Who was Saint Catherine of Siena?
Catherine grew up in Siena, a hilly town in Italy, in a house that was very, very full: she was one of about twenty-five children. Her father worked with cloth and colorful dyes. When she was about six, walking home with her brother, she looked up above a church and, as she later told a priest who wrote it down, saw Jesus smiling at her and blessing her. From that day on she wanted to love him with her whole heart.
Her house was so noisy that Catherine found a little room where she could be quiet with God, and she kept a quiet place in her heart too. She joined the Dominican laywomen, who wore white dresses with black cloaks, and went on living at home with her family. But she didn’t stay in her little room: she went out to sit beside the sick, bring food to poor families and listen to them kindly.
Catherine didn’t learn to write until she was grown up, so she spoke her letters out loud and her friends wrote them down. She sent them to all kinds of people, even the pope, who was living far away in France. Kindly and bravely, she asked him to come home to Rome, and in 1377 he did. She also wrote a book about God’s love, the Dialogue, like a long talk between her and God. She died when she was thirty-three.
When is Saint Catherine of Siena’s feast day?
Saint Catherine of Siena’s feast day is April 29. It’s the day she died, in Rome, in 1380, when she was only thirty-three.
Clara tells the whole story at bedtime, in the Little Prayer Stories app.Get the app →
