Sicilian Culture: Roman Catholic Patron Saint Barbara

St. Catherine of Siena
Patron Saint of Fire Prevention & Italy
Born March 25. 1347 - - - Died April 29, 1380

Feast Day: April 30

Catherine was the 23rd of 25 children, her twin (the 24th) died at birth. At a very young and tender age Catherine took a vow of virginity and devoted herself to her faith with continual and severe penance wearing a hair shirt under her clothing and fasting. At the age of 6, she experienced a vision of Our Lord near the church of the Friar Preachers in the Valle Piatta in which the Lord was clothed in pontifical garb with a tiara on top of his head and sat upon a throne surrounded by Saints Peter, Paul and John the Evangelist. Soon after she joined the Order of Saint Dominic and at 17, she became a tertiary in the 3rd Order. After 3 years of seclusion, she became very active in the community serving the sick and the prisoners. In her lifetime she was known to have been blessed with the ability to expel demons, heal the sick, levitate during prayer, have visions of the Lord and the Blessed Mother, and shared in sufferings of Christ with the stigmata, and also having received a gift from Our Lord. The stigmata was visible only to her during her lifetime, but after her death, was visible to all. The gift she received from Our Lord, that only she could see, was a gold ring with four precious stones surrounding a diamond, signifying a spiritual marriage. Catherine was instrumental in convincing Gregory XI to return the Papacy from Avignon to Rome. In 1970, Catherine was only the 2nd woman in the history of the Church to be declared a Doctor of the Church.

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