Faith Filled Friday: My St. Catherine of Siena Statue

I wonder if this could count as a miracle.  It’s certainly wondrous and remarkable.  Every so often I enjoy surfing through the St. Dominic Store.  To quote their website it’s a “religious goods online store associated with the Lay Provincial Council of the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic of the Holy Name of Jesus (Western) Province of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans); and, St. Dominic's Store is affiliated with the Third Order of St. Dominic.”    Simply put it’s a gift shop of the Lay Dominicans of the western province of the United States.  A little over a week ago I came across a twelve inch high statue of St. Catherine of Siena.  My heart leaped, and it was only $37 dollars! 

It was beautiful, made in Italy of paste marble (whatever that is) and hand painted.  Everyone here knows my love for everything Santa Catarina.  I’ve always wanted such a statue and never found one to my liking.  This looked perfect.  Of course I ordered it, along with a couple of small items, just to make the order worth it.  But the statue was the key.

In the week that it took to get to me, I got antsy and wanted to see the statue again.  I returned to the website.  I couldn’t find it.  I went through every category, “Statues,” “St. Catherine,” “Dominican Items,” nothing, not there.  Huh?  Where did it go?  Did I buy the last one?  If so it would say sold out or something like that.  If anyone can find it there, please send me the link.

So this got me motivated to look for this statue elsewhere.  Did it really exist?  I checked Amazon.  No not there.  I did a search under religious statues, and I could not find it.  Finally I did find the very statue at a website for the gift shop at the Basilica Caterina in Siena, Italy.  It was the very one: “STATUE OF SAINT CATHERINE. CROWN OF THORNS SIZE 41”  They sold it for 58 Euros.  I quickly looked up the conversion of Euros to dollars, and it translates to about $70.  So I got it for half the price and didn’t need to pay shipping costs from Italy.  Wow!

This is all very strange and certainly divinely sent.  Thank you God.  Thank you St. Catherine.

So once it arrived I took some pictures to show you.  First the entire length.

 

Next, mid body up. 

 

The book she is holding indicates she is a Doctor of the Church and the lilies that she was a life-long virgin.

 

The base says “Santa Caterina.”  Of course you realize that’s Italian for “St. Catherine.” 

From the back.

 

The halo has a crown of thorns around it.  Finally some close ups of her face.

 

Isn’t she beautiful?  What a wonderful sacramental this will make.  I still can’t find it on the St. Dominic Store website.  This was heaven sent.