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Saint Catherine of Siena

 
Who2 Biography: Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint
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Saint Catherine of Siena
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  • Born: 25 March 1347
  • Birthplace: Siena, Italy
  • Died: 29 April 1380
  • Best Known As: Medieval saint of Italy and Doctor of the Church

Name at birth: Catherine Benincasa

Catherine of Siena had visions from the time she was a child. She joined a Dominican order when she was a teenager, and devoted herself to working with the poor and the sick. She developed a following and dictated her ideas on spirituality and devotion in what became known as her Letters. She became a central figure in church politics, and persuaded Gregory XI to return to Rome from Avignon. This did not halt the Great Western Schism, however, during which she supported Urban VI. She was canonized by Pope Pius II in 1461, and in 1970 became one of two women to be named Doctor of the Church (the other is St. Teresa of Avila).

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Saint Catherine of Siena
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(born March 25, 1347, Siena, Tuscany — died April 29, 1389, Rome; canonized 1461; feast day April 29) Dominican mystic and patron saint of Italy. She joined the Dominican third order in Siena in 1363 and soon became known for her holiness and severe asceticism. Catherine called for a Crusade against the Muslims as a means of calming domestic conflict in Italy. She also played a major role in returning the papacy from Avignon to Rome (see Avignon papacy). Her writings include four treatises on religious mysticism known as The Dialogue of St. Catherine.

For more information on Saint Catherine of Siena, visit Britannica.com.

Saints: Catherine of Siena
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Catherine of Siena (1347 (1333?)–1380), mystic member of the Dominican Third Order; since 1970, Doctor of the Church. The youngest of the twenty or more children of a Sienese dyer, Giacomo Benincasa, Catherine from an early age was devoted to a life of prayer and penance, which she led at home in spite of strong parental opposition. She refused to consider marriage, became a Dominican tertiary, and, after years of solitude and preparation, began to mix with other people, first through nursing the sick in hospital and then by gathering a group of disciples, men and women, including Dominicans, Augustinians, and an English Austin Friar, William Flete. These accompanied her in her frequent journeys; their influence was manifested in some spectacular conversions and in their call to reform and repentance through a renewal of total love of God. Catherine tried to express her ideals in her Dialogue and in her 383 letters, all of which were dictated by her, as she never learnt to write. Her personal holiness, enhanced rather than diminished by frequent and strong criticism, was centred on Christ crucified, seen as the supreme sign of God's love for man.

In the last five years of her life she became involved with the politics of both State and Church. The importance of these interventions has sometimes been exaggerated. Her attempts to make peace between Florence and the papacy (then in Avignon) were disclaimed by the Florentines, while the papacy imposed harsh terms on them for their revolt. Later she added her voice to the many who urged Gregory XI to return to Rome from Avignon and end the so-called Babylonish Captivity with its excessive French influence in the Curia. In 1376, on the same day that Gregory left Avignon by water for Rome, Catherine and her followers began the same journey by road. The two parties met in Genoa, but Catherine then went to Florence, still rent by factions and violence.

In 1378, after the death of Gregory XI, occurred the Great Schism, when Urban VI was elected pope in Rome and a rival set up in Avignon. Catherine wrote frequent letters both to Urban to moderate his harshness and to various European rulers and cardinals urging them to recognize him as the genuine pope. In spite of her reproofs Urban invited her to Rome, where she soon wore herself out working for his cause. She suffered a stroke on 21 April 1380 and died eight days later.

Her friend and biographer, Raymond of Capua, later Master General of the Dominican Order, wrote her Life, which was influential in leading to her canonization in 1461 by the Sienese Pope Pius II.

Exterior accounts of her life are insufficient unless they also emphasize that she was an ardent mystic, totally committed to Christ whom she saw in the Church, in the poor, and the sick as well as in his theandric life on earth. Bold and fearless, she experienced through the fire of love the Divine Mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Church. Exactly because she was so committed to Christ, the sins and imperfections of his ministers caused her acute pain and distress. Sometimes, like St. Bernard, her prophetic vision and personal intransigence led her to identify God's cause with her own. In every age of the Church the prophetic witness is needed: she provided it in the 14th century to a supreme degree.

In Siena her head, her house, and an early portrait survive. Her body lies at S. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, close to that of Fra Angelico. Her usual emblem is a lily, but she is also depicted on two Devonshire rood screens holding a heart and a book and wearing a crown of thorns. In 1970 she was declared a Doctor of the Church for her quality as a mystical writer, seen especially in her justly famous Dialogue and in her numerous letters. Inspirational but sometimes difficult, she brings a message of total commitment to readers of every age. Feast: 29 April.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

  • AA.SS. Apr. III (1675), 853–959 which reprints the Legenda Maior of Raymond of Capua (English version by Caxton c.1493 and by G. Lamb, 1960) and the Legenda Minor of Thomas Caffarini; these sources have been radically criticized by R. Fawtier, Sainte Catharine de Sienne (2 vols., Bibl., des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome, cxxi and cxxxv, 1921–30). He also suggests an earlier date for her birth, but see E. Jordan, ‘La date de naissance de Ste. Catherine de Sienne’, Anal. Boll., xl (1922), 365–411
  • H. M. Laurent and F. Valli, Fontes Vitae S. Catharinae Senensis historici (1935)
  • biographies by A. Curtayne (1929), A. Lennoyer (‘Les Saints’, 1934), M. de la Bedoyère (1947), and S. Undset (1951, Eng. tr. 1954). See also R. Fawtier and L. Canet, La Double Expérience de Catherine Benincasa (1948) and A. Dondaine, ‘Sainte Catharine de Sienne et Niccolo Toldo’, Archiv. Fratrum Praedicatorum, xi (1949), 169–207. Catherine's dialogue is edited by I. Taurisano (1947), also extant in a 15th-century Eng. tr. The Orchard of Syon, ed. P. Hodgson and G. M. Liegey (E.E.T.S. cclviii. 1966) and a modern version by A. Thorold (1925). Her Letters are edited by N. Tommaseo and P. Miscatelli (6 vols., 1939–47)
  • see V. D. Scidder, Saint Catherine of Siena as seen in her letters (1905)
  • see also: G. Caratelli, S. Caterina da Siena (1962), G. Kaftal, Saint Catherine in Tuscan Painting (1949), M. A. Fatula, Catherine of Siena's Way (1987)
  • Bibl. SS., iii (1963), 996–1044
 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Saint Catherine of Siena
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Catherine of Siena, Saint (sēĕn'ə), 1347-80, Italian mystic and diplomat, a member of the third order of the Dominicans, Doctor of the Church. The daughter of Giacomo Benincasa, a Sienese dyer, Catherine from early childhood had mystic visions and practiced austerities; she also showed the devotion to others and the winning manner that characterized her life. At age 16 she entered the Dominican order as a tertiary and lived at home. In 1370, in response to a vision, she began to take part in the public life of her time, sending letters to the great of the day. She went to Avignon and exerted decisive influence in inducing Pope Gregory XI to end the "Babylonian captivity" of the papacy and return to Rome in 1376. She helped bring about peace between the Holy See and Florence, which had revolted against papal authority. In the Great Schism, she supported the Roman claimant, Pope Urban VI, and worked vigorously to advance his cause. She also advocated a crusade against the Muslims. In 1375 she is supposed to have received the five wounds of the stigmata, visible only to herself until after her death. She became the center of a spiritual revival and a formidable family of devoted followers gathered around her. Though she never learned to write, she dictated hundreds of letters and a notable mystic work, commonly called in English The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena or A Treatise on Divine Providence (or both as title and subtitle), which has been much used in devotional literature. She was canonized in 1461 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970. Feast: Apr. 29. The accounts of her life collected by her followers were used in a biography by her confessor, Fra Raimondo da Capua (1398).

Bibliography

See Saint Catherine as Seen in Her Letters (ed. by V. D. Scudder, 1905); biographies by A. Curtayne (1929), S. Undset (tr. 1954), and J. M. Perrin (tr. 1965); F. P. Keyes, Three Ways of Love (1963); S. Noffke, ed., Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue (1980); R. Bell, Holy Anorexia (1985).

Dictionary: Catherine of Si·en·a   (sē-ĕn'ə, syĕ'nä) pronunciation, Saint 1347-1380.
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Italian religious leader who mediated a peace between the Florentines and Pope Urban VI in 1378.


Wikipedia: Catherine of Siena
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Saint Catherine of Siena
St. Catherine of Siena,
fresco by Andrea Vanni, c. 14th century
Virgin; Doctor of Church
Born March 25, 1347(1347-03-25), Siena, Italy
Died April 29, 1380 (aged 33), Rome, Italy
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Anglican Communion
Canonized 1461 by Pope Pius II
Feast April 29; April 30 (Roman Calendar, 1628-1960)
Attributes Dominican tertiaries' habit, lily, book, crucifix, heart, crown of thorns, stigmata, ring, dove, rose, skull, miniature church, miniature ship bearing Papal coat of arms
Patronage against fire, bodily ills, diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, Europe, firefighters, illness, Italy, miscarriages, nurses, people ridiculed for their piety, sexual temptation, sick people, sickness, of Nurses
The house of Saint Catherine in Siena
Saint Catherine of Siena escorted pope Gregory XI back to Rome on January 17, 1377. (Fresco by Giorgio Vasari, c. 1571-1574)
The Chapel of Saint Catherine with parts of her relics in the Basilica of San Domenico in Siena
Sarcophagus of Saint Catherine beneath the High Altar of the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

Saint Catherine of Siena, O.P. (25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380) was a tertiary of the Dominican Order, and a Scholastic philosopher and theologian. She also worked to bring the Papacy back to Rome from its displacement in France, and to establish peace among the Italian city-states. She was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1970. She is the patron saint of Italy.

Contents

Life

Caterina Benincasa was born in Siena, Italy, to Giacomo di Benincasa, a clothdyer, and Lapa Piagenti, possibly daughter of a local poet. Born in 1347, she was the last of 25 children.[citation needed] She took the habit of the Dominican Tertiaries after vigorous protests from the Tertiaries themselves.[clarification needed]

In about 1366, St Catherine experienced what she described in her letters as a "Mystical Marriage" with Jesus. Her biographer Raymond of Capua also records that she was told by Christ to leave her withdrawn life and enter the public life of the world. Catherine dedicated much of her life to 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, both women and men, while they also brought her to the attention of the Dominican Order, which called her to Florence in 1374 to interrogate her for possible heresy. After this visit, in which she was deemed sufficiently orthodox, she began travelling with her followers throughout northern and central Italy advocating reform of the clergy and the launch of a new crusade and advising people that repentance and renewal could be done through "the total love for God." [1]

Physical travel was not the only way in which Catherine made her views known. In the early 1370s, she began writing letters to 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, also asking him to reform the clergy and the administration of the Papal States.

In June of 1376 Catherine went to Avignon herself as ambassador of Florence to make peace with the Papal States, but was unsuccessful. She also tried to convince Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome.[2] She impressed the Pope so much that he returned his administration to Rome in January, 1377. Following Gregory's death and during the Western Schism of 1378 she was an adherent of Pope Urban VI, who summoned her to Rome, and stayed at Pope Urban VI's court and tried to convince nobles and cardinals of his legitimacy. She lived in Rome until her death in 1380. The problems of the Western Schism would trouble her until the end of her life.

St Catherine's letters are considered one of the great works of early Tuscan literature. More than 300 letters have survived. In her letters to the Pope, she often referred to him affectionately as "Papa" or "Daddy" ("Babbo" in Italian). 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. Roughly one third of her letters are to women. Her other major work is "The Dialogue of Divine Providence," a dialogue between a soul who "rises up" to God and God himself, and recorded between 1377 and 1378 by members of her circle. Often assumed to be illiterate, Catherine is acknowledged by Raymond in his life of her as capable of reading both Latin and Italian, and another hagiographer, Tommaso Caffarini, claimed that she could write.

St Catherine died of a stroke in Rome, the spring of 1380, at the age of thirty-three. The people of Siena wished to have her 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 St 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. Once they got back to Siena they reopened the bag and her head was visible once more. Due to this story, St Catherine is often seen holding a rose. The incorruptible head and thumb were entombed in the Basilica of San Domenico, where they remain.

Saint Catherine's body is buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, which is near the Pantheon.

Pope Pius II canonized St Catherine in the year 1461. Her feast day, at the time, was not included in the Roman Calendar. When it was added in 1597, it was put on the day of her death, April 29, as now, but because of a conflict with the feast of Saint Peter of Verona, which was also on April 29, it was moved in 1628 to the new date of April 30.[3] In the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic calendar of saints, 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 Saint Catherine's feast was restored to its traditional date of April 29.[4] Some continue to use one or other of the calendars in force in the 1628-1969 period.

On 5 May 1940 Pope Pius XII named her a joint Patron Saint of Italy along with Saint Francis of Assisi. Pope Paul VI gave her the title of Doctor of the Church in 1970 along with Saint Teresa of Ávila making them the first women to receive this honour. In 1999, Pope John Paul II made her one of Europe's patron saints. She is also the patroness of the historically Catholic American sorority, Theta Phi Alpha.

Saint Catherine Of Siena's Prayer

O marvelous wonder of the Church, seraphic virgin, Saint Catherine, because of thine extraordinary virtue and the immense good which thou didst accomplish for the Church and society, thou art acclaimed and blessed by all people. O blessed Catherine, turn thy benign countenance towards me, who confident of thy powerful patronage call upon thee with all the ardor of affection and I beg thee to obtain by thy prayers the favors I so ardently desire (mention your request). Thou wast a victim of charity, who in order to benefit thy neighbor obtained from God the most stupendous miracles and became the joy and the hope of all; thou canst not help but hear the prayers of those who fly to thy heart - that heart which thou didst receive from the Divine Redeemer in a celestial ecstasy. O seraphic virgin, show once again proof of thy power and of thy flaming charity, so that thy name shall ever be blessed and exalted; grant that we, having experienced thy most efficacious intercession here on earth, may come one day to thank thee in Heaven and enjoy eternal happiness with thee. Amen.[5]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ *Warren C. Hollister, and Judith M. Bennett. "Medieval Europe: A Short History", 9th edition, Boston: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 2002. p. 342
  2. ^ *Warren C. Hollister, and Judith M. Bennett. "Medieval Europe: A Short History", 9th edition, Boston: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 2002. p. 343
  3. ^ "Calendarium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 91
  4. ^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 121
  5. ^ Novena Prayer Cards from the Dominican Shrine of St. Jude, 411 East 68th Street, New York, NY 10021. Nihil Obstat: Rev. E.A. Cerny, SS., S.T.D. Imprimatur: Most Reverend Francis P. Keough, D.D., Archbishop of Baltimore, September 29, 1954.

References

  • Catherine of Siena (1988). Suzanne Noffke. ed. The Letters of St. Catherine of Siena. 4. Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton. ISBN 0866980369. 
  • Catherine of Siena (1980). Suzanne Noffke. ed. The Dialogue. New York: Paulist Press. ISBN 0809122332. 
  • Raymond of Capua (1980). Conleth Kearns. ed. The Life of Catherine of Siena. Wilmington: Glazier. ISBN 0894531514. 
  • Hollister, Warren; Judith Bennett (2001). Medieval Europe: A Short History (9 ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.. p. 343. ISBN 0072346574. 
  • McDermott, OP., Thomas (2008). Catherine of Siena. Spiritual Development in Her Life and Teaching. New York: Paulist Press. ISBN 0809145472. 

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