Baldassare of Saint Catherine of Siena

BALDASSARE di SANTA CATERINA DA SIENA. - Discalced Carmelite mystical theologian, Machiavelli in the world, b. at Bologna in 1597, d. there on 23 Aug. 1673. He took the habit at Bologna and made profession at S. Maria della Scala in Rome on 6 Dec. 1615. He held various offices, including that of procurator general of the Order (1662).

A most learned theologian, he is one of the most representative authors of the Carmelite mystical school because of his unsurpassed synthesis on the contemplative states (the seven “Mansions”): Splendori riflessi di Sapienza celeste vibrati de' gloriosi gerarchi Tomaso d'Aquino e Teresa di Gesù, sopra il Castello Interiore e Mistico Giardino, metafore della Santa (Bologna 1671). At Rome (1664) he published the Italian translation of vol. I of Quiroga’s recent work, Salita dell'anima a Dio.

BIBL.: Eusebio di tutti i Santi, Enchiridion chronologicum Carmel. Disc., Roma 1737, p. 328; Gabriele di S. Maria Maddalena, Balthazar de ste Catherine de Sienne, in DSp, I, cols. 1210-

1217; Alessandro di S. Giovanni della Croce, Un mistico italiano del Seicento, in Vita Carmelitana, 1941, pp. 13-24.
Silverio di Santa Teresa

Cite this article

“BALDASSARE DI SANTA CATERINA DA SIENA.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II (1949), p. 436. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/baldassare-di-santa-caterina-da-siena.