CATHARINE, SAINT, OF SWEDEN: Roman Catholic saint; b. in Sweden 1331 or 1332; d. at Vadstena (130 m. s.w. of Stockholm) Mar. 24, 1381. She was the second daughter of St. Bridget, the founder of the Brigittines (see BRIDGET, SAINT, OF SWEDEN). At the age of thirteen or fourteen she married a young nobleman of German extraction named Eggart of Kürnen—the marriage was, however, by mutual consent only nominal, and both parties preserved a lifelong virginity. During the lifetime of her husband, Catherine accompanied her mother on the last-named's first journey to Rome, where through a vision of St. Bridget she learned of her husband's death in Sweden. She then made a pilgrimage with her mother to the Holy Land, but was in Rome with her brother Birger when St. Bridget died there in 1373. She was one of those who escorted her mother's bones to Sweden, and she then took up her abode at Vadstena, the mother house of the Brigittines, where she ruled as the successor of St. Bridget. About the time of the return of the popes from Avignon, St. Catherine again resided for some years in Italy and twice secured papal confirmation of the rule of her order, first from Gregory XI. in 1377 and again from Urban VI. two years later. The day appointed for her feast in the Roman martyrology is Mar. 22. In art her attribute is a hind. She wrote a "Consolation of the Soul," which has been lost. According to the preface, it was a compilation from many books and treated of the ten commandments, the seven benedictions, the seven joys of Mary, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the seven deadly sins.

(O. ZÖCKLER†.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The early Vita with commentary is in ASB, March, ii. 503-531, and in E. M. Fant, Script. rer. Suecicarum, iii., section 2, pp. 244-275; cf. A. Butler, Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Saints, Nov. 25th, London, 1860; KL, vii. 344-345.

CATHARINUS, AMBROSIUS: The monastic name of Lancelotto Politi, Dominican, bishop of Minori and archbishop of Conza; b. in Sienna 1487; d. in Naples Nov. 8, 1553. In 1517 he entered in Florence the monastery of Savonarola, against whom he wrote a polemic treatise in 1548. Eager in opposing every form of heresy, he appeared against Luther in 1520 with an Apologia pro veritate catholicœ ac apostolicœ fidei. Luther replied in 1521 (Ad librum A. Catharini responsio), and Catharinus answered. Then he went to France, and wrote in Paris against a member of his own order, Cardinal Cajetan, Annotationes in commentaria Cajetani. After returning to his country he wrote against his fellow townsman Bernardino Ochino, who in the mean while had fled from Italy to live according to his own belief (see OCHINO, BERNARDINO). A little later Catharinus issued two treatises against Italian Protestant works; viz., Trattato utilissimo del benefizio di Gesu Cristo crocifisso and Sommario della Sacra Scrittura. The polemic theologian was present at the Council of Trent. He arrived in 1545 with the legate Del Monte and made a speech at the third session. As a reward for his services Paul III. made him bishop of Minori in 1546. Julius III. made him archbishop of Conza in 1552, and was on the point of naming him cardinal when Catharinus died. The earliest of the works of Catharinus are collected in his Opuscula (Leyden, 1542), but there is no complete edition.

K. BENRATH.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The life and writings of Catharinus are discussed in: J. Quétif and J. Échard, Script. ordinis prœdicatorum, ii. 144 sqq., 332, 885; K. Werner, Geschichte der apologetischen und polemischen Literatur, vol. iv. passim, Schaffhausen, 1865; F. H. Beuech, Der Index der verbotenen Bücher, vol. i. passim, Bonn, 1883.