Catherine of Siena

Italian Dominican saint (1347–1380)

Saint

Catherine of Siena

TOSD

St. Catherine of Siena,
by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Doctor of the Church, Virgin
Born| 25 March 1347
Siena, Republic of Siena
Died| 29 April 1380 (aged 33)
Rome, Papal States
Venerated in| Catholic Church
Anglican Communion[1]
Lutheranism[2]
Beatified| 29 December 1460
Canonized| 29 June 1461 by Pope Pius II
Major shrine| Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome and the Sanctuary of Saint Catherine, Siena
Feast| 29 April; 30 April (Roman Calendar, 1628–1969); 4 October (in Italy)
Attributes| habit of a Dominican tertiary, ring, lily, cherubim, crown of thorns, stigmata, crucifix, book, heart, skull, dove, rose, miniature church, miniature ship bearing Papal coat of arms
Patronage| against fire; bodily ills; people ridiculed for their piety; nurses; sick people; miscarriages; Europe; Italy; Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA; Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines; Samal, Bataan, Philippines

Catherine of Siena  (Italian: Caterina da Siena; 25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380), a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and on the Catholic Church. Canonized in 1461, she is also a Doctor of the Church.

Born and raised in Siena, she wanted from an early age to devote herself to God, against the will of her parents. She joined the "mantellates", a group of pious women, primarily widows, informally devoted to Dominican spirituality.[3] Her influence with Pope Gregory XI played a role in his 1376 decision to leave Avignon for Rome. The Pope then sent Catherine to negotiate peace with Florence. After Gregory XI's death (March 1378) and the conclusion of peace (July 1378), she returned to Siena. She dictated to secretaries her set of spiritual treatises The Dialogue of Divine Providence. The Great Schism of the West led Catherine of Siena to go to Rome with the pope. She sent numerous letters to princes and cardinals to promote obedience to Pope Urban VI and to defend what she calls the "vessel of the Church". She died on 29 April 1380, exhausted by her rigorous fasting. Urban VI celebrated her funeral and burial in the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.

Devotion around Catherine of Siena developed rapidly after her death. Pope Pius II canonized her in 1461; she was declared a patron saint of Rome in 1866 by Pope Pius IX, and of Italy (together with Francis of Assisi) in 1939 by Pope Pius XII.[4][5][6][7][8] She was the second woman to be declared a "doctor of the Church," on 4 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI – only days after Teresa of Ávila. In 1999 Pope John Paul II proclaimed her a (co-)patron saint of Europe.

Catherine of Siena is one of the outstanding figures of medieval Catholicism, by the strong influence she has had in the history of the papacy and her extensive authorship.[9] She was behind the return of the Pope from Avignon to Rome, and then carried out many missions entrusted to her by the pope, something quite rare for a woman in the Middle Ages. Her Dialogue, hundreds of letters, and dozens of prayers, also give her a prominent place in the history of Italian literature.

## Contents

* 1 Life
* 2 Sources of her life
* 3 Works
* 4 Theology
* 5 Veneration
* 5.1 Patronage
* 5.2 Severed head
* 6 Legacy
* 7 Main sanctuaries
* 8 Images
* 9 Works
* 10 See also
* 11 References
* 12 Sources
* 13 Further reading
* 14 External links

## Life[edit | edit source]

File:House Catherine Siena Apr 2008.jpg

The house of Saint Catherine in Siena

Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa was born on 25 March 1347 (shortly before the Black Death ravaged Europe) in Siena, Republic of Siena (today Italy), to Lapa Piagenti, the daughter of a local poet, and Jacopo di Benincasa, a cloth dyer who ran his enterprise with the help of his sons.[10] The house where Catherine grew up still exists. Lapa was about forty years old when she gave premature birth to twin daughters Catherine and Giovanna. She had already borne 22 children, but half of them had died. Giovanna was handed over to a wet-nurse and died soon after. Catherine was nursed by her mother and developed into a healthy child. She was two years old when Lapa had her 25th child, another daughter named Giovanna.[11] As a child Catherine was so merry that the family gave her the pet name of "Euphrosyne", which is Greek for "joy" and the name of an Euphrosyne of Alexandria.[12]

Catherine is said by her confessor and biographer Raymond of Capua O.P.'s Life to have had her first vision of Christ when she was five or six years old: she and a brother were on the way home from visiting a married sister when she is said to have experienced a vision of Christ seated in glory with the Apostles Peter, Paul, and John. Raymond continues that at age seven, Catherine vowed to give her whole life to God.[12][13]

When Catherine was sixteen, her older sister Bonaventura died in childbirth; already anguished by this, Catherine soon learned that her parents wanted her to marry Bonaventura's widower. She was absolutely opposed and started a strict fast. She had learned this from Bonaventura, whose husband had been far from considerate but his wife had changed his attitude by refusing to eat until he showed better manners. Besides fasting, Catherine further disappointed her mother by cutting off her long hair as a protest against being overly encouraged to improve her appearance to attract a husband.[14]

File:Св Екатерина сиенская Ораторио Санта Катерина Neroccio.jpg

Statuette by Neroccio di Bartolomeo de' Landi, (1475)

Catherine would later advise Raymond of Capua to do during times of trouble what she did now as a teenager: "Build a cell inside your mind, from which you can never flee." In this inner cell she made her father into a representation of Christ, her mother into the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her brothers into the apostles. Serving them humbly became an opportunity for spiritual growth. Catherine resisted the accepted course of marriage and motherhood on the one hand, or a nun's veil on the other. She chose to live an active and prayerful life outside a convent's walls following the model of the Dominicans.[15] Eventually her father gave up and permitted her to live as she pleased.[citation needed]

A vision of Saint Dominic gave strength to Catherine, but her wish to join his Order was no comfort to Lapa, who took her daughter with her to the baths in Bagno Vignoni to improve her health. Catherine fell seriously ill with a violent rash, fever and pain, which conveniently made her mother accept her wish to join the "Mantellate", the local association of devout women.[16] The Mantellate taught Catherine how to read, and she lived in almost total silence and solitude in the family home.[16]

Her custom of giving away clothing and food without asking anyone's permission cost her family significantly, but she requested nothing for herself. By staying in their midst, she could live out her rejection of them more strongly. She did not want their food, referring to the table laid for her in Heaven with her real family.[17]

File:Giovanni di Paolo The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena.jpg

Giovanni di Paolo, The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena

According to Raymond of Capua, at the age of twenty-one (c. 1368), Catherine experienced what she described in her letters as a "Mystical Marriage" with Jesus,[18] later a popular subject in art as the Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine. Caroline Walker Bynum explains one surprising and controversial aspect of this marriage that occurs both in artistic representations of the event and in some early accounts of her life: "Underlining the extent to which the marriage was a fusion with Christ's physicality [...] Catherine received, not the ring of gold and jewels that her biographer reports in his bowdlerized version, but the ring of Christ's foreskin."[19][20] Catherine herself mentions the foreskin-as-wedding ring motif in one of her letters (#221), equating the wedding ring of a virgin with a foreskin; she typically claimed that her own wedding ring to Christ was simply invisible.[21] She wrote in a letter (to encourage a nun who seems to have been undergoing a prolonged period of spiritual trial and torment): "Bathe in the blood of Christ crucified. See that you don't look for or want anything but the crucified, as a true bride ransomed by the blood of Christ crucified – for that is my wish. You see very well that you are a bride and that he has espoused you – you and everyone else – and not with a ring of silver but with a ring of his own flesh. Look at the tender little child who on the eighth day, when he was circumcised, gave up just so much flesh as to make a tiny circlet of a ring!"[22] Raymond of Capua also records that she was told by Christ to leave her withdrawn life and enter the public life of the world.[23] Catherine rejoined her family and began helping the ill and the poor, where she took care of them in hospitals or homes. Her early pious activities in Siena attracted a group of followers, women and men, who gathered around her.[10]

As social and political tensions mounted in Siena, Catherine found herself drawn to intervene in wider politics. She made her first journey to Florence in 1374, probably to be interviewed by the Dominican authorities at the General Chapter held in Florence in May 1374, though this is disputed (if she was interviewed, then the absence of later evidence suggests she was deemed sufficiently orthodox).[14] It seems that at this time she acquired Raymond of Capua as her confessor and spiritual director.[24]

After this visit, she began travelling with her followers throughout northern and central Italy advocating reform of the clergy and advising people that repentance and renewal could be done through "the total love for God."[25] In Pisa, in 1375, she used what influence she had to sway that city and Lucca away from alliance with the anti-papal league whose force was gaining momentum and strength. She also lent her enthusiasm toward promoting the launch of a new crusade. It was in Pisa in 1375 that, according to Raymond of Capua's biography, she received the stigmata (visible, at Catherine's request, only to herself).[24]

Part of a series on

Christian mysticism

Theology · Philosophy

* Apophatic
* Ascetical
* Cataphatic
* Catholic spirituality
* Hellenistic
* Mystical theology
* Neoplatonic
* Henosis

Practices

Monasticism

* Monasticism
* Asceticism
* Spiritual direction

Meditation

* Meditation
* Lectio Divina
* Invoking of Mystic Saints

Active asceticism

* Contemplation
* Hesychasm
* Jesus prayer
* Quietism
* Stages of Christian perfection
* Hesychia
* Divinization
* Catharsis
* Theosis
* Kenosis
* Spiritual dryness
* Religious ecstasy

Passive asceticism

* Abstinence

Esoteric

* Charismatic
* Esoteric

People (by era or century)

Antiquity

* Ancient African
* Origen
* Thomasines
* Gregory of Nyssa
* Pseudo-Dionysius

Desert Fathers

* Paul of Thebes
* Anthony the Great
* Arsenius the Great
* Poemen
* Macarius of Egypt
* Moses the Black
* Syncletica
* Athanasius
* John Chrysostom
* Hilarion
* John Cassian

11th · 12th

* Bernard of Clairvaux
* Guigo II
* Hildegard of Bingen
* Symeon the New Theologian

13th · 14th

|  Dominican

* Dominic de Guzmán

Franciscan

* Francis of Assisi
* Anthony of Padua
* Bonaventure
* Jacopone da Todi
* Angela of Foligno

English

* Richard Rolle
* Walter Hilton
* Julian of Norwich
* Margery Kempe

Flemish

* Beatrice of Nazareth
* Lutgardis
* John of Ruysbroeck

German

* Meister Eckhart
* Johannes Tauler
* Henry Suso

Female

* Beatrice of Nazareth
* Bridget of Sweden
* Catherine of Siena
* Mechthild of Magdeburg
* Marguerite Porete

15th · 16th

|  Spanish

* Ignatius of Loyola
* Francisco de Osuna
* John of Ávila
* Teresa of Ávila
* John of the Cross

Others

* Catherine of Genoa

17th · 18th

|  French

* Margaret Mary Alacoque
* Pierre de Bérulle
* Jean-Jacques Olier
* Louis de Montfort
* Charles de Condren
* John Eudes
* John of St. Samson

Others

* María de Ágreda
* Anne Catherine Emmerich
* Veronica Giuliani
* Francis de Sales

19th

* Dina Bélanger
* Catherine Labouré
* Mélanie Calvat
* Maximin Giraud
* Bernadette Soubirous
* Conchita de Armida
* Luisa Piccarreta
* Mary of the Divine Heart
* Thérèse of Lisieux
* Gemma Galgani

20th

* Padre Pio
* Therese Neumann
* Marthe Robin
* Alexandrina of Balazar
* Faustina Kowalska
* Sister Lúcia of Fátima
* Edgar Cayce
* Simone Weil
* Alfred Delp
* Thomas Merton
* Charles de Foucauld
* Edvige Carboni
* Elena Aiello

Contemporary papal views

Aspects of meditation
(Orationis Formas, 1989)

Reflection on the New Age (2003)

Literature · Media

* Lingua Ignota
* Ordo Virtutum
* Scivias
* Ascent of Mount Carmel
* Dark Night of the Soul
* Spiritual Canticle
* Way of Perfection
* Book of the First Monks
* The Interior Castle
* Abbey of the Holy Ghost
* A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation
* Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul
* From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart
* The Glories of Mary
* The Imitation of Christ
* The Ladder of Divine Ascent
* Philokalia
* Revelations of Divine Love
* The Story of a Soul
* Theologia Germanica
* Devotio Moderna
* Fatima in Lucia's Own Words
* Calls from the Message of Fatima
* The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima
* Sol de Fátima
* The Cloud of Unknowing
* The Consolation of Philosophy
* The Mirror of Simple Souls
* Sister Catherine Treatise
* Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii
* The Vision of Adamnán
* Divine Comedy
* Inferno
* Purgatorio
* Paradiso
* Fatima

* v
* t
* e

Physical travel was not the only way in which Catherine made her views known. From 1375[24] onward, she began dictating letters to scribes.[16] These letters were intended to reach men and women of her circle, increasingly widening her audience to include figures in authority as she begged for peace between the republics and principalities of Italy and for the return of the Papacy from Avignon to Rome. She carried on a long correspondence with Pope Gregory XI, asking him to reform the clergy and the administration of the Papal States.[citation needed]

Toward the end of 1375, she returned to Siena, to assist a young political prisoner, Niccolò di Tuldo, at his execution.[24][26] In June 1376 Catherine went to Avignon as ambassador of the Republic of Florence to make peace with the Papal States (on 31 March 1376 Gregory XI had placed Florence under interdict). She was unsuccessful and was disowned by the Florentine leaders, who sent ambassadors to negotiate on their own terms as soon as Catherine's work had paved the way for them.[24] Catherine sent an appropriately scorching letter back to Florence in response.[27] While in Avignon, Catherine also tried to convince Pope Gregory XI, the last Avignon Pope, to return to Rome.[28] Gregory did indeed return his administration to Rome in January 1377; to what extent this was due to Catherine's influence is a topic of much modern debate.[29]

Catherine returned to Siena and spent the early months of 1377 founding a women's monastery of strict observance outside the city in the old fortress of Belcaro.[30] She spent the rest of 1377 at Rocca d'Orcia, about twenty miles from Siena, on a local mission of peace-making and preaching. During this period, in autumn 1377, she had the experience which led to the writing of her Dialogue and learned to write, although she still seems to have chiefly relied upon her secretaries for her correspondence.[10][31]

Late in 1377 or early in 1378 Catherine again travelled to Florence, at the order of Gregory XI,[32] to seek peace between Florence and Rome. Following Gregory's death in March 1378 riots, the revolts of the Ciompi, broke out in Florence on 18 June, and in the ensuing violence she was nearly assassinated. Eventually, in July 1378, peace was agreed between Florence and Rome; Catherine returned quietly to Florence.[citation needed]

In late November 1378, with the outbreak of the Western Schism, the new Pope, Urban VI, summoned her to Rome. She stayed at Pope Urban VI's court and tried to convince nobles and cardinals of his legitimacy, both meeting with individuals at court and writing letters to persuade others.[30]

For many years she had accustomed herself to a rigorous abstinence.[33] She received the Holy Eucharist almost daily. This extreme fasting appeared unhealthy in the eyes of the clergy and her own sisterhood. Her confessor, Raymond, ordered her to eat properly. But Catherine claimed that she was unable to, describing her inability to eat as an infermità (illness). From the beginning of 1380, Catherine could neither eat nor swallow water. On 26 February she lost the use of her legs.[30]

Catherine died in Rome, on 29 April 1380, at the age of thirty-three,[34] having eight days earlier suffered a massive stroke which paralyzed her from the waist down. Her last words were, "Father, into Your Hands I commend my soul and my spirit."[35]

## Sources of her life[edit | edit source]

File:Bruges Public Library MS767 v.jpg

Leaf from an anonymous French translation of the Legenda Major by Raymond of Capua showing the vision of the mystic wedding of Catherine and Christ. (Bruges Public Library, MS 767)

There is some internal evidence of Catherine's personality, teaching and work in her nearly four hundred letters, her Dialogue, and her prayers.[36]

Much detail about her life has also, however, been drawn from the various sources written shortly after her death in order to promote her cult and canonization. Though much of this material is heavily hagiographic, it has been an important source for historians seeking to reconstruct Catherine's life. Various sources are particularly important, especially the works of Raymond of Capua, who was Catherine's spiritual director and close friend from 1374 until her death, and himself became Master General of the Order in 1380. Raymond wrote what is known as the Legenda Major, his Life of Catherine which was completed in 1395, fifteen years after Catherine's death.[37]

Another important work written after Catherine's death was Libellus de Supplemento (Little Supplement Book), written between 1412 and 1418 by Tommaso d'Antonio Nacci da Siena (commonly called Thomas of Siena, or Tommaso Caffarini); the work is an expansion of Raymond's Legenda Major making heavy use of the notes of Catherine's first confessor, Tommaso della Fonte (notes that do not survive anywhere else). Caffarini later published a more compact account of Catherine's life, entitled the Legenda Minor.[38][39]

From 1411 onward, Caffarini also coordinated the compiling of the Processus of Venice, the set of documents submitted as part of the process of canonisation of Catherine, which provides testimony from nearly all of Catherine's disciples. There is also an anonymous piece entitled "Miracoli della Beata Caterina" (Miracle of Blessed Catherine), written by an anonymous Florentine. A few other relevant pieces survive.[40]

## Works[edit | edit source]

File:Caterina - Libro della divina dottrina, circa 1475 - 2367969.jpg

Libro della divina dottrina (commonly known as The Dialogue of Divine Providence), c.1475

File:L'epistole della serafica vergine s. Caterina da Siena.tif

L'epistole della serafica vergine s. Caterina da Siena (1721)

Three genres of work by Catherine survive:

* Her major treatise is The Dialogue of Divine Providence. This had probably begun in October 1377 and was certainly finished by November 1378. Contemporaries of Catherine are united in asserting that much of the book was dictated while Catherine was in ecstasy, though it also seems possible that Catherine herself may then have re-edited many passages in the book.[41] It is a dialogue between a soul who "rises up" to God and God himself.[citation needed]
* Catherine's letters are considered one of the great works of early Tuscan literature. Many of these were dictated, although she herself learned to write in 1377; 382 have survived. In her letters to the Pope, she often addressed him affectionately simply as Babbo ("Daddy"), instead of the formal form of address "Your Holiness".[42] Other correspondents include her various confessors, among them Raymond of Capua, the kings of France and Hungary, the infamous mercenary John Hawkwood, the Queen of Naples, members of the Visconti family of Milan, and numerous religious figures.[43] Approximately one third of her letters are to women.[citation needed]
* Twenty-six prayers of Catherine of Siena also survive, mostly composed in the last eighteen months of her life.

The University of Alcalá conserves a unique handwritten Spanish manuscript, while other available texts are printed copies collected by the National Library of France.[44]

## Theology[edit | edit source]

Catherine's theology can be described as mystical, and was employed toward practical ends for her own spiritual life or those of others.[45] She used the language of medieval scholastic philosophy to elaborate her experiential mysticism.[46] Interested mainly with achieving an incorporeal union with God, Catherine practiced extreme fasting and asceticism, eventually to the extent of living solely off the Eucharist every day.[47] For Catherine, this practice was the means to fully realize her love of Christ in her mystical experience, with a large proportion of her ecstatic visions relating to the consumption or rejection of food during her life.[48] She viewed Christ as a "bridge" between the soul and God and transmitted that idea, along with her other teachings, in her book The Dialogue.[49] The Dialogue is highly systematic and explanatory in its presentation of her mystical ideas; however, these ideas themselves are not so much based on reason or logic as they are based in her ecstatic mystical experience.[50]

In one of her letters she sent to her confessor, Raymund of Capua, she recorded this revelation from her conversation with Christ, in which he said: "Do you know what you are to Me, and what I am to you, my daughter? I am He who is, you are she who is not".[51] This mystical concept of God as the wellspring of being is seen in the works and ideas of Aquinas[52] and can be seen as a simplistic rendering of apotheosis and a more rudimentary form of the doctrine of divine simplicity.[53] She describes God in her work, 'the Dialogues', as a "sea, in which we are the fish", the point being that the relationship between God and man should not be seen as man contending against the Divine and vice versa, but as God being the endless being that supports all things.[54]

## Veneration[edit | edit source]

Further information: Feast of Saints Francis and Catherine

File:Caterina sopra Minerva.jpg

Sarcophagus of Catherine beneath the High Altar of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

She was buried in the (Roman) cemetery of Santa Maria sopra Minerva which lies near the Pantheon. After miracles were reported to take place at her grave, Raymond moved her inside the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where she lies to this day.[55]

File:Cappella di santa caterina, 01.jpg

The Chapel of Saint Catherine, Basilica of San Domenico in Siena

Her head however, was parted from her body and inserted in a gilt bust of bronze. This bust was later taken to Siena, and carried through that city in a procession to the Dominican church. Behind the bust walked Lapa, Catherine's mother, who lived until she was 89 years old. By then she had seen the end of the wealth and the happiness of her family, and followed most of her children and several of her grandchildren to the grave. She helped Raymond of Capua write his biography of her daughter, and said, "I think God has laid my soul athwart in my body, so that it can't get out."[56] The incorrupt head and thumb were entombed in the Basilica of San Domenico at Siena, where they remain.[57][58][59]

Pope Pius II, himself from Siena, canonized Catherine on 29 June 1461.[60]

On 4 October 1970, Pope Paul VI named Catherine a Doctor of the Church;[6] this title was almost simultaneously given to Teresa of Ávila (27 September 1970),[61] making them the first women to receive this honour.[60]

Initially however, her feast day was not included in the General Roman Calendar. When it was added in 1597, it was put on the day of her death, 29 April; however, because this conflicted with the feast of Saint Peter of Verona which also fell on 29 April, Catherine's feast day was moved in 1628 to the new date of 30 April.[62] In the 1969 revision of the calendar, it was decided to leave the celebration of the feast of St Peter of Verona to local calendars, because he was not as well known worldwide, and Catherine's feast was restored to 29 April.[63]

Catherine is remembered in the Church of England and in the Episcopal Church on 29 April.[64][65]

### Patronage[edit | edit source]

In his decree of 13 April 1866, Pope Pius IX declared Catherine of Siena to be a co-patroness of Rome. On 18 June 1939 Pope Pius XII named her a joint patron saint of Italy along with Saint Francis of Assisi.[5]

On 1 October 1999, Pope John Paul II made her one of Europe's patron saints, along with Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and Saint Bridget of Sweden.[7][8] She is also the patroness of the historically Catholic American woman's fraternity, Theta Phi Alpha.[66]

### Severed head[edit | edit source]

The people of Siena wished to have Catherine's body. A story is told of a miracle whereby they were partially successful: knowing that they could not smuggle her whole body out of Rome, they decided to take only her head which they placed in a bag. When stopped by the Roman guards, they prayed to Catherine to help them, confident that she would rather have her body (or at least part thereof) in Siena. When they opened the bag to show the guards, it appeared no longer to hold her head but to be full of rose petals.[67]

## Legacy[edit | edit source]

Catherine ranks high among the mystics and spiritual writers of the Church.[14] She remains a greatly respected figure for her spiritual writings, and political boldness to "speak truth to power"—it being exceptional for a woman, in her time period, to have had such influence in politics and on world history.[citation needed]

## Main sanctuaries[edit | edit source]

The main churches in honor of Catherine of Siena are:

* Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome: place where her body is preserved.[68]
* Basilica of San Domenico in Siena: in this church the incorrupt head of Catherine of Siena is preserved.[67]
* Shrine of Saint Catherine [it] in Siena: complex of religious buildings built around the birthplace of Catherine.[69]

## Images[edit | edit source]

Main article: Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine

* St Catherine of Siena.jpg

A statue of St. Catherine of Siena at the Parish of St. Catherine of Siena Church, Trumbull CT in Trumbull, Connecticut

* CatherineSienaMeo.jpg

Michele de Meo, Catherine of Siena, Patroness of Europe, 2003, Chapel of St. James, Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva

* CatherineCommunionBeccafumi.jpg

Domenico Beccafumi, The Miraculous Communion of St. Catherine of Siena, c. 1513–1515, Getty Center, Los Angeles, California

* CSienaStigmataBeccafumi.jpg

Domenico Beccafumi, St. Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata, c. 1513–1515, Getty Center, Los Angeles, California

* RosaryStaAgata.jpg

The Virgin Mary Giving the Rosary to St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena, Church of Santa Agata in Trastevere, Rome (Bottom of painting: the souls in Purgatory await the prayers of the faithful)

* Franceschini, Baldassare - St Catherine of Siena - Google Art Project.jpg

Baldassare Franceschini, Saint Catherine of Siena, 17th century, Dulwich Picture Gallery

* Giovanni di paolo, St Catherine of Siena.jpg

Giovanni di Paolo, St. Catherine of Siena, c. 1475, tempera and gold on panel. Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, England.

* Lesser Poland St. Catherine of Siena.jpg

St Catherine and the Demons by an unknown artist, c. 1500, tempera on panel. National Museum, Warsaw.

* Anoniem - Het kantoor van de belastingsdienst (biccherna) van Siena.jpg

The office of the taxcollector (biccherna) of Siena by an unknown artist, 1451 - 1452, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

* Revelación del Santísimo Rosario a Santo Domingo de Guzmán.jpg

This painting depicts the Virgin giving the rosary to St. Dominic; in the scene also appear Fray Pedro de Santa María Ulloa, Saint Catherine of Siena and Servant of God, Mary of Jesus de León y Delgado. The fresco is located in the Church of Santo Domingo in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.

* San Domenico74.jpg

St Catherine's mystic communion by Francesco Brizzi

* Head of Saint Catherine of Siena.jpg

The head exposed in the Basilica of San Domenico, Siena

## Works[edit | edit source]

Modern editions and English translations

* The Italian critical edition of the Dialogue is Catherine of Siena, Il Dialogo della divina Provvidenza: ovvero Libro della divina dottrina, 2nd ed., ed. Giuliana Cavallini (Siena: Cantagalli, 1995). [1st edn, 1968] [Cavallini demonstrated that the standard division of the Dialogue in into four treatises entitled the 'Treatise on Discretion', 'On Prayer', 'On Providence', and 'On Obedience', was in fact a result of a misreading of the text in the 1579 edition of the Dialogue. Modern editors and translators, including Noffke (1980), have followed Cavallini in rejecting this fourfold division.]
* The Italian critical edition of the 26 Prayers is Catherine of Siena, Le Orazioni, ed. Giuliana Cavallini (Rome: Cateriniane, 1978)
* The most recent Italian critical edition of the Letters is Antonio Volpato, ed, Le lettere di Santa Caterina da Siena: l'edizione di Eugenio Duprè Theseider e i nuovi problemi, (2002)

English translations of The Dialogue include:

* The Dialogue, trans. Suzanne Noffke, O.P. Paulist Press (Classics of Western Spirituality), 1980.
* The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, TAN Books , 2009. ISBN 978-0-89555-149-8
* Phyllis Hodgson and Gabriel M Liegey, eds., The Orcherd of Syon, (London; New York: Oxford UP, 1966) [A Middle English translation of the Dialogo from the early fifteenth century, first printed in 1519].

The Letters are translated into English as:

* Catherine of Siena (1988). Suzanne Noffke (ed.). The Letters of St. Catherine of Siena. Vol. 4\. Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton. ISBN 978-0-86698-036-4. (Republished as The letters of Catherine of Siena, 4 vols, trans Suzanne Noffke, (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2000–2008))

The Prayers are translated into English as:

* The Prayers of Catherine of Siena, trans. Suzanne Noffke, 2nd edn 1983, (New York, 2001)

Raymond of Capua's Life was translated into English in 1493 and 1609, and in Modern English is translated as:

* Raymond of Capua (1980). Conleth Kearns (ed.). The Life of Catherine of Siena. Wilmington: Glazier. ISBN 978-0-89453-151-4.

Letter Excerpts translated into English:

* Letter Excerpts, translations by Diana L. Villegas, Ph.D. from the Volpato critical edition.

## See also[edit | edit source]

* Feast of Saint Catherine
* Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati
* Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine
* Order of Preachers
* Saints and levitation
* Saint Catherine of Siena, patron saint archive
* Churches dedicated to Catherine of Siena
* War of the Eight Saints

## References[edit | edit source]

1. ^ "Holy Men and Holy Women" (PDF). Churchofengland.org.
2. ^ "Notable Lutheran Saints". Resurrectionpeople.org. Archived from the original on 16 May 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
3. ^ Longo, F. Thomas (2006). "Cloistering Catherine: Religious Identity in Raymond of Capua's Legenda Maior of Catherine of Siena". Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History. 3: 25–69.
4. ^ Haegen, Anne Mueller von der; Strasser, Ruth F. (2013). "St. Catherine of Siena: Mystic, Politician, and Saint". Art & Architecture: Tuscany. Potsdam: H.F.Ullmann Publishing. p. 334\. ISBN 978-3-8480-0321-1.
5. ^ a b (in Italian) Pope Pius XII, Pontifical Brief, 18 June 1939.
6. ^ a b (in Italian) Proclamation to Doctor of the Church, Homily, 4 October 1970.
7. ^ a b Proclamation of the Co-Patronesses of Europe, Apostolic Letter, 1 October 1999. Archived 20 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine
8. ^ a b Liturgical Feast of St. Bridget, Homily, 13 November 1999.
9. ^ "Saint Catherine of Siena | Biography, Facts, Miracles, & Patron Saint of | Britannica".
10. ^ a b c Edmund Garratt Gardner (1908). "St. Catherine of Siena". Catholic Encyclopedia. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Archived from the original on 29 November 2009. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
11. ^ Skårderud 2008, p. 411.
12. ^ a b Lives of Saints, John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.
13. ^ Raymond of Capua, Legenda Major I, iii.
14. ^ a b c Foley O.F.M., Leonard. Saint of the Day, Lives, Lessons, and Feast, (revised by Pat McCloskey O.F.M.), Franciscan Media, ISBN 978-0-86716-887-7
15. ^ "CR Meyer Manpower Planner". manpower.webfittersstaging.com. Archived from the original on 13 January 2021. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
16. ^ a b c Catherine of Siena. Available Means. Ed. Joy Ritchie and Kate Ronald. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001. Print.
17. ^ Skårderud 2008, pp. 412–413.
18. ^ Raymond of Capua 2003, pp. 99–101.
19. ^ Bynum, Caroline Walker (1987). Holy Feast and Holy Fast. The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. University of California Press. p. 246. ISBN 978-0-520-06329-7.
20. ^ Manseau, Peter (2009). Rag and Bone. A Journey Among the World's Holy Dead. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-142993-665-1. "Some [nuns], most famously Saint Catherine of Siena, imagined wearing the foreskin as a wedding ring"
21. ^ Jacobs, Andrew (2012). Christ Circumcised: A Study in Early Christian History and Difference. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 192\. ISBN 978-0812206517. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
22. ^ The Letters of Saint Catherine of Siena, Volume II, Suzanne Noffke OP, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Tempe Arizona 2001, p. 184
23. ^ Raymond of Capua 2003, pp. 105–107.
24. ^ a b c d e Noffke 1980, p. 5.
25. ^ Hollister & Bennett 2002, p. 342.
26. ^ Letter T273, written by Catherine to Raymond, probably in June 1375, describes the event.
27. ^ Letter 234 in Tommaseo's numbering.
28. ^ Hollister & Bennett 2002, p. 343.
29. ^ See Bernard McGinn, The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism, (Herder & Herder, 2012), p. 561.
30. ^ a b c Noffke 1980, p. 6.
31. ^ This experience is recorded in Letter 272, written to Raymond in October 1377.
32. ^ Encyclopedia Brittanica. (2022). St. Catherine of Siena. In Encyclopedia Brittanica. Retrieved June 26, 2022 from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Catherine-of-Siena
33. ^ "Butler, Alban. The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints, Vol. IV, D. & J. Sadlier, & Company, (1864)".
34. ^ Farmer, David Hugh (1997). The Oxford dictionary of saints (4. ed.). Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press. p. 93\. ISBN 978-0-19-280058-9.
35. ^ Caffarini, Tommaso (1974). Libellus de supplemento: legende prolixe virginis beate Catherine de Senis.
36. ^ Paolo di Matteo da Siena. Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford University Press. 31 October 2011. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00135668.
37. ^ Wheeler, Ethel Rolt. Women of the cell and cloister. p. 177\. OCLC 988815166.
38. ^ Visani, Oriana (1978). "Review of Libellus de Supplemento legende prolixe virginis Beate Catherine de Senis, Caffarini". Lettere Italiane. 30 (2): 253–257. ISSN 0024-1334. JSTOR 26258481.
39. ^ "Santa Caterina da Siena - Legenda Minor". Edizioni Cantagalli (in Italian). Retrieved 19 June 2022.
40. ^ Noffke 1980, p. 2.
41. ^ Noffke 1980, p. 13.
42. ^ Egan, Jennifer (1999). "Power Suffering". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
43. ^ Forbes, Cheryl (2004). "The Radical Rhetoric of Caterina Da Siena". Rhetoric Review. Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 23 (2): 121–140. doi:10.1207/s15327981rr2302_2. JSTOR 20176608. S2CID 143039500.
44. ^ Lyons, Martin (1 December 2013). Celestial letters: morals and magic in nineteenth-century France. French History. Vol. 27\. pp. 496–514. doi:10.1093/fh/crt047. ISSN 0269-1191. OCLC 5187349553. At section VI.
45. ^ Noffke, Suzanne. "Catherine of Siena." In Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition c. 1100–c. 1500. Alastair J. Minnis and Rosalynn Voaden, eds. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010. 613.
46. ^ Foster, Kenelm. "St Catherine's Teaching on Christ." Life of the Spirit (1946–1964) 16, no. 187 (1962): 313. JSTOR 43705923.
47. ^ Finnegan, Mary Jeremy. "Catherine of Siena: The Two Hungers." Mystics Quarterly 17, no. 4 (1991): 173–80. JSTOR 20717082.
48. ^ Noffke, Suzanne. "Catherine of Siena." In Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition c. 1100–c. 1500. Alastair J. Minnis and Rosalynn Voaden, eds. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010.
49. ^ Catherine of Siena. The Dialogue. Translated by Suzanne Noffke. The Classics of Western Spirituality. Paulist Press, 1980.
50. ^ Noffke, Suzanne. "Catherine of Siena." In Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition c. 1100–c. 1500. Alastair J. Minnis and Rosalynn Voaden, eds. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010. 601–615.
51. ^ Benincasa, Catherine (1980). The Dialogues (Translated ed.). Paulist Press. ISBN 0809122332.[page needed]
52. ^ Aquinas, Tomas (12 December 2012). Summa Theologica (Blackfrairs Translation ed.). Emmaus Academic. p. I, q.3. ISBN 978-1623400149.
53. ^ Barron, Robert; Murray, Paul (2002). Saint Catherine of Siena: Mystic of Fire, Preacher of Freedom. Catholic Publishers. ISBN 9780567693181.[page needed]
54. ^ Benincasa, Catherine; Dutton Scudder, Vida (2019). the Letters of St. Catherine (Transaltion ed.). Good Press. ISBN 9781406512175.[page needed]
55. ^ "Santa Maria Sopra Minerva - Rome, Italy". www.sacred-destinations.com. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
56. ^ Skårderud 2008, "Jeg tror at Gud har gjort det slik at sjelen ligger på tvers i kroppen min og ikke kan komme ut.".
57. ^ Jones, Johnathan (18 November 2013). "From St Peter's bones to severed heads: Christian relics on display". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
58. ^ Strochlic, Nina (11 July 2017). "Siena's Disembodied Saint at the Basilica di San Domenico". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
59. ^ Standring, Suzette M. (11 October 2018). "Holy relics: The strange practice of venerating human remains". The Courier-Tribune. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
60. ^ a b "St. Catherine of Siena: A Feisty Role for Sister Nancy Murray - April 2006 Issue of St. Anthony Messenger Magazine Online". 22 April 2006. Archived from the original on 22 April 2006. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
61. ^ (in Italian) Proclamation of Saint Teresa of Ávila to Doctor of the Church, Homily, 27 September 1970.
62. ^ "Calendarium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 91.
63. ^ Calendarium Romanum. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. 1969. p. 121.
64. ^ "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
65. ^ Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018. Church Publishing, Inc. 1 December 2019. ISBN 978-1-64065-234-7.
66. ^ "Information For Parents | Theta Phi Alpha". thetaphialpha.org. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
67. ^ a b "St. Catherine of Siena's Severed Head". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
68. ^ "Tomb of St Catherine of Siena". Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
69. ^ "Santa Caterina". Viae Siena. Retrieved 15 April 2019.

## Sources[edit | edit source]

* Raymond of Capua (1862). Life of Saint Catharine of Sienna . P. J. Kenedy & Sons.
* Blessed Raymond of Capua (2003). The Life of St. Catherine of Siena. Translated by Lamb, George. Rockford, Illinois: TAN Books.
* Catherine of Siena (1980). The Dialogue. Translated by Noffke, Suzanne. New York: Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-2233-2.
* Hollister, Warren; Bennett, Judith (2002). Medieval Europe: A Short History (9 ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. ISBN 9780072346572.
* Skårderud, Finn (2008). "Hellig anoreksi Sult og selvskade som religiøse praksiser. Caterina av Siena (1347–80)". Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening (in Norwegian). 45 (4): 408–420. Retrieved 12 May 2013.

## Further reading[edit | edit source]

* Cross, F. L., ed. (2016). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. London: Oxford U. P. p. 251\. ISBN 978-0-192-11655-0.
* Emling, Shelley (2016). Setting the World on Fire: The Brief, Astonishing Life of St. Catherine of Siena. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-137-27980-4.
* Girolamo Gigli, ed., L'opere di Santa Caterina da Siena, 4 vols, (Siena e Lucca, 1707–1721)
* Hollister, Warren; Judith Bennett (2001). Medieval Europe: A Short History (9 ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. p. 343. ISBN 978-0-07-234657-2.
* Faure, Gabriel (1918). Au pays de sainte Catherine de Sienne. Grenoble: J. Rey. OCLC 9435948.
* McDermott, Thomas, O.P. (2008). Catherine of Siena: spiritual development in her life and teaching. New York: Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-4547-8.
* Carolyn Muessig, George Ferzoco, and Beverly Mayne Kienzle, eds., A Companion to Catherine of Siena, (Leiden: Brill, 2012), ISBN 978-90-04-20555-0 / ISBN 978-90-04-22542-8.

## External links[edit | edit source]

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* Works by Catherine of Siena at Project Gutenberg
* Letters of Catherine from Gutenberg
* Works by or about Catherine of Siena at Internet Archive
* Saint Catherine of Siena: Text with concordances and frequency list
* Drawn by Love, The Mysticism of Catherine of Siena
* St. Catherine of Siena at the Christian Iconography web site
* Divae Catharinae Senensis Vita 15th-century manuscript at Stanford Digital Repository
* St Catherine statue – St Peter's Square Colonnade Saints
* "Saint Catherine of Siena: the De Docta Ignorantia ". Invisible Monastery of charity and fraternity – Christian family prayer. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
* Catherine of Siena's Spirituality

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* Josemaría Escrivá
* Nouvelle théologie
* Karl Rahner
* Yves Congar
* Bernard Lonergan
* Emmanuel Mounier
* Jean Daniélou
* Hans Urs von Balthasar
* Marcel Lefebvre
* Frederick Copleston
* Alfred Delp
* Thomas Merton
* René Girard
* Johann Baptist Metz
* Jean Vanier
* Henri Nouwen

21st century|

* Pope John Paul II
* Alice von Hildebrand
* Carlo Maria Martini
* Pope Benedict XVI
* Gustavo Gutiérrez
* Alasdair MacIntyre
* Walter Kasper
* Raniero Cantalamessa
* Michał Heller
* Peter Kreeft
* Jean-Luc Marion
* M. Shawn Copeland
* Tomáš Halík
* Aidan Nichols
* Scott Hahn
* Robert Barron

* v
* t
* e

History of the Catholic Church

General|

* History of the Catholic Church
* By country or region
* Ecclesiastical history
* Timeline
* Papacy
* Papal primacy
* Catholic ecumenical councils
* First seven
* Catholic Bible
* Biblical canon
* Vulgate
* Crusading movement
* History of the Roman Curia
* Religious institutes
* Christian monasticism
* Catholic culture
* Art
* Role in civilization
* Vatican City
* Papal States
* Latin Church
* Eastern Catholic Churches

Early Church
(30–325/476)|

| Origins and
Apostolic Age (30–100)|

* Jesus
* Ministry
* Crucifixion
* Resurrection
* Great Commission
* Holy Spirit
* Mary
* John the Baptist
* Apostles in the New Testament
* Commissioning
* Peter
* John
* Paul
* Stephen
* Council of Jerusalem
* Split with Judaism
* New Testament
* Background
* Gospels
* Acts
* Pauline epistles
* General epistles
* Revelation

|

Ante-Nicene period (100–325)|

* Persecution
* Church Fathers
* Apostolic Fathers
* Pope Clement I
* Polycarp
* Ignatius
* Irenaeus
* Justin Martyr
* Canon
* Tertullian
* Origen

Late antiquity
(313–476)|

| Great Church
(180–451)
Roman
state church
(380-451)|

* Constantine the Great
* Christianity
* Arian controversy
* Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran
* Old St. Peter's Basilica
* First Council of Nicaea
* Pope Sylvester I
* First Council of Constantinople
* Biblical canon
* Jerome
* Vulgate
* Council of Ephesus
* Council of Chalcedon

|

Early Middle Ages|

* Benedict of Nursia
* Monasticism
* Second Council of Constantinople
* Pope Gregory I
* Gregorian chant
* Third Council of Constantinople
* Saint Boniface
* Byzantine Iconoclasm
* Second Council of Nicaea
* Charlemagne
* Pope Leo III
* Fourth Council of Constantinople
* East–West Schism

High Middle Ages|

* Pope Urban II
* Investiture Controversy
* Crusades
* Universities
* Scholasticism
* First Council of the Lateran
* Second Council of the Lateran
* Third Council of the Lateran
* Pope Innocent III
* Latin Empire
* Francis of Assisi
* Fourth Council of the Lateran
* Inquisition
* First Council of Lyon
* Second Council of Lyon
* Bernard of Clairvaux

Late Middle Ages|

* Thomas Aquinas
* Pope Boniface VIII
* Western Schism
* Avignon Papacy
* Pope Clement V
* Council of Vienne
* Knights Templar
* Catherine of Siena
* Pope Alexander VI
* Age of Discovery

Reformation
Catholic Reformation

* Reformation
* Catholic Reformation
* Thomas More
* Pope Leo X
* Society of Jesus
* Ignatius of Loyola
* Francis Xavier
* Dissolution of the monasteries
* Council of Trent
* Pope Pius V
* Tridentine Mass
* Teresa of Ávila
* John of the Cross
* Peter Canisius
* Philip Neri
* Robert Bellarmine
* Thirty Years' War

Baroque Period to the
French Revolution

* Pope Innocent XI
* Pope Benedict XIV
* Suppression of the Society of Jesus
* Age of Enlightenment
* Anti-clericalism
* Pope Pius VI
* Shimabara Rebellion
* Edict of Nantes
* Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution

19th century|

* Pope Pius VII
* Pope Pius IX
* Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary
* Our Lady of La Salette
* Our Lady of Lourdes
* First Vatican Council
* Papal infallibility
* Pope Leo XIII
* Mary of the Divine Heart
* Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart
* Rerum novarum

20th century|

* Pope Pius X
* Our Lady of Fátima
* Persecutions of the Catholic Church and Pius XII
* Pope Pius XII
* Pope Pius XII 1942 consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
* Dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
* Lateran Treaty
* Nazism
* Pope John XXIII
* Second Vatican Council
* Pope Paul VI
* Pope John Paul I
* Mother Teresa
* Communism
* Pope John Paul II
* World Youth Day
* 1995

21st century|

* Sexual abuse scandal
* Islam
* World Youth Day
* 2000
* 2002
* 2005
* 2008
* 2011
* 2013
* 2016
* 2019
* Pope Benedict XVI
* Pope Francis
* COVID-19 pandemic

*   *

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