Catherine of Siena Quotes
Catherine of Siena was an Italian Dominican tertiary, mystic, and political activist whose influence on the fourteenth-century Church was extraordinary for a woman of her time. From a large Sienese dyer's family, she received no formal education but learned to read and write in the course of an interior life of intense visions and ascetic practice. The quotes below are attributed to Catherine of Siena, organized by topic.
Browse Catherine of Siena by topic
Catherine of Siena on God
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Attributed to Catherine of Siena:
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
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“All the way to heaven is heaven, because Jesus said, I am the way.”
The path to heaven lies through heaven, and all the way to heaven is heaven. -
Attributed to Catherine of Siena:
“The soul is in God and God in the soul, just as the fish is in the sea and the sea in the fish.”
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“The path to heaven lies through heaven, and all the way to heaven is heaven.”
Attributed by Dorothy Day in On Pilgrimage (1948) p. 161 | Variants: | All the way to Heaven is Heaven, because Christ is the Way. As attributed in The Last Things : Death, Judgment, Hell, Heaven (1998) by Regis Martin, p. 39 | All the way to heaven is heaven, for Jesus said, I am the way. As attributed in The Fear of Beggars : Stewardship and Poverty in Christian Ethics (2007) by Kelly S. Johnson
Catherine of Siena on Knowledge
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“Attributed by Dorothy Day in On Pilgrimage (1948) p. 161”
The path to heaven lies through heaven, and all the way to heaven is heaven. -
“If you are what you ought to be, you will set fire to all Italy, and not only yonder. ( Letter 368 to Stefano Maconi )”
Original Italian: Se sarete quello che dovete essere, metterete fuoco in tutta Italia, non tanto costì. ( Lettera 368 a Stefano Maconi ) Variant versions: If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire ! If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze! As quoted by Pope John Paul II in | an address to the Regnum Christi Movement and the Legionaries of Christ
Catherine of Siena on Nature
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“Variant versions: I see the world is rotten because of silence … speak the truth in a million voices. It is silence that kills. (quoted at 0:23 of Randall Terry ( 2020-10-19 ). The Silence That Kills . Retrieved on 2022-06-07.)”
Wikiquote -
“Original Italian: Oimé, non più tacere! Gridate con centomiglia di lingue. Veggo che, per lo tacere, el mondo è guasto, la Sposa di Cristo è impalidita ( Lettera 16, "A uno grande prelato" ) lit.: "O alas, be silent no more! Shout with a hundred thousand tongues. I see that, through silence, the world is broken, the Bride of Christ is impaled”
Wikiquote
Catherine of Siena on Virtue
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Attributed to Catherine of Siena:
“Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.”
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Attributed to Catherine of Siena:
“If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze.”
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Attributed to Catherine of Siena:
“Start being brave about everything.”