Catholic Leadership Courage: Saint Catherine of Siena Courage to Reform the Church

Catherine of Siena (Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa; March 25, 1347–April 29, 1380) is one of the most influential women in Catholic history: a mystic, reformer, Doctor of the Church, and co-patron saint of Europe and Italy.

Born the 23rd or 25th child in a large Siena family during the Black Death era, she showed extraordinary piety from childhood—consecrating her virginity to Christ at age 7 and experiencing visions. Defying family pressure to marry, she joined the Dominican Third Order (lay tertiaries) around age 16–18, living in seclusion, intense prayer, austerity, and Eucharistic devotion for years. She cared for the sick and poor, especially during plagues, and reportedly subsisted largely on the Blessed Sacrament.

Catherine became a public figure through her profound mystical experiences, including spiritual espousals, a vision of exchanging hearts with Christ, and invisible stigmata (received in 1375). Her famous work, The Dialogue (or Treatise on Divine Providence), records conversations with God. She wrote hundreds of letters and influenced politics: urging Pope Gregory XI to end the Avignon Papacy and return to Rome (achieved in 1377), advocating Church reform, peace in Italy, and a crusade.

Amid the Great Western Schism (1378), she staunchly supported Urban VI and worked tirelessly for unity until her death in Rome at age 33, exhausted by labors and offering herself for the Church.