Catherine's vocational years : worldliness and female sanctity -- Catherine enters Tuscan politics : networks and letter writing -- Niccolò di Toldo and the erotics of political engagement -- Catherine's Sienese famiglia : pious networks and political identities -- Prophetic politics : Catherine in the War of Eight Saints
Summary
"In The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena, F. Thomas Luongo combines literary-critical readings of Catherine's letters - she was the author of one of the largest collections of medieval letters - with political and social analysis
Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, Luongo investigates how Catherine's spiritual authority and sanctity were linked with contemporary political and cultural developments
He shows how the political situation of the church in Italy and a culture that privileged female spirituality and prophetic speech facilitated Catherine's emergence into a public role."--Jacket
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-223) and index
