CATHERINE OF GOD. — Discalced Carmelite, by birth C. de Nicolas, born in Bordeaux on 5 April 1589, died in Paris in a reputation for holiness on 19 February 1623. Preveniently touched by grace at the age of eight, she entered the Carmel of Paris (Faubourg St-Jacques) in 1608. Under the guidance of the Venerable Mother Mary Magdalene of St Joseph (M. Dubois de Fontaines), she made wonderful progress in perfection, and “the Lord raised her to such a great and singular interior life that only a few things can be said of her, for the greatest were hidden.” Endowed with extraordinary favors, visions, ecstasies, revelations, prophecy, and continual union with God, she died “consumed by Him in soul and spirit.”
BIBL.: M. Magdalvin, La vie de seure Catherine de Jésus, avec un recueil de ses lettres, Paris 1626 (other editions there 1628, 1631, 1636, 1929); Filippo della S.ma Trinità, Decor Carmeli, III, Lyons 1663, p. 49; J.-M. de l’Enfant Jésus, s.V. in DSp. II, cols. 351-52; H. Bremond, Hist. litt. du sentiment religieux en France, II, Paris 1923, pp. 331-43. Ambrose of St Teresa