Mary's Castle Library

 THE CATHOLIC FEAST

DATE: APRIL 29

FEAST NAME:

SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

[Virgin And Doctor Of The Church] 

BORN:

25 March 1347 At Siena, Tuscany, Italy.

DIED:

29 April 1380 in Rome, Italy of a mysterious and painful illness that came on without notice, and was never properly diagnosed.

CANONIZED:

July 1461 By Pope Pius II

PATRONAGE

Against bodily ills, of firefighters and against fire, against miscarriages, against sexual temptation, of nurses, people ridiculed for their piety.

HER LIFE PROFILE

Saint Catherine was born in 1347, she is a well–known saint as the patroness of Italy, her country. Catherine was the youngest in a family of twenty–five children. Her mother and father wanted her to be happily married. But Catherine wanted very much to become a nun. 

 

To prove her point, she cut off her long, beautiful hair. 

She wanted to make herself unattractive. Her parents were very upset about this and scolded her frequently. They also gave her the heaviest housework to do. 

But Catherine did not back down. Finally, her parents stopped opposing her.

 

Catherine became closer and closer to Jesus. 

One night, when many people of Siena were out in the streets celebrating, Jesus appeared to Catherine who was praying alone in her room. *With Jesus was His Blessed Mother. She took Catherine’s hand and lifted it up to Her Son. Jesus put a ring on Catherine’s finger and she became His bride.

 

In Catherine’s time, the Church had many problems. There were fights going on all over Italy. Catherine wrote letters to kings and queens. She even went to beg rulers to make peace with the Pope and to avoid wars. 

 

Catherine asked the Pope to leave Avignon, France, and return to Rome to guide the Church. She told him it was God’s will. He listened to Catherine and did what she said.

 

Catherine never forgot that Jesus was in her heart. Through her, Jesus helped the sick people she nursed. Through her Jesus comforted the prisoners she visited in jail.

 

This great saint died in Rome in 1380. She was just thirty–three years old. She was proclaimed a saint by Pope Pius II in 1461. In 1970, Pope Paul VI declared Saint Catherine a Doctor of the Church. She received this great honor because she served Jesus’ Church heroically during her brief lifetime.

 

PRAYER BY SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

Eternal Trinity, Godhead, mystery deep as the sea, You could give me no greater gift than the gift of Yourself. 

 

For You are a fire ever burning and never consumed, which itself consumes all the selfish love that fills my being. 

 

Yes, You are a fire that takes away the coldness, illuminates the mind with its light, and causes me to know Your truth. And I know that You are beauty and wisdom itself. 

 

The food of angels, you gave Yourself to man in the fire of Your Love. Amen. 

 

SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA, 

PRAY FOR US. AMEN!