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Catherine of Siena

Type Figure Region Italy Time 1347–1380 Also known as Saint Catherine

Catherine of Siena was a 14th-century Italian Dominican tertiary, mystic theologian, and political mediator, born in Siena in 1347, famed for extreme…

Timeline

  1. 1347–1363Siena · SienaCatherine was born to a dyer's family in Siena and showed intense religious fervor from childhood; around 1363 she joined the Dominican Third Order, living a monastic life at home, known locally for fasting, prayer, and serving the sick.
  2. 1367–1374Siena · SienaDuring this period Catherine experienced multiple mystical visions and began writing extensively, including letters and The Dialogue (Il Dialogo), explaining the soul's relations to the church and political ethics in vernacular Italian, gradually gaining wider clerical and lay followers.
  3. 1375–1378Avignon · AvignonCatherine intervened in the conflict between Florence and the pope, traveling to Avignon in 1376 to meet Pope Gregory XI and successfully persuading him to return to Rome; after the Great Schism broke out in 1378 she continued working for church unity, but her health rapidly declined.
  4. 1378–1380Rome · RomeAfter 1378 Catherine settled in Rome, maintaining a mediating stance amid the turmoil of the church schism; weakened by years of extreme asceticism and travel, she died near the monastery of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome on April 29, 1380, and was canonized in 1461.

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