St. Catherine of Siena

Their story

Catherine Benincasa was born in Siena, Italy, in 1347, one of the youngest of about twenty-five children of a wool dyer. At six she had a vision of Jesus, and at seven she promised to give her life to Him. When her parents wanted her to marry, she cut off her long hair in protest. At about sixteen she joined the Dominican Third Order, living at home as a laywoman devoted to prayer and service. For three years she rarely left her small room, spending her days in silence and prayer. Then Catherine felt Christ calling her out into the world. She cared for the sick and the poor of Siena, nursing people with plague and the most repulsive diseases when others fled. A circle of friends and disciples gathered around her, priests and lay people alike, drawn by her wisdom and joy. Though she had little formal schooling, she dictated hundreds of letters to popes, kings, soldiers and ordinary people, calling them to holiness, peace and courage. In Catherine's time the popes had lived for nearly seventy years in Avignon, France, away from Rome. In 1376 Catherine traveled to Avignon and urged Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome, and the next year he did. When the Church was later torn apart by schism, she worked and prayed tirelessly for its unity. Her book, the Dialogue, records her conversations with God. Worn out by her labors, she died in Rome on April 29, 1380, at the age of 33. In 1970 she was declared a Doctor of the Church, and she is a patron of Italy and of Europe.