Love Broke Through - Catherine Of Genoa - The One Year Women in Christian History Devotional

1447–1510

She had a frustrating childhood and a loveless marriage, but in a flash everything changed for Caterina Fieschi Adorno, commonly known as Catherine of Genoa.

As a child she was very religious, excelling in prayer and penitence. She applied to a convent at age thirteen but was rejected—she was too young. At sixteen she was married off to a Genoese nobleman who proved to be angry, undisciplined, and unfaithful. She withdrew and endured in silence, trying to play the good wife, but deeply disappointed. Ten years passed.

Catherine prayed for the return of her old faith, but that seemed long ago and far away. She visited her sister, who was a nun, and in that convent, knelt to confess her sins. Suddenly she felt her soul pierced by a ray of divine light. She was overwhelmed with a sense of God’s love, and that radically altered her life.

This divine love propelled her into the slums of Genoa to help the poor and the ailing (though she admitted that, at first, seeing these illnesses often made her feel ill). A few years later, her husband came around and joined her in ministry. Eventually Catherine became the director of a large hospital in Genoa, while her husband worked in affiliation with a monastic order. When the plague came to town, both were able to help the masses who fell ill.

In the latter years of her life, Catherine wrote and taught about various spiritual subjects—purification of the soul, Christian growth, and God’s love. A group of followers recorded her teachings and published them after her death.

Has God’s love broken through to you? If so, what has it changed? How do you see your life differently, and how do you do your life differently? History is crammed with examples of people trudging along in the religious same-old, when suddenly they are, shall we say, “enlightened.” Some divine ray of realization hits the solar panels of their hearts, and they find a new energy. They understand, perhaps for the first time, that God wants more than pious activities from us. He loves us dearly; he wants our hearts.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.

1 John 4:18, NIV