Saint Catherine of Siena

Catherine Benincasa was born in Siena in 1347, the twenty-fourth of twenty-five children. From childhood she was drawn to prayer, and as a young woman she joined the Dominican Third Order, living at first in seclusion at home. In about 1368 she experienced a mystical espousal with Christ and then turned outward, caring for the sick and poor, especially during the plague, and drawing a circle of disciples.

Though she learned to write only late in life, she dictated hundreds of letters to popes, kings and ordinary people, calling them to holiness and peace. In 1376 she went to Avignon and urged Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome, which he did in 1377. During the Great Western Schism she supported Pope Urban VI in Rome. Her Dialogue is a masterpiece of spiritual writing. She died in Rome on April 29, 1380, at thirty-three. She was canonized in 1461, declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970, and named a patroness of Europe in 1999.

Italy honors Catherine as co-patroness with Saint Francis, and Siena celebrates her with processions, flags and Mass at her home sanctuary. Her body rests in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.

Nurses, often under her patronage, and Dominican schools and parishes in the Americas celebrate her feast with service and prayer.