(Irish) Dominican Family Pilgrimage to Siena
May 24 –31, 2008

A model group of pilgrims gathered at Dublin airport – all present and correct within five minutes of the appointed time – and Sr Marie Cunningham, our leader, could relax just a little!  We were given our ‘scallops’ in the form of nicely-designed name badges and our vade mecums in the form of attractive and substantial liturgy books – duly admired but not really appreciated until later.  One was immediately conscious that the ‘Family’ was here: sisters, laity, three friars, a nun (Fiona from Siena) and a small number representing our wider Dominican connections.

First stop Pisa, near midnight, and next morning we did our only  ‘tourist’ thing: the famous Leaning Tower and the Duomo – both very impressive, beautiful and much bigger than I had imagined.  Then in the afternoon a couple of hours pleasant journey to San Gimignano which was to be our base for the week.  I have to say I fell in love with San Gimignano! The old walled town (a UNESCO world heritage site) is charming, touristy without being tatty.  It seemed that San Gimignano had no Dominican associations but in one of my meanderings I came across a plaque marking the site of San Domenico, a Dominican priory from around 1370 till the suppression in 1796.  The once-impressive priory was modelled on San Marco in Florence.  The place was a prison from 1796 until 1991.

St. Catherine was the main focus of the pilgrimage so the first full day was in Siena.  Morning Prayer and an introductory talk by Mary O’Driscoll on the bus set the spiritual scene.  We had our Mass in the chapel at Casa Catarina, beneath the Crucifix of the stigmata (brought here from Pisa); we visited the Dominican church San Domenico with the chapel of the Mantellate which was Catherine’s usual place of prayer  I know that for many this was the place we most felt the presence and spirit of Catherine and for many it was the highlight of the whole week. Several spent all available time in quiet prayer there.   From Siena we followed Catherine the seven miles to Lecceto, where there was a community of Augustinian hermits, including her Anam Chara, disciple/mentor, William Flete. to whom Catherine probably owed her Augustinian theology. She loved to come out here for quiet and solitude and to meet the hermits. We got inside to the 14th century cloister that Catherine knew.  In the centre is a well, called ‘Catherine’s well’, where she would sit and rest after walking from Siena before meeting and talking at length with William. In the room where tradition says they met there is a lovely painting of them.  I loved Lecceto and believe Catherine did. After Siena and Lecceto, though direct local connections with Catherine were few, she remained at the centre of our pilgrimage.  Our Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Mass and Mary’s talks daily kept before us aspects of her life.  What we were getting was not just expertise and scholarship, but above all a loving familiarity with Catherine.

 It is hard to give an account of the pilgrimage because, since there were 48 pilgrims, there were 48 different pilgrimages!  High points, low points and things that were ‘special’ were unique to each person. We really were pilgrims on a real pilgrimage.  A pilgrim doesn’t choose her/his companions, as a tourist does, but falls in with whoever is around at a given moment.  We were all out of our usual roles, ruts and routines.  

Our days alternated between active travel/visiting and quiet free days ‘at home’.  Our final day brought us driving through beautiful Tuscany – unfortunately in pouring rain!  This kindly stopped, however, as we reached Monte Oliveti.

I found a beautiful symmetry between our first afternoon in Pisa and our final afternoon in Montepulciano, which I suspect was not planned as such.  In Pisa we had our Mass in San Domenico, now the home of Iraqi Dominican sisters. It was moving to talk to them and hear their very painful story.  None of us will forget their singing the Our Father in Aramaic at the Mass. The convent is a very short walk from the Leaning Tower and tourist chaos, but is a real oasis of peace, filled with the glorious fragrance of jasmine.

On our final afternoon we were welcomed at San Querico d’Orca by the Philippino Dominican sisters who work there, and were given a tour of the church. Two of the sisters joined us as we went on to Montepulciano, to be welcomed for Mass in the church of St. Agnes by Fr. Marco, O.P.  As we celebrated these Masses, I was conscious of the extention of the Dominican family in space all over the world and in time back through the centuries. 

Our final Eucharist, before heading for the airport, included an open sharing on what the pilgrimage had meant to us – our final gift to each other. It was all a great experience! I’d like to end these reflections with the only prayer believed to have been written by Catherine herself and composed in the area in which we had spent this final day:

O Holy Spirit, come into my heart; By your power draw it to yourself, God, And give me charity with fear. Guard me Christ, from every evil thought, And so warm and enflame me again With your most gentle love  That every suffering my seem light to me. My holy Father and my gentle Lord, Help me in my every need. Christ love!  Christ love!

Genevieve Mooney O.P.