St. Catherine of Siena

Catherine was born in Siena on March 25, 1347 the twenty-fifth child of a dyer and his wife. From early childhood she experience visions and dedicated her virginity to Christ at age seven. Her parents wanted her to marry, but overcoming their opposition Catherine became a Dominican Tertiary at age sixteen. She went through a series of severe temptations, but clung to God, receiving the grace of mystical espousal. After a few years of solitude in the home of her parents, she began to take an active part in ministering to the poor and counseling people who came to her. Women and men, including her confessor, became her disciples. She traveled widely to promote peace among the warring Italian city-states and was successful in getting the pope to return to Rome from Avignon, although this would not yet be a permanent change. She virtually lived on the Eucharist, eating nearly nothing. She wrote books of spiritual counsel and was widely revered. Catherine died on April 29, 1380 offering her life for the Church which was then going through tremendous struggles. She was canonized in 1461 and named a Doctor of the Church in 1970. Her feast day is April 29.