{"product_id":"the-road-to-siena-the-essential-biography-of-st-catherine","title":"The Road to Siena: The Essential Biography of St. Catherine","description":"\u003cp\u003eCatherine of Sienas influence was felt throughout the kingdoms of Europe. She enjoyed the confidence of popes  royalty  and most of all  the common people of Italy. A complicated woman  she was able to speak bluntly to a queen: Instead of a woman  you have become the servant and slave of nothingness  making yourself the subject of lies and of the demon who is their father; and also encourage the wife of a simple tailor: Clothe yourself in the royal virtues.  Her story is told in this landmark biography  first published a century ago and praised by Evelyn Underhill as the best modern biography of a saint ever written. Long out of print  this new edition has been slightly abridged and generously supplemented with the reflections of other biographers  historians  and artistswho shed fresh light on what we know about an amazing woman. The Road to Siena is a fairly brief-but-concentrated book illustrating a rather brief-but-concentrated life. Our instincts to distrust Catherines visions as delusions and her hearty exhortations as mania are natural  but repeatedly Gardner manages to put them down in turn  and all of our modern understanding must be humbled a bit when we read that the invisible stigmata Catherine claimed in her life became manifest and quite visible upon her death  even if her mystical wedding ring did not. Taken together  the book brings the reader into close contact with Catherines flame; one feels the heat that singed the consciences of popes and monarchs alike. Elizabeth Scalia  Benedictine Oblate  author of the award-winning Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life  and Word on Fire Editor-at-Large\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44957499424821,"sku":"ByrdShop_1640602240","price":52.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781640602243.jpg?v=1770328568","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-road-to-siena-the-essential-biography-of-st-catherine","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}