beauty of her doctrine, and in the greatness of her action. If God permit, we shall give to the public her spiritual dialogues, which contain the sublimity of her teaching, and her letters which will lead to the comprehension of her extended power.
Our translation has been taken from the text of the Bollandists. We have striven to preserve the simple and poetic form of the recital; at the risk of being prolix, we would not retrench any fact, nor any pious reflection. We have given but one of the author's prologues, the other appeared useless to us, and indeed not in harmony with the work. We have preferred adding to the narrative of the Blessed Raymond, the testimonies of other disciples of St. Catharine, who were summoned to depose before the Bishop of Venice.
The Dominicans were accused of celebrating the feast of St Catharine before the decision of the Holy See. They explain triumphantly the honors that they rendered to her memory, and the documents of the processes, that God permitted for the glory of his Spouse, to be used in her canonization.
In fine, desiring to render our work more complete, we resolved before terminating the impression of this volume, to see Italy again, and the localities consecrated by the presence of our beloved Saint. We have followed her footsteps to Rome, to Sienna, to Florence and to Pisa; we there venerated her relics and her memory; we sought in the ancient monuments of Christian art, the tradition
