"If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire".  
  
 "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams".

"Nothing great is ever achieved without enduring".

"We had enough of exhortations to be silent. Cry out with a hundred thousand tongues. I see that the world is rotten because of silence".      Santa Caterina da Siene
Note:
Hi...
     Yes, I know....It has been awhile since I have posted. I just got back from spending a month in Italy. What a great time. I played, observed, painted, walked and walked and walked......I just wanted to feel the country. I stayed in apartments among the locals, shopped in their food stores, slipped across the street or around a corner to have my morning espresso/pastry (sometimes twice a day), waving from my window Buongiorno (Hello..Good Day) to my Italian neighbor in their window and hung out in piazzas observing, taking photos and sketching. What a life.

   Besides all that, I had a wonderful experience I want to pass on to you. I learned about an amazing woman, Santa Caterina da Siene (St Catherine of Siene). The above quotes are from her. Image those quotes coming from a woman in the 1300's !!

       Siene is filled with art about her and from that, learning of her...made the art come alive.

      The Siene apartment I stayed in was on St Caterina street (via St. Caterina)....from my window I could see across the street her home she was born and raised in: her church, 
S. Domenico, (I heard the bells all day) where she had some of her miracles: and her altar window (the little religious altar windows hanging on buildings), and I viewed many paintings about her in many galleries. Below, are some facts about her life.

St Caterina prayer card

Santa Caterina da Siene (St. Catherine of Siene)....3/17/1347 born in Siene and died in Rome 4/29/1380. She was one of 25 kids and a twin (who died soon after birth). Half of the 25 died at birth.  At age 5 or 6, she had a vision of Christ  and by age 7...she vowed to give her whole life to God. At age 21..she experienced a "Mystical Marriage" with Jesus (many paintings show that). She did many miracles and she was the go between the Pope, Florence and Siene in keeping peace, plus she helped the ill and women. She is the patron saint of nurses and fire protection. She refused to marry as her Dad wanted and the nuns wouldn't take her because they took only widows...so she was a nun that lived outside of the order. She wrote over 400 letters, quotes to the Pope and other people in the church...300 still are around. She was sainted in 6/18/1866 (one of 2 patron saints of Italy with St. Francis of Assisi) and Oct 1999, Pope John Paul II named her one of 6 patron saints of Europe. Oct 1970, Pope Paul VI proclaimed her "Doctor of the Church". She was canonized...6/29/1461 by Pope Pius II.  I went to her home and the church. The church is the most plain one ever...it has a wooden bean ceiling...hardly any art or sculptures etc...it is huge (no photos were allowed...so I don't have any). What it does have is her head and finger.  Since she died in Rome, they built a church for her (near the Pantheon) and buried her there. But the people of Siene wanted at least part of her for Siene...so they went and stole her head. They had her head in a bag and when the guards looked into it...all they saw were rose petals...but when they got out of the guards reach, they looked inside and saw the head. Another miracle. She is shown with roses in paintings. The church has a lot of paintings just about her. She couldn't eat most of her life...she called it an illness  and then she couldn't drink water either. She died of a stroke....she was only 33 yrs old.  Kind of neat to  be in the middle of her history and see paintings about her.

St Caternia's altar window outside my window

View outside another of my windows...the arches are St Caterina's home and the S. Domenico church.

 The medieval hilltop walled town of Siene, Italy. Look at the large piazza (Piazza del Campo), then look left of that until you see the arches...that is St Caterina's home. My apartment is right next to the arches.

                                                                    

The plain S. Domenico...church. St Caterina was affiliated with it.

In comparison with S. Demenico: the Siene Cathedral was so ornate it was over the top. You can see it as the huge white building in the above city aerial view.

Siene Cathedral...exterior.

Siene cathedral...interior.