The history of Saint Catherine of Siena
If your trip to Siena comes with aspirations to learn about the city’s unique history and culture, then nothing could be more educational then visiting the Shrine of Saint Catherine of Siena. The shrine occupies the site of Saint Catherine’s family home, where she was born and lived her early years.
The house has been significantly adapted. It is now a series of chapels, which are dedicated to Saint Catherine. The marble well in the courtyard dates to the 15th century. If you are lucky enough to be visiting this sacred site, you may want to brush up on the history of Siena’s much loved saint.
Caterina di Giacomo di Benincasa was born in Siena in 1347 and would become one of the world’s most renowned and formidable women. She died when she was only 33, which was the same age as Jesus Christ had upon his death, over a millennium before. The connection between Catherine and Christ is profound and long-lived as even today she is revered throughout the Catholic world as a saint and much more. Saint Catherine said and did things women dared not say and do back in those European Black Death-infested days. Catherine was a mystic and a leader, pious and unwavering in her devotion to Christ.
Many letters written by Catherine are still in existence today and as a consequence much is known about the tertiary of the Dominican Order, her devotion to Christ and her political involvement. Catherine believed through her dreams and visions that she had been visited by Christ and was in a sense married to him. Recent Popes have honoured her and both John Paul and Benedict spoke of Saint Catherine with much admiration.
Catherine’s devout religious beliefs meant she regularly fasted, which did not do her health any favours. The scholastic philosopher and theologian died in Rome in 1380. Her body is buried in Rome in the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopre Minerva. Catherine’s head and thumb were however removed, taken to her birth town of Siena and buried with great ceremony in the Basilica of San Dominico, where they remain to this day.
Saint Catherine of Siena is one of the six patron saints of Europe. She is, along with St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of Italy. On April 29, a feast day to honour the town’s patron saint takes place.