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 Saint Catherine of Siena: 5th Centenary of Canonization Scott 335-337 (1962) April 29 is the Feast of Saint Catherine of Siena. Catherine of Siena (? 1347-1380) was a mystic and a member of the Dominican Third Order. She was canonized in 1462 by Pope Pius II (a fellow native of Tuscany). She was named a Doctor of the Church in 1970 by Pope Paul VI (just days after Saint Teresa of Ávila had been named the first female Doctor of the Church), and, in 1999, was named a co-patron of Europe by Pope John Paul II. She was one of twenty or more children born to a Sienese dyer. From a young age, she was devoted to a life of prayer and penance. She refused to consider marriage (against the wishes of her parents) and became a Dominican tertiary and lived in solitude for some time. She then began nursing the hospitalized sick and gathered a group of followers, both women and men, and associated with Dominicans. Historian David Farmer writes that Catherine and her associates called for: “reform and repentance through a renewal of total love of God. …Her personal holiness, enhanced rather than diminished by frequent and strong criticism, was centered on Christ crucified, seen as the supreme sigh of God’s love for man.”Around the year 1375, she received the stigmata, as illustrated on the stamps shown above. She served as a representative of the city of Florence to a dispute between it and the papacy (then residing in Avignon). She was unsuccessful in resolving the dispute but while at Avignon, she urged Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome. She also wrote letters regarding the need for his presence in Rome, one of which stated: “Up Father, like a man! For I tell you that you have no need to fear [to return to Rome].”Gregory XI returned to Rome in 1377, ending the Avignon Papacy. A fresco by Giorgio Vasari depicts Catherine leading Gregory with her finger crooked, symbolizing the papal party to follow her into Old St. Peter’s Basilica. This mostly imaginary scene was reproduced on the Vatican City stamps shown below. Her finger is preserved in a reliquary at the Church of St. Dominic in Siena and is traditionally displayed on her feast day. The fresco is located at the Vatican’s Sala Regia, the entrance hall to the Sistine Chapel.  Pope Gregory XI: Return from Avignon to Rome, 600th Anniversary Scott 614a (1977) REFERENCES: |
