29. Mater Christi Church ⛪
40 Hopewell St, Albany, NY 12208
Mater Christi is Latin for Mother of Christ. 🤱
St. Catherine of Siena (1347 – 1380) 😇 was an influential and courageous 14ᵗʰ-century Italian mystic, activist, and Dominican tertiary.
In her nightly ministry 🌙, she walked through the dark, disease-ridden streets of Siena to care for the poor, the sick 🤒, the plague-stricken 🤢, and the dying. The lantern-lamp 🕯️ she’s holding in photo #4 symbolizes the light of Christ and the spiritual comfort she brought to others. The breadbasket 🧺🥖 she’s carrying represents her lifelong devotion to active charity.
When Catherine was 28 years old, she experienced a profound vision ✨ during deep prayer. In this vision, Jesus Christ appeared to her holding two distinct crowns 👑 in His hands: a crown of gold 🪙, studded with brilliant, precious jewels 💎, and a crown of thorns 📌, identical to the one worn during His crucifixion.
Jesus offered her a choice: she could accept the crown of gold which promised a life of earthly comfort 😴💤, riches 💰, and honor 🥇, or she could choose the crown of thorns promising a life of suffering, humiliation, and deep spiritual union with His crucifixion ✝️.
Catherine rejected the gold ❌, stating that her only desire was to share in the suffering of Christ ✅. In the vision, she reached out and took the crown of thorns and pressed it firmly down onto her own head 👸.
I desire, O Lord, to live here always conformed to Your passion, and to find pain and suffering my repose and delight.
Her decision was not just a mental metaphor 🧠. When she woke from the ecstasy ❤️🔥🤩, she felt a sharp, physical, throbbing pain radiating around her scalp 🤕. She joyfully 🥰 carried this intense, chronic head pain every day for the rest of her short life, viewing it as a miraculous, invisible sharing of Christ’s physical wounds.
She chose wisely. 🦉
6 pics:
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4 - symbolism/attributes: 🕯️ 🧺🥖 👑🪵
5 - the rock 🪨 holding the keys 🔑
6 - 👐🧼💦
