John Koza

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today we remember and celebrate St. Catherine of Siena.

Born Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa in 1347, she wanted from an early age to devote herself to God, against the will of her parents. She joined the "mantellates," a group of pious women, primarily widows, informally devoted to Dominican spirituality; later these types of urban pious groups would be formalized as the Third Order of the Dominicans, but not until after Catherine's death.

Her influence with Pope Gregory XI played a role in his 1376 decision to leave Avignon for Rome. The Pope then sent Catherine to negotiate peace with the Florentine Republic.

After Gregory XI's death in 1378 she returned to Siena. The Great Schism of the West led Catherine to go to Rome with the pope. She sent numerous letters to princes and cardinals to promote obedience to Pope Urban VI and to defend what she called the "vessel of the Church."

She died on April 29, 1380, exhausted by rigorous fasting. Pope Urban VI celebrated her funeral and burial in the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.

In Christ,

—John