Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena

“For perfected souls every place is to them an oratory, every moment a time for prayer. Their conversation has ascended from earth to heaven—that is to say they have cut themselves off from every form of earthly affection and sensual self-love and have risen alone into the very height of Heaven.”

—St. Catherine of Siena

On Sunday, April 29, 2018, we celebrate the Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena.
Born in 1347, Saint Catherine was the youngest of 25 children. Her father was a wool dyer in the small town of Siena, in Tuscany, Italy. At an early age, she became fully aware of her gifts.

By the age of six, Catherine began having mystical experiences, seeing angels as clearly as the people they protected. These experiences continued throughout her entire life. She devoted herself to prayer and fasting, and resisted all efforts by her family to marry. She had already made a lifelong commitment to God.

By the age of 16, Catherine became a Dominican tertiary. She experienced increasing numbers of visions including Christ, Mary, and the saints, interspersed with “devilish” visions and periods of spiritual apathy. Catherine worked with the sick, particularly caring for those who had leprosy and advanced cases of cancer.

Her visionary gifts attracted many followers, and a few skeptics who thought her visions were fake. The skeptics caused Catherine to be brought before the general chapter of Dominicans in Florence. The accusations were dismissed. After this, the Blessed Raymond Capua was appointed her confessor. He later became her disciple and biographer. Though Catherine received no formal education, she had one of the most theologically brilliant minds of her day. Besides being a visionary and caring for the sick, Catherine was a political fighter, answering a call as peacemaker. Catherine journeyed to Florence and Pisa several times in attempts to bring the pope home to Rome during those years when popes lived in exile in Avignon, France. She barraged the pope with letters pleading her case. In 1376, Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome, and Catherine was summoned to be his advisor. She recorded her mystical experiences, the Dialogue of Catherine of Siena.

On April 21, 1380, Catherine suffered a paralytic stroke. She died eight days later, at the age of 33.

Saint Catherine was canonized in 1461, made patron of Italy in 1939, and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970.