230 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



of wonderful force of character, and intervened 

 with altruistic motives and plain common sense 

 in the complicated politics of her day. She 

 experienced the mystical trances which were 

 the crown of holiness to the mediaeval mind, and 

 was remarkable also for the austerities and good 

 works which her devoted friend and biographer, 

 Raimondo da Capua, likens to lilies. 



* Taught, nay rather compelled, by her 

 supreme Teacher, she learned every day more 

 and more both to enjoy the embraces of the 

 Celestial Bridegroom in the bed of flowers, and 

 to descend into the valley of lilies to make 

 herself more fruitful, nor ever to leave or lessen 

 the one for the sake of the other.' 



The most interesting of the pictures of Saint 

 Catharine is that by her friend and disciple, 

 Andrea Vanni,^ and which is therefore a portrait 

 from memory, if not from life. It was probably 

 painted at the time of her canonization, thirteen 

 years after her death, and shows her as a tall, 

 slight woman with a refined enthusiastic face. 

 In her left hand she holds the lilies ^ which re- 



1 S. Domenico, Siena. 



2 The name Catharine, it will be remembered, is from the Greek 

 Katharos, which has the same signification as the lily, i.e., purity. 



