Catherine Benincasa was born in Siena on 25th March 1347. She was the second last of Iacopo Benincasa, dyer and cloth-dealer, and his wife Lapa de’ Piagenti’s twenty-five children. When she was six she had a vital encounter with Christ Pontiff, which bred a desire for a total union and led her to take the vow of chastity at the age of seven. This choice was going to clash with the wedding plans that her family began to make a few years later according to contemporary custom.
In order to make her life-commitment secure, Catherine became a member of the Dominican Tertiaries, in Siena called “Mantellate”: so she combined her prayer life and service in the family with her commitment to assist the poor, the sick and the prisoners.
The problems besetting her home-town stirred her concern and initiative to such a great extent that soon she took care also of the towns nearby and the complex predicament of contemporary Church. The conflicts between families, factious politics, social injustice, the clergy’s moral decadence, the weakness of Papacy and the fact that the ecclesiastic institutions were heavy called for an urgent reformation of Christian society in Europe. Catherine’s 383 letters, whose texts were handed down to us, were directed to a lot of ecclesiastic as well as political contemporary personages. Likewise she wrote to people belonging to any social class, both religious and lay people, many of whom became her disciples and friends.
It was thought that the Pope’s return from Avignon to Rome was the pre-requisite for the reformation of the Church and the reconciliation among the European countries. Urban V made an attempt to return to Rome, but it resulted in a failure in a few months’ time (1370). Urban died soon after returning to Avignon as St. Bridget of Sweden had foretold him. After the saint woman’s death (1372), the new Pope Gregory XI sent her confessor, Alfonso of Valdaterra to ask Catherine to pray for him and for the Church, while the Tuscan towns were siding with the Viscontis of Milan against the Papacy.
In May Catherine went to Florence, where the general chapter of the Dominicans was gathered: here she received as her spiritual guide Friar Raimondo delle Vigne. As soon as she got back to Siena where there was a new outbreak of plague Catherine committed herself to the assistance of the sick.
In spring 1375 Catherine went to Pisa and Lucca in the attempt to make those towns withdraw from the antipapal legacy promoted by Bernabò Visconti. She also hoped to persuade them to take part in the planned “passage” to the Holy Land, which at the time seemed the only initiative capable of inducing the European countries to put an end to the conflicts tearing the countries to pieces. Catherine herself, like other spiritual people, planned to go on a mission to those countries to offer Christ’s redemption to those non-Christian peoples, to the risk of her own life. She hoped that they would become germ of a new life in the Church, so she made an appeal also to some devoted women like Monna Paola and her Fiesole friends (Letter 144).
Friar Tommaso of Siena, known as “Il Caffarini” openly bore witness to the fact that Catherine herself had expressed her wish to leave. “She wished to go through the infidels and to the Holy Land”. In the course of her encounter with Gregory XI, talking about “the passage” she had expressed her wish to visit the Holy Sepulchre and to participate in that “passage” along with her closest friends to bring about the salvation of the Christians as well as that of the non-Christians (Processo Castellano p. 44,27 and 45,9-13 Laurent, Legenda maior 2,10, 19-21 p.327 s. Nocentini). On 1st April 1376 Catherine had the well-known vision presenting her as reconciler, not only between conflicting factions and countries, but also between Christians and Muslims, “ passing from people to the other one” (Letter 219).
In early May Catherine left for Florence, with the aim to supporting the reconciliation of the Florentine republic with the Papacy. After a few weeks she departed for Avignon, to plead before Gregory XI in favour of the Florentines, who were placed under interdict. At the end of summer, Catherine obtained from the Pope the promise that he would return to Rome. She also tried to obtain a rapid beginning of the “passage”, thinking that it was urgent for the good of both the Christians and the Muslims (Letter 237).
On 13th September the Papal Court left Avignon directing itself to Rome by sea, while Catherine and her disciples journeyed on land stopping in Varazze. In the course of an encounter in Genoa Catherine encouraged Gregory once more, so the Pope entered Rome on 17th January 1377, while Catherine had reached Siena at the end of December.
After founding a monastery for contemplative nuns, Santa Maria degli Angeli [St. Mary of the Angels’], in 1377 Catherine spent the end of the summer and the autumn in Rocca d’Orcia in the attempt to reconcile the two rival branches of the Salimbeni powerful family and restore peace between those peoples. Here Catherine, who was worried about the difficult predicament of contemporary Church and society, started to meditate on and to dictate her “Book” and she informed Raimondo about it by writing to him in her own handwriting (Letter 272).
By Gregory’s appointment she went to Florence to make peace between the Pope and the citizens. On Gregory’s death (27th March 1378), his successor was Bartolomeo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari who took the name of Urban VI (8th April). During the summer, Catherine was within a hair’s breadth of being killed in the so-called “Ciompi Riot”, but she eventually managed to reach a treaty between the town and the papacy.
On returning to Siena Catherine completed the composition of the “Book” in mid-October. In the meantime, nonetheless, Urban VI’s intransigence aroused a discontent in the Papal Court and on 20th September the cardinals, most of whom were French, held a meeting in Fondi and elected an Anti-pope, Robert of Geneva, who took the name of Clement VII. This marked the beginning of a schism, which was to tear the Church and Europe apart until 1417.
On 28th November, by Urban VI’s appointment, Catherine arrived in Rome to offer the Papal Court spiritual support, besides catalyzing European countries’ consent to Urban VI.
It was, therefore, necessary to set aside the planned “passage” among the non-Christians.
Through prayer and an intense diplomatic activity, encouraging the rulers’ commitment and the contemplatives’ prayer also by letter, Catherine used all her energies to achieve the unity and the reformation of the Church. The pope wanted to send her to Naples to Queen Joanna of Anjou’s court, together with the daughter of the deceased Bridget of Sweden (whose name was also Catherine), but the young Swedish woman and Raimondo’s fears persuaded Urban to give up that plan, which was a bitter disappointment to Catherine Benincasa (Legenda maior 3, 1, 11-12, p. 364 Nocentini; Processo Castellano, p. 149,5-6 Laurent).
After an intense diplomatic activity, enriched by continuous prayer and penance, Catherine died in Rome on 29th April 1380, in the house of Paola del Ferro where she had taken lodgings with her disciples in Via del Papa (today St. Chiara's Square, 14). She was buried near the Dominican church St. Maria Sopra Minerva. On her epitaph (now kept in the sacristy of the basilica itself) Friar Raimondo had this inscription carved: “She took upon herself the zeal for the dying world”.
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(cf. G. Cavallini, Caterina da Siena: la vita, gli scritti, la spiritualità, Roma, Città Nuova, 2008, p.19-30)