St Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
used with permission
Catherine was born into a period of immense insecurity and turbulence, where whole populations were decimated by the Black Plague, leaving behind extreme poverty and despair. Violent wars broke out between republican cities and the Papacy who held immense power and were sinking under corruption and scandal which would eventually elicit a schism in the Church and herald the Renaissance and Reformation. Catherine paved new ways of truth speaking for women where, before, women never dared to tread. Her chronology follows.
Catherine and her twin Giovanna are born to Giacomo di Benincasa and his wife Lapa in Siena on March 25th, 1347. Giovanni dies. Their home was located within the shadow of the San Domenico Basilica which would prove very influential in Catherine’s development and theology, having been exposed to the liturgical and parochial life there by the Dominicans.
Giacomo was a cloth dyer – it was significant that his home was located near Fontebranda medieval fountain for water access, which also kept his family free from the Black Plague that hit Siena in 1348. Lapa, Catherine’s mother, was a poet. Later Catherine would use compound metaphors to describe Christ as the Fountain from which we need to continually drink, and her cry to God: ‘Clothe me, clothe me in your love, God Eternal’. Her locus of her experiences of God were deeply embedded everyday life.
Catherine was a deeply pious child and committed herself to God from an early age. As a young teenager her favourite sister Bonaventura died. One year later her youngest sister Nanna died at age 14 in 1363. Catherine took upon herself a strict penitential diet and even more radically chooses to give herself to God completely.
Around 1364 Catherine joined the Mantellate (group of Dominican lay women, widows) who worked tirelessly with the poor and sick but she kept to her own home in solitude, much against the wishes of her family. Even the Mantellate were reluctant to accept her in their group. After around 3 years she felt God calling her out into service, though she would have preferred to stay alone in solitude, praying. During this time it is probable that she learned to read. This was a period of intense mystical prayer.
In 1368 Catherine’s father died. A ‘family’ of followers begins to gather around Catherine.
1372 Catherine’s first political activity begins, mostly supporting peace-making initiatives among the warring Italian States.
In 1374 Catherine takes her first journey to Florence. Raimondo da Capua is assigned to be her spiritual director. He was highly influential in supporting Catherine’s political journeys of reconciliation and mediation from this time on.
The Black Death strikes Siena once more and upon her return home Catherine spends much of her time tending the sick, the dying and the dead.
Catherine spends most of 1375 in Pisa, preaching on the crusade and warning against a break between the republic cities and the Papacy.
During this year she would have returned briefly to Siena to attend to Niccolo di Toldo in his imprisonment and execution – an incredible act of compassion.
By the end of 1376 Florence is placed under interdict by Pope Gregory XI.
St Catherine of Siena negotiating with Pope Gregory XI on behalf of the Florentines. Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (1919)
Catherine travels from Florence to Avignon to plead with the Pope to return to Rome where she charged him to shepherd the Church through reform and confront the scandal of the church and its corruption of the Gospel of Christ which he did in September of this year, arriving early 1377.
1377 Catherine founds a monastery for nuns at Belcaro near Siena. In early summer Catherine goes to Rocca d’Orcia on an evangelising and reconciling mission which lasts until Advent. Raymond is transferred to Rome as prior of the Dominican convent attached to the church of the Minerva. Around October Catherine begins her work on The Dialogue. By December she is back in Siena.
Catherine is sent to Florence by the Pope to mediate peace. Pope Gregory XI dies on 27 March and his successor, Urban VI is elected on 8 April. Soon afterwards schism threatens the Church. Still in Florence in June Catherine is almost assassinated when riots broke out in the city. At the end of July peace is declared between Florence and the papacy and she returns to Siena.
Back in Siena, Catherine completes The Dialogue with the help of her secretaries.
The Great Schism begins in the church in September 1378 when the dissatisfied cardinals elected an anti-pope, Clement VII.
Catherine is ardent in her support of Urban VI as Christ’s representative, though he is weak. He summons her to Rome to work for his cause. With a number of her friends they form community adjacent to Sopra Minverva church. Her friend and confident, Raymond of Capua, was sent from Rome at this time to France. She was never to see him again.
1379 In Rome, Catherine devotes all her energy to the cause of unity of the church, spending long hours in prayer, attending to letters and messages to many parts of the Christian world in support of the legitimately elected pope, Urban VI.
Catherine falls into ill health, exacerbated by years of treating her body harshly, which she admits was wrong. Most of her recorded prayers were written at this time.
1380 Catherine’s health deteriorated swiftly, though she continued to drag herself to St Peter’s, a mile away, to pray for the church. She still dictates letters on behalf of church unity. By February she loses the use of her legs and is confined to the house. She dies surrounded by her followers.
In 1461 Catherine of Siena is canonised by Pope Pius II.
In 1939 she is proclaimed co-patron of Italy by Pius XII. Later she would be proclaimed patron of Europe.
In 1970 Catherine is declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI.