Catherine of Siena:
It is
hard to summarize the vastness and the intellectual and spiritual depth of
Catherine of Siena’s beliefs or the multifaceted and integral ways in which they
were shaped by her experiences. However, if we were to create a summary of her
beliefs, we would inevitably come to the conclusion that her entire life was rooted
in God’s love for humanity. It is a love
that she tried to impart to those around her and that she believed was
perfectly exemplified in the crucifixion of Christ. Love for your neighbor, she
believed, was inseparable from the Christian faith (O’Driscoll pp.9-13). This
was not always the case for Catherine, however. From a very young age, she had
a fascination with solitude and asceticism, often rejecting all comfort and
human interaction, in order to retreat into her “interior cell” in order to
strengthen her unity with God (Vauchez p.21). However, early into her adulthood,
God spoke to her and said, “On two feet you must walk my way.” In saying this,
He was telling Catherine that she should not devote all her time and effort to Him but should also be an active member in the world and in society, spreading
His love to all of humanity (O’Driscoll p.9). It was after this mystical
experience that she launched full throttle into political activism and the welfare
of the poor and needy in both Siena and abroad. She also had a strong belief in the union between Christ and man (Vauchez p.21). Whereas in the first part of her
life, she exclusively sought her own unity with God, having even claimed to be
mystically married to Christ (Vauchez p.23), after she left her solitude, she
sought to unite all of humanity under Christ in love (Malone pp.196-197). This calling
often expressed itself in Catherine through her political activism. For
instance, she fought long and hard to return the papacy to Rome and tirelessly attempted
to reunite the church after the Great Schism (O’Driscoll pp.10-11). Her calling
to be a uniter often went hand-in-hand and was matched by her equally impassioned
calling to be a peacekeeper. She believed Jesus to be the ultimate peacekeeper
by restoring the peace that was taken away by sin. It was for this reason that a
significant amount of her ministry within the city of Siena was devoted to making
peace between feuding families and quarreling rulers (O’Driscoll p. 10). However,
a varied and diverse as her beliefs and convictions were, her mystical interactions
with the divine were equally unique. The primary mode of her mystical
experiences was visions. For instance, around the year 1370, she had a vision
where Jesus ripped his own heart out of his chest and put it within Catherine (Vauchez
p.24). In another vision she had, while asking God for a sign so that she could
be surer of her calling, she saw Jesus ask for her hand, and upon extending it
to Him, He drove a nail through it. Shortly thereafter, she received the
stigmata (the five wounds of Christ on the cross on the hands feet, and side) witnessed
by Raymond of Capua (Vauchez p.30) However, she was also known to have
conversations with Jesus and to levitate (Vauchez).
Hafez:
Hafez holds a special place among mystics. Instead of
his mysticism being defined in terms of his particular experiences or beliefs,
his is defined through the inherent mystical nature of his poetry. Thus, it can
be said what makes Hafez a mystic is not his own experiences and beliefs, but
those that he is able to impart to others. It has been said that his ghazals
are “endowed with the power to revive the expired heart like the breaths of
Christ; the sprinklings from his pen could perform Mosaic miracles with speech.”
They have also been called the “envy of the source of eternal life” (Dominic
p.1) However, this is not to say that Hafez was not a spiritual person. He was
a Sufi Muslim who was extremely well-learned in the Islamic faith and Islamic texts
(Leonard p.19). In fact, his name translates to ‘one who has memorized the
Qur’an by heart’ (Dominic p.3). And despite his infamous criticism of those he
deemed to be false Sufis and corrupt or dishonest religious leaders, he refers
to Sufism as a good thing so long as it can “lead beyond itself.” He was
against legalism and any strict rule structure. He thought that the Sufi path
should lead to a world in which only one rule exists which is “The Rule of Love”
(Leonard p.149). It is for this reason that his poetry is said to free one from
“the shackles of tradition” (Jafri p.14). In his practice of Sufism, he combines
both the spiritual and temporal aspects of the faith. He sees the beauty of the
world as a reflection of the beauty of God, so it is thus something to embrace and
not reject (Jafri p.18). It is that beauty that he attempts to capture in his poems,
and it is that that gives them their inherent mystical quality. He is also able
to find spirituality in unconventional places that others cannot. For Instance,
he sees taverns as being spiritual and sacred places because in a tavern
everyone is welcome, and everyone is equal. For Hafez, a tavern eliminated the religious
bureaucracy standing in the way between God and man (Jafri p.21).
Similarities and Differences:
Both Cathrine of Siena and Hafez both challenged authority
and the status quo with their beliefs. By taking a proactive stance in politics
and in religious matters Catherine was going against the gender roles and norms
assigned to women in the 14th century and Hafez directly criticized the
legalism that dominated the religious culture in which he lived. However, their
respective views on the material world could not be more different from one
another. Catherine saw the material world as something that needed to be
overcome in order to achieve true unity with God whereas Hafez saw the material
world as an extension of God and something to embrace. We see these beliefs
play out in their actions. Catherine threw herself fully into asceticism even
swearing a vow to virginity, whereas Hafez accepted (and depended upon) the
patronage of the wealthy and has erotic and romantic love as one of the most prominent
themes in his poetry. Love, however, whether it be sacrificial love for all
humanity, or erotic/romantic love, is the single driving force behind both of
their belief systems.
Sources:
Catherine, and Mary O’Driscoll. Catherine of Siena-- Passion for the Truth, Compassion for Humanity : Selected Spiritual Writings. New City Press, 1993.
Dominic Parviz Brookshaw. Hafiz and His Contemporaries : Poetry, Performance and Patronage In Fourteenth Century Iran. I.B. Tauris, 2019. https://bereacollege.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1089126002.
Jafri, Sardar. “Hafiz Shirazi (1312-1387-89).” Social Scientist, vol. 28, no. 1/2, 2000, pp. 12
31. EBSCOhost, https://bereacollege.on.worldcat.org/oclc/7586612227.
Leonard Lewisohn. Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry. I.B. Tauris, 2010. https://bereacollege.on.worldcat.org/oclc/680041068.
Malone, Mary T. Women & Christianity. Orbis Books, 2001.
Vauchez, André. Catherine of Siena : A Life of Passion and Purpose. Paulist Press, 2018. https://bereacollege.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1022075124.
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