Feast day: 29 April
Saint Catherine of Siena
Sancta Catharina Senensis
A dyer's daughter with no formal schooling who counselled popes, worked for peace in Italy and became a Doctor of the Church.
- Born
- 25 March 1347, Siena, Italy
- Died
- 29 April 1380, Rome, aged 33
- Canonization
- Canonized 29 June 1461 by Pope Pius II; declared Doctor of the Church by Saint Paul VI on 4 October 1970 and co-patroness of Europe by Saint John Paul II in 1999.
- Religious order
- Dominican Third Order (Mantellate)
- Country
- Italy
Biography
Childhood and consecration
Catherine Benincasa was the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth child of a Sienese dyer. She had her first vision at about six and vowed her virginity to God as a child. Resisting her family's plans for marriage, she joined the Dominican Mantellate, laywomen living a rule at home, and spent three years in prayer and silence in her room.
Service and public mission
She emerged to serve the sick and the poor of Siena, including plague victims, and gathered disciples. Her letters — dictated, since she learned to write only late — reached rulers, cardinals and popes. She worked to reconcile the warring Italian cities with the papacy.
The return of the papacy to Rome
In 1376 she travelled to Avignon and urged Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome, which he did in January 1377. During the Western Schism that followed she supported Pope Urban VI and moved to Rome, where she died on 29 April 1380 at thirty-three, worn out by penance and labour for the Church.
Timeline
- 1347 — Born in Siena
- ~c. 1363 — Joins the Dominican Mantellate
- 1374 — Serves the sick during the plague; examined by the Dominicans
- 1376 — Travels to Avignon to see Gregory XI
- 1377 — The pope returns to Rome; she dictates The Dialogue
- 1380 — Dies in Rome, 29 April
- 1461 — Canonized by Pius II
Dates marked ~ are traditional or debated among historians.
Symbols
Lily — Her consecrated virginity.
Crown of thorns and stigmata — Mystical gifts she is reported to have received, visible only to herself during life.
Book and Dominican habit — Her Dialogue and her place among the Preachers.
Virtues & spiritual lessons
Courage in speaking truth to authority, penance, charity to the sick, and love of the Church even when its ministers failed. She teaches obedience joined to fearless honesty.
Importance in the Church
Catherine influenced the end of the Avignon papacy and left in The Dialogue one of the classics of Christian mysticism, written in vivid Tuscan Italian.
Quotes
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
Popularly attributed to Saint Catherine; a paraphrase rather than a verified quotation from her writings
“Proclaim the truth and do not be silent through fear.”
Letter to a Florentine correspondent, Letters of Catherine of Siena
Writings
The Dialogue of Divine Providence (1377–1378) — Her principal work, dictated in ecstasy: a conversation between the soul and God the Father.
Letters (382 surviving) — Addressed to popes, princes, prisoners and family — a major source for 14th-century history.
Prayers
Prayer of Saint Catherine to the Holy Spirit
O Holy Spirit, come into my heart; by your power draw it to yourself, God, and grant me charity with fear. Guard me, Christ, from every evil thought, and warm and inflame me again with your most gentle love, so that every suffering may seem light to me. Amen.
A prayer preserved among Saint Catherine's authentic prayers.
Places
Siena, Italy — Her family home is preserved as a sanctuary; her head is venerated in the Basilica of San Domenico.
Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome — Her body rests beneath the high altar.
Entries are drawn from the Roman Martyrology, the General Roman Calendar, canonization records of the Holy See, and the saints' own writings. Where a date, quotation or attribution is uncertain, it is marked as such. (63 saints)