How much do you know about St. Catherine of Siena? Do you know what special title the Church granted her, or how old she was when she joined the Dominicans?
As we celebrate the Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena on April 29, we invite you to discover six facts about her life and legacy, and where you can find her portrayed in the Basilica.
1. Catherine was one of 25 children!
The daughter of an Italian wool-dyer and cloth merchant, she was born in 1347 in Siena, Tuscany. Tragically, most of her brothers and sisters did not live to adulthood.
2. She lived through the Bubonic plague era.
While the Bubonic plague ailed the population without, corruption of the Church indicated a spiritual disease within. She grew up during a tumultuous era of fear, disease, and instability.
3. She became a lay Dominican when she was just 15.
A withdrawn young lady, she mainly kept to herself, eschewing social interaction. “My cell will not be one of stone or wood, but of self-knowledge,” she remarked, deciding not to enter a convent. Her solitary lifestyle continued for three years, a period where she was inundated with mystical visions. Sometimes they were disturbing; sometimes inner voices whispered doubts in her mind. But when she laughed out loud one day, they vanished – and she saw Christ in their place.
“Where were you when all this was happening?” she asked him.
He replied, “I was in your heart.”
These visions of Christ began to happen every day, and at age 20, she decided to forsake her life of hermitage to serve others. Catherine became a champion for truth, writing her most popular books during this time, and sending letters to authority figures in the Church and government. Her work The Dialogue recounts her conversations with God, in an impactful, but at times, abstruse, text.
4. She negotiated peace between armies and mediated family feuds.
On one occasion, her visit to Pope Gregory XI inspired him to return to Rome at her suggestion. Catherine was bold, unafraid to call out Church leaders for letting money influence appointments and making decisions from personal and political motivations.
5. She was only 33 when she passed away.
As she watched the Church around her continue in a pattern of spiritual decay, Catherine believed that she could carry the weight of its atonement. In her last mystical experience, she felt the Church’s weight on her back, and collapsed into a state of excruciating paralysis. Within weeks, at age 33, she died. Discovered on her body were strange markings believed to be stigmata, including a “wedding band” on her finger to signify her relationship to Christ.
6. She was the second woman to be granted the title “Doctor of the Church.”
At the Basilica, you can find her portrayed in the St. Catherine of Siena Chapel in the Great Upper Church and in stained glass in the Our Lady of Pompei Chapel.
Sources:
Butler’s Lives of Saints, ed. Bernard Bangley.
“St. Catherine of Siena,” Britannica.
The Way of Saints, Tom Cowan.
