Tertiaries of the Church and Saint Catherine of Siena

Practically every Catholic knows about Saint Catherine of Siena, whose feast day is celebrated on April 29. She is popularly remembered for being the last child born into a large family,¹ for writing down her mystical experiences in a book now called The Dialogue,² and for being a nun and a papal advisor.³

But all of those well-known facts about Catherine are technically incorrect in at least one detail.

For example, Catherine was a Dominican tertiary, not a Dominican nun. What’s the difference?

When Saint Dominic de Guzman (d. 1221) founded the Dominican order, he established a religious order for men, and then he founded a second religious order for cloistered women. Decades later, the “Brothers and Sisters of the Penance of Saint Dominic” arose, groups of men and women who agreed to follow the spirituality of Saint Dominic and wore distinctive habits. But they never became friars or nuns.

The term “third order” arose to describe the communities of ordinary men and women who joined these religious communities. Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) chose to become a third order Dominican. She wore a habit and lived in a community with other third order Dominican women, but she did not live in a cloister. Instead, she recognized God’s call to a more active vocation.

Third orders have gradually changed over the centuries. The current definition of Catholics who are members of a third order, commonly called tertiaries, is:

Tertiaries: Lay persons living in the world who are striving after Christian perfection as their station in life allows, according to the spirit of a religious order to which they are affiliated and abiding by the rules approved for their association by the Apostolic See.⁴

By my count, there are 132 tertiaries who have been recognized as saints or blesseds by the Catholic Church, though the true number is surely higher. Some details about saints’ lives, particularly those who were laymen, are not always recorded or certain.

The Augustinian, Carmelite, Servite, and Trinitarian orders have had third orders for centuries. However, most tertiaries who have been recognized for their holiness by the Church have been either Dominicans or Franciscans. The Dominican order boasts twenty-three saintly tertiaries, in addition to the remarkable Saint Catherine. But the Franciscan order can point to fifty-three saints and blesseds who were third order members of their order—and they can point out that their third order was established first.

Of those 132 holy tertiaries, forty of them died as martyrs. These martyrs, mostly men, died in countries as far away as China, France, Guatemala, Japan, Madagascar, Spain, and Vietnam. In many cases, they initially learned about Christianity from Catholic missionaries, accepted baptism, and became tertiaries of the religious order that had brought them the Gospel. As tertiaries, they were obvious targets when persecution arose.

For example, authorities in both nineteenth century China and Vietnam persecuted the Church by executing Dominican priests from Spain, and then they arrested and killed tertiaries. Tertiaries also died as martyrs during the French Revolution and the Spanish Civil War precisely because they were easily identified as faithful Catholics.

Many men and women became tertiaries and then incorporated the order’s spirituality into their lives while living as hermits. For example, Blessed Giovanni Pelingotto (1240-1304) came from a wealthy family, but he decided to give his money to the needy and become a Franciscan tertiary and hermit.

Some men and women became tertiaries after undergoing a deep personal conversion or painful event in life. Saint Margaret of Cortona (1247-1297) was left on her own to support her young son after her lover had been murdered. Deeply repentant, she was encouraged by Franciscans who taught her how to pray, and she later chose to become a Franciscan tertiary. Many widows, generally with less colorful stories, have become tertiaries and are now recognized as saints. Some wives, like Saint Elizabeth, queen of Portugal (1271-1336), found God’s strength to bear their difficult marriages through the spiritual support of a third order.

On the other hand, many tertiaries have chosen active lives instead. Saint Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur (1626-1667) was a Franciscan tertiary who founded a home for orphans and beggars in Guatemala. Saint Marie Madeleine Postel (1756-1846) and Blessed Antoine Chevrier (1825-1879), both of France, became tertiaries but later founded their own religious orders.

Like Doctor of the Church Catherine of Siena, some third order members became known as first-rate mystics. Saint Angela of Foligno (1248-1309) turned away from her frivolous life after the deaths of her husband and children, became a Franciscan tertiary, and wrote about her deep spiritual experiences.

While the development of third orders over time has produced many holy women and men, it has also produced another great blessing to the Church: a recognition that all Catholics are called to live lives of personal holiness. Granted, the idea that everyone—not just priests and nuns—are called to be holy is not new. Saint Paul reminded Christians almost twenty centuries ago that, “[T]his is the will of God, your sanctification.”⁵ But the Second Vatican Council strongly emphasized a “universal call to holiness”,⁶ and many movements have been established all over the world, such as Opus Dei, to encourage ordinary Catholics to grow in their faith, just like Saint Catherine.

People from all walks of life were inspired by Saint Catherine of Siena, and she corresponded with them, encouraging or correcting them as she saw fit. One of her spiritual sons was an Italian noble named Stefano Marconi. Although he was a devout young man, Catherine recognized that Marconi was ignoring God’s call to do more with his life. In one letter to him, she scolded him and called him lukewarm and ungrateful. She also famously and bluntly told him, “If you are what you ought to be, you will set fire to all of Italy.”⁷ What her letters did not do, her death did; Marconi became a Carthusian monk after Catherine died and eventually became General of the Carthusian order.

May the example of the tertiaries inspire us, whatever our vocation, to become what God has called us to be: living saints who set the world on fire with God’s love.

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