On 29 April the church remembers Saint Catherine of Siena, 1347-1380. She was a Dominican and mystic who is one of the most revered holy women in the Roman Catholic Church. One of the Patron Saints of Italy, she was canonised in 1461, declared a doctor of the church in 1970 and a Patron Saint of Europe in 1999.

But who was she?

Catherine was born on 25 March 1347 in Siena, Tuscany. Catherine was the youngest of 25 children born into a lower middle-class family; most of her siblings did not survive childhood. At a young age she is said to have consecrated her virginity to Christ and experienced mystical visions. Catherine became a tertiary (a member of a monastic third order who takes simple vows and may remain outside a convent or monastery) of the Dominican order (1363), joining the Sisters of Penitence of St. Dominic in Siena.

Catherine went to Florence and preached, urging their people to repent of their manifold sins. In the Holy Roman Civil War, Florence sided against the Church and were barred from Eucharist. Catherine interceded for the Florentines in 1376, and was greeted by the Pope who had heard about her holy preaching beforehand and gave the matter of Florence entirely under her control.

She reprimanded the Florentines when they were plotting against the Church and also wrote to the Pope urging him to reform the Church. She was a noble mediatrix that understood the needs of both sides and could act as a genuine peacemaker in this time of war. Eventually, the stress caused her to develop an illness and she died in 1380 at the age of 33. Every day of that period of her life had been spent saving the earthly and eternal lives of countless others.

A Prayer

O God, by whose grace your servant Saint Catherine of Siena kindled with the flame of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church, turning error into truth and arrogance into humility: Grant that we also may be aflame with the same spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; that your Church on earth may more closely resemble your heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. ᴀᴍᴇɴ.