St. Catherine of Siena

Childhood Vows and the Dominican Third Order

St. Catherine of Siena was born Caterina Benincasa in 1347, one of the many children of a prosperous wool dyer of Siena, Italy. According to her early biographers she experienced a vision of Christ at the age of six and privately vowed her life to God soon after. Resisting her family's plans for marriage, she eventually joined the Dominican Third Order around 1363, living a life of prayer and severe penance in her family home before emerging into an astonishingly public apostolate.

Nursing, Letters, and the Return from Avignon

Catherine nursed victims of plague and disease that others refused to touch, ministered to prisoners, and gathered around her a devoted circle of disciples who called her "Mamma." Though she never learned to write fluently, she dictated nearly four hundred letters to popes, monarchs, and civic leaders — letters remarkable for their boldness and spiritual authority. Her most famous intervention came in 1376-77, when she traveled to Avignon and urged Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome, which he did. When the Great Western Schism broke out in 1378, she spent her final strength in Rome supporting the legitimate pope, Urban VI, and praying for the unity of the Church.

The Dialogue and Death in Rome

Her mystical life was extraordinary: she described a spiritual espousal to Christ, and her masterwork, the Dialogue of Divine Providence, records her conversations with God the Father on providence, discernment, and the Blood of Christ. She died in Rome on April 29, 1380, at the age of thirty-three. Her body rests beneath the high altar of the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, while her head is venerated in the Basilica of San Domenico in her native Siena.

Canonization, Patronage, and Doctor of the Church

Catherine was canonized in 1461 by Pope Pius II, himself a Sienese. Pope Pius XII named her co-patroness of Italy with St. Francis of Assisi in 1939; in 1970 Pope St. Paul VI declared her a Doctor of the Church, one of the first two women so honored; and in 1999 Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed her a co-patroness of Europe. Her feast is celebrated on April 29.

Significance

Catherine never learned to write fluently, yet her dictated letters and her Dialogue made her one of the Church's great teachers. She moved easily from the bedsides of plague victims to the courts of popes, convinced that love for Christ demanded both tender service and bold truth-telling. As a patroness of Italy and Europe, she still calls believers to pray and work for the unity and renewal of the Church.