Book: Catherine of Siena: Selected Letters, ed. by Diana L. Villegas

This latest volume in the Classics of Western Spirituality series from Paulist Press was edited by Diana L. Villegas. It includes a 37 page introduction and a selection of Catherine's letters organized by categories of recipients, e.g., nuns, Mantellate and close lay male disciples, friars and monks, and so forth. Here is an excerpt from Villegas's Preface:

In doing a new translation, I benefit from the completion of the critical edition of The Letters by Antonio Volpato as well as from many more years of available Catherine scholarship. While (Suzanne) Noffke, a fine writer, gave Catherine a very fluid and almost elegant style, I am offering a more literal translation that I believe better reflects Catherine's communication, which, as will be discussed, was that of a young medieval woman with no education but with a gift for passionate exhortation and creative use of language and images.

Citation:

Catherine of Siena : Selected Letters. Edited by Diana Villegas. New York: Paulist Press, 2025.