In presenting for us the mystic, Catherine of Siena (1347 -1380), Anne Boyd draws on three sources: the gorgeous paintings of Catherine by Giovanni di Paolo, the biography written by her Dominican friend, Raymond of Capua, and the copious letters Catherine herself wrote.   The result is an enthralling study which invites the reader to further reflect on the contribution of the mystics to contemporary spirituality.

The poet Les Murray called religion a big slow poem; he thought Christianity was the best poem!   Perhaps this essay may be a few stanzas in that big poem and go some way to encourage more precision as well as more depth in our thinking.   Certainly it is with regard for the communal sense of spiritual transformation that this essay approaches Catherine of Siena.   I think it is also this sense that inspired Giovanni di Paolo’s paintings of Catherine.   While more individualist interpretations have drawn upon the extravagances of some elements of her legend, my argument is that Catherine herself, and the artist who presented her life as a series of universals, offer to all a profound experience of communal Christian spirituality.                            From the Introduction

Anne Margot Boyd is an Australian who, in 1955, joined the Dominican contemplative community at Carisbrooke on the Isle of Wight, England.   She was one of the founders of Carisbrooke Priory press which flourished in the 1960s.   Later she worked at Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, for 13 years.   In the 1980s Anne edited the Geoffrey Chapman list of Catholic theology, liturgy and catechetics for Cassell Publishers in London.   In 1989 she returned to Australia where she now lives, combining freelance writing, editing and publishing.

John Garrett Publishing