Catherine of Siena (Siena, 25 March 1347 – Rome, 29 April 1380) was the twenty-fourth of twenty-five children of a dyer, Iacopo Benincasa. From an early age, she showed a resolute and strong character spiritual inclination.
Despite family opposition, at the age of sixteen he entered the Third Dominican Order (as is known, the first was that of the friars; the second, that of the nuns). As a Tertiary, she lived with her family, in a small cell: she wore the white tunic of the Dominicans and the black cloak, precisely that of a “cloaked” nun.
At twenty he had one vision: the Virgin and Jesus handed her the wedding ring. In a later manifestation, she revealed, Christ had charged her with the renewal of the Church. Caterina imposed on herself the same rigor that she demanded from others: he inflicted penances on himself, flagellating himself and fasting. He died at the age of 33, on 29 April 1380.
She was canonized in 1461. The proclamation a patron saint of Italy dating back to 1939. The conferral of the title of Doctor of the Church dates back to 1970, under Pope Paul VI. Catherine’s vehement temperament was well known to her contemporaries and represented a distinctive trait: from her cell, she dictated missives intended for princes and ecclesiastics to her collaborators; you celebrate the exhortations to Pope Gregory XI to leave the seat of Avignon and return to Rome.
We also celebrate: Saint Acardo, abbot; Saint Cristino, martyr; Saint Severus of Naples, bishop.
