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Saint Catherine of Siena (born in Siena, Italy, March 25, 1347; died in Rome, April 29, 1380) was a Dominican Tertiary or lay-affiliate of the Dominican Order. Catherine was the 23rd child out of 25 (her twin, the 24th, died at birth); her parents were Giacomo di Benincasa, a cloth-dyer, and his wife, Lapa.As a tertiary, Catherine lived at home rather than in a convent, and she practiced austerities there which a prioress would probably not have permitted. She is especially famous for fasting and practicing physical mortifications that remind modern readers of the extremes of anorexia nervosa, so much so that the recent scholar Rudolph Bell uses her life as an example in his book Holy Anorexia.
In about 1366 she experienced what she described in her letters as a 'Mystical Marriage' with Jesus Christ, and in 1370 she received a series of visions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven after which she heard a command to leave her withdrawn life and enter the public life of the world. She began to write letters to men and women in authority, especially begging for peace between the republics and principalities of Italy and for the return of the papacy from AvignonThis article is about the city in France, for the Municipality in Quebec, see Avignon Regional County Municipality, Quebec. Avignon (pronounced [avin^O~] in SAMPA, Provencal: Avignoun is a commune in southern France with some 88,300 inhabitants in the cit to RomeRome ( Italian and Latin Roma is the capital city of Italy, and of its Lazio region. It is located on the lower Tiber river, near the Mediterranean Sea, at 41°50'N, 12°15'E. The Vatican City State, a sovereign enclave within Rome, is the seat of the Roman. She had a detailed correspondence with Pope Gregory XIGregory XI ne Pierre Roger de Beaufort ca. 1336 March 27, 1378), pope from 1370 to 1378, born in Limousin in 1336, succeeded Urban V in 1370 as one of the Avignon popes. During his pontificate vigorous measures were taken against the "heresies" which had, also asking him to reform the clergyClergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. The term comes from Greek κληρος (fortune, or metaphorically, heritage). Depending on the religion, clergy usually tak and the administration of the Papal StatesThe Papal States Gli Stati della Chiesa or Stati Pontificii "States of the Church") is one of the historical states of Italy before its unity under the crown of Savoy and comprised those territories over which the Pope was the ruler in a civil as well as. In June of 1376Events March The treaty between England and France is extended until April of 1377. April 28 The Good Parliament in England begins. June 7 The dying Prince Edward summons his father Edward III and brother John of Gaunt and makes them swear to uphold the c she went to Avignon herself as ambassador of Florence to make peace with the Papal States, but was unsuccessful. She impressed the Pope so much, however, that he returned his administration to Rome in January of 1377. In the Great Schism of 1378 she was an adherent of Pope Urban VI, who summoned her to Rome where she lived until her death in 1380.
Pope Pius II canonized Catherine in 1461. Her letters are considered one of the great works of early Tuscan literature. Her feast day is April 29.
External links and references
- Rudolph Bell , Holy Anorexia
- Caroline Walker Bynum , Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women [1]
Saints
Medieval literature
Dominicans
Stigmatics
Catherine of Siena
Catherine of Siena
