ne grew up uneducated. When her genius had attained maturity,
she could not even read or write. Her biographer asserts that she
learned to do so by a miracle. Anyhow, writing became a most potent
instrument in her hands; and we possess several volumes of her
epistles, as well as a treatise of mystical theology. To conquer
self-love as the root of all evil, and to live wholly for others,
was the cardinal axiom of her morality. She pressed this principle
to its most rigorous conclusions in practice; never resting day or
night from some kind of service, and winning by her unselfish love
the enthusiastic admiration of the people. In the same spirit of
exalted self-annihilation, she longed for martyrdom, and courted
death. There was not the smallest personal tie or afterthought of
interest to restrain her in the course of action which she had
marked out. Her personal influence seems to have been immense. When
she began her career of public peacemaker and preacher in Siena,
Raymond, her biographer, says that whole families devoted to
_vendetta_ were reconciled, and that civil strifes were quelled by
her letters and addresses. He had seen more than a thousand people
flock to hear her speak; the confessionals crowded with penitents,
smitten by the force of her appeals; and multitudes, unable to catch
the words which fell from her lips, sustained and animated by the
light of holiness which beamed from her inspired countenance.[1] She
was not beautiful, but her face so shone with love, and her
eloquence was so pathetic in its tenderness, that none could hear or
look on her without emotion. Her writings contain abundant proofs of
this peculiar suavity. They are too sweet and unctuous in style to
suit our modern taste. When dwelling on the mystic love of Christ
she cries, 'O blood! O fire! O ineffable love!' When interceding
before the Pope, she prays for 'Pace, pace, pace, babbo mio dolce;
pace, e non piu guerra.' Yet clear and simple thoughts, profound
convictions, and stern moral teaching underlie her ecstatic
exclamations. One prayer which she wrote, and which the people of
Siena still use, expresses the prevailing spirit of her creed: 'O
Spirito Santo, o Deita eterna Cristo Amore! vieni nel mio cuore; per
la tua potenza trailo a Te, mio Dio, e concedemi carita con timore.
Liberami, o Amore ineffabile, da ogni mal pensiero; riscaldami ed
infiammami del tuo dolcissimo amore, sicche ogni pena mi sembri
leggiera. Santo mio Padre e