A Singular Soul

Born Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa on March 25, 1347, in the city of Siena, a region in Tuscany, Italy, St. Catherine of Siena was the 23^rd of 25 children for her parents Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa. Her mother was forty when she gave birth to twin girls, Caterina and Giovanna, with Giovanna passing away during infancy.

Growing up a cheerful child, Catherine's family gave her the nickname “Euphrosyne,” which is Greek for “joy.” As a teenager, Catherine’s older sister passed away during childbirth, and Jacopo and Lapa wanted Catherine to marry the widower. Out of refusal, Catherine cut off her hair to appear less attractive to prospective suitors.

Unwilling to marry, Catherine neither desired to enter a convent. Instead, she chose to live a religious lay life with a group of women who followed the Dominican rule, a community that would become the Dominican Third Order.

Due to her association with the Order, fellow Dominican sisters taught Catherine to read, and although she remained living at home, Catherine cloistered herself from her family. 
During this time, she would give away food and clothing without her family’s permission, causing stress within the home, but she would endure their complaints and not ask anything for herself.
At twenty-one, Catherine experienced a vision she described as her “mystical marriage with Jesus,” where she was given a ring from Jesus that only she could see upon her request. In this vision, she was told to reenter active life with society and devote herself to helping the sick and poor. She served the community this way from 1367 to 1374, developing a reputation as a holy woman.

With her involvement in serving the needs of those within Siena, Catherine began dictating letters to scribes who helped her ministry, engaging in correspondence with leaders regarding politics and reform of the Church. One day, she traveled to Florence, probably related to matters concerning the Dominicans, and around this time, she became the spiritual directee of Bl. Raymond of Capua. In Bl. Raymond’s biography, he says Catherine received the stigmata seen only by her, upon her request.
The head of St. Catherine is preserved in a reliquary in the Basilica of San Domenico in Siena, Italy.Catherine’s engagements with religious and political activities of the time developed into her multiple writings to Pope Gregory XI, the last Avignon Pope, in which she expressed the need for unity within the Church. Seven popes tied to the French monarchy resided in Avignon, France, and Catherine pleaded with Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome. 

Her letter writing also included communications with kings of France and Hungary, the Queen of Naples and the Visconti family of Milan. Her letters are now celebrated texts within early Tuscan literature.

She also began dictating her most well-known work, Dialogue, which focuses on divine providence, discretion, prayer, and obedience. It encapsulates her conversations with God in moments of divine ecstasy. 

Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome in 1377 and passed away in 1378, then the Great Schism of the West developed.

Living a life of austerity and fasting, Catherine remained devoted to building unification within the Church upon this new division, but her health had declined. Bl. Raymond advised her to eat more, but she claimed illness prevented her from doing so.
Catherine’s earthly life departed April 29, 1380, at the age of 33, eight days after suffering from a stroke. 
Though her young life drew to a close, her example of faithfulness to the magisterium of the Catholic Church lived on. Pope Pius II canonized her in 1461.

Catherine was later declared co-patroness of Rome by Pope Pius IX in 1866 and co-patron of Italy, along with St. Francis of Assisi, by Pope Pius XII in 1939. Additionally, in 1970, Pope Paul VI named Ss. Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena the first female Doctors of the Church.

Catherine also was made co-patron saint of Europe by Pope John Paul II in 1999; alongside Ss. Benedict of Nursia, Cyril and Methodius, Bridget of Sweden, and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

Her relics remain at Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome and the Basilica of San Domenico in Siena.

St. Catherine of Siena’s feast day is April 29. She is also the patron saint of fire prevention.