St. Catherine of Siena

Catherine was born in Siena, Italy, in 1347. She was the twenty-fifth and youngest child of Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa. At the age of seven she had a vision of Christ in glory. She resisted her family's efforts to have her marry and this estranged her from them,but her father urged them to be patient and allow Catherine her own room for prayer and meditation.

She joined the Dominican Third Order in 1365 and spent some years in seclusion from the world, fasting and praying. In 1368, after a vision where Christ accepted her as his "bride", she felt empowered to carry this love for others. She cared for the poor and needy, ministered to those stricken by a plague, was critical of government and politics, and counseled popes, but is especially remembered for her spiritual reflections.

She died in Rome in 1380, at the age of thirty-three, in agony over the state of the Church. This great Christian mystic was canonized in 1461, became patroness of Italy in 1939, and was declared a doctor of the Church in 1970.