St. Catherine of Siena

On 3rd  October 1970, Pope Paul VI gave Catherine the title of Doctor of the Church
Born	March 25, 1347Siena, Italy
Died	April 29, 1380 (aged 33)Rome, Italy
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church; Anglican Communion, Lutheranism
Canonized	1461, by Pope Pius II
Feast	April 29; April 30 (Roman Calendar, 1628–1960)
Attributes	Dominican tertiaries' habit, lily, book, crucifix, heart, crown of thorns, stigmata, ring, dove, rose, skull, miniature church, miniature ship bearing Papal coat of arms
Patronage	Fire Prevention, bodily ills, diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, Europe, firefighters, illness, Italy, miscarriages, people ridiculed for their piety, sexual temptation, sick people

Saint. Catherine of Siena, T.O.S.D, born at Siena, 25 March, 1347; died at Rome, 29 April, 1380. She was a tertiary of the Dominican Order, and a Scholastic philosopher and theologian.

Her father, Giacomo di Benincasa, was a dyer, her mother, Lapa, the daughter of a local poet

From her earliest childhood Catherine began to see visions and to practise extreme austerities. At the age of seven she consecrated her virginity to Christ; in her sixteenth year she took the habit of the Dominican Tertiaries, and renewed the life of the anchorites of the desert in a little room in her father's house.

On 3 October 1970, Pope Paul VI gave Catherine the title of  Doctor of the Church; this title was almost simultaneously given to Saint Teresa of Ávila (27 September 1970), making them the first women to receive this honour..

In his decree of 13 April 1866, Pope Pius IX declared Catherine of Siena to be a co-patroness of Rome. On 18 June 1939 Pope Pius XII named her a joint Patron Saint of Italy along with Saint Francis of Assisi.

In about 1368, age twenty-one, Catherine experienced what she described in her letters as a "Mystical Marriage" with Jesus, later a popular subject in art as the Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine.

Her other major work is The Dialogue of Divine Providence, a dialogue between a soul who "rises up" to God and God himself, and recorded between 1377 and 1378 by members of her circle. Catherine's letters are considered one of the great works of early Tuscan literature. Many of these were dictated, although she herself learned to write in 1377. In her letters to the Pope, she often referred to him affectionately simply as Papa ("Pope"). 26 prayers of Catherine of Siena also survive, mostly composed in the last eighteen months of her life.

In 1375 Our Lord give her the Stigmata, which was visible only after her death.

Her spiritual director was Blessed Raymond of Capua. St, Catherine's letters, and a treatise called "a dialogue" are considered among the most brilliant writings in the history of the Catholic Church.

She died when she was only 33, and her body was found incorrupt in 1430.

She was buried in the (Roman) cemetery of Santa Maria sopra Minerva which lies near the Pantheon. After miracles were reported to take place at her grave, Raymond moved her inside the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where she lies to this day.

On 3 October 1970, Pope Paul VI gave Catherine the title of  Doctor of the Church; this title was almost simultaneously given to Saint Teresa of Ávila (27 September 1970), making them the first women to receive this honour.

The St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center is located in Smithtown, Long Island, New York.

Only the church and a memorial garden survive of St Catherine's Convent in Bow, London, whose members moved to Stone, Staffordshire in 1926.