering the time, and circumstances in which that wonderful woman lived and acted. And it is not unlikely that the reader, may perchance, become startled at some of the facts narrated by her biographer. A closer acquaintance, however, with the history of the times in which she lived, and the circumstances in which she acted, and by which, we may say, her conduct and history became a portion of the history of the Church, will, in a great degree verify her actions, by revealing the providence of God, in the government of the Church.
