The greatest woman Doctor of the Church was not unconcerned about death row inmates.
My favorite story of St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) is this incident: There was a prisoner, Niccolo di Toldo, age 24, who was about to be executed for treason against the government and "sowing discord" during a civil uprising in Siena. He was angry, raving and crying out in wrath, and would not reconcile himself to Christ.
Niccolo did not wish to repent or receive the Last Rites. However, Catherine came to the prison to embrace him and comfort him saying that Christ was with him through his suffering.
She said that for him to know the day, time, and manner of his coming death was a great mercy not given to everyone, and that he should make use of this singular blessing by repenting of his sins and receiving the love of Christ.
She persuaded him to confess his sins and receive Holy Communion, something he had not done in years. Catherine was present at his execution. In a letter to St. Raymond of Capus she wrote:
I waited for him at the place of execution, and as I waited, I kept praying... Before he arrived, I lay down and stretched out my head on the block, and begged Mary for the grace I wanted, namely, that I might give him light and peace of heart at the moment of death...Then he arrived, like a meek lamb, and when he saw me he began to smile. He asked me to make the sign of the cross over him...
He prostrated with great meekness and I stretched out his neck and bent down to him, reminding him of the blood of the Lamb. His lips kept murmuring only "Jesus" and "Catherine," and he was still murmuring when I received his head into my hands.
Catherine's biographer records that as Niccolo's blood gushed over her white Dominican habit, she had a vision of his soul entering Paradise. She 'saw' him turn for a moment and smile at her, and the whole crowd hushed and fell to their knees. A priest at the scene of the execution said "We all felt that we had witnessed, not the execution of a criminal, but the Transitus of a Saint."
So this could be the spiritual blessing of the death penalty: that the guilty party accepts the justice of his sentence and, trusting Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, offers his death as expiation for his sins.
What I want to know is, is there any Catholic in Florida who is Catholic, who has such faith in Christ and love for the criminal, that they will help guide his soul to Paradise?
