Catherine was the twenty-third child born to Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa, on March 25, 1347, the feast day of the Annunciation, in Siena. Her twin sister died as an infant.

As a child, she demonstrated an atypically self-reliant personality and an extraordinarily dedicated prayer life. The first of her mystical visions, in which she saw Jesus sitting in glory and surrounded by saints, occurred when she was seven years old. She made a promise to give her virginity to Christ in the same year. She chopped off her hair to make herself less attractive when her parents decided she should get married when she was sixteen. Her father gave in to her determination and allowed her to have her way.

She joined the Dominican Tertiaries and spent the following three years living a profoundly solitary life of prayer and meditation. During this time, she experienced numerous mystical experiences, culminating at the end of the three years in an extraordinary union with God—a union known as "mystical marriage"—that is bestowed upon a select few mystics.

Along with her mystical ecstasies, St. Catherine experienced many severe periods of desolation, frequently feeling completely abandoned by God.

This was when she decided to break her seclusion and started helping the ill, destitute, and outcasts, particularly lepers. Her extraordinary personality and reputation for sanctity spread across Siena, drawing a group of disciples, two of whom went on to become her confessors and biographers. Together, they showed even greater ardor in their service of Christ among the impoverished.

When she was still in her 20s, the Lord called her to a more public life. She developed correspondences with many powerful people, offering them advice, chastising them, and encouraging them to holiness, even going so far as to reprimand the Pope when she felt it was appropriate.

She is credited with several great political achievements, such as bringing about peace between the Holy See and Florence, persuading the Pope to return from his exile in Avignon in 1376, and mending the enormous rift between the adherents of Urban VI, the legitimate Pope, and his opponents in 1380. This was accomplished while she lay dying.

Her mystical visions, which she transcribed while in a state of mystical ecstasy, are documented in her Dialogues, one of the great works of Italian literature.

She asked God to grant her the stigmata, which she received in 1375 while on a visit to Pisa, although they had never appeared on her body during her lifetime. Only after her death did they appear on her incorruptible body.

On April 29, 1380, in Rome, she passed away at the age of 33. She is the patroness of fire prevention as well as co-patron of Europe and Italy.

Other Saints of the Day
Saint Dichu
Saint Hugh the Great
Saint Paulinus of Brescia
Saint Torpes of Pisa
Saint Wilfrid the Younger