Catherine of Genoa, St

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Catherine of Genoa, St (1447–1510). Christian mystic. Born of a noble family, Caterinetta Fieschi married young. Ten years later she experienced a sudden conversion and gave herself to the selfless care of the sick in a hospital in Genoa, at the same time experiencing strange, almost pathological, religious experiences, and supposedly receiving the stigmata. Her spiritual doctrine is contained in the Dialogues on the Soul and the Body and Treatise on Purgatory: purgatory is the final cleansing of the soul from self-love, to be accepted, therefore, with joy.

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Catherine of Genoa, St

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Catherine of Genoa, St