THOMAS, Catherine, Saint. - A regular canoness of the Order of St. Augustine, born at Valdemuza on the island of Majorca (Balearic Islands) on 1 May 1533, died at Palma on 5 April 1574. Having lost her parents at a tender age, she was taken in by a maternal uncle at San Gallard, where she met Fr. Antonio Castañeda, who helped her to realize her keen desire to withdraw to the religious life. At the age of nineteen, in fact, she entered the monastery of St. Mary Magdalene in Palma, where she spent the rest of her life in the practice of the highest virtues. The fame of her holiness, which soon spread beyond Palma and the Balearic Islands as far as the Spanish mainland, drew around her a great concourse of people, who flocked from every side to venerate her or to seek her counsel.

God knew how to reward the great charity of this chosen soul of his and her lofty spirit of mortification with the gift of contemplation, accompanied by most frequent ecstasies. Beatified by Pius VI on 12 August 1792, she was canonized on 22 June 1930 by Pius XI. Feast on 5 April.

Bibliography

BIBL.: J. Abrines, Vida, muerte y milagros de la bendita virgen sur C. Th., Majorca 1617.

Niccolò Del Re

@incollection{ec3_caterina_thomas_santa, author = {Del, Re Niccolò}, title = {Caterina Thomás, santa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1160--1161}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/caterina-thomas-santa} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Thomas, Catherine, Saint

About this entry