Life and Select Works

From the turmoil of the Medieval Era, comes the unlikely tenacity of a young women who would have access to kings, queens, and even unto popes/ I speak of none other than Catherine of Siena who deliberately told popes, queens and kings how to behave. Within this frail individual, comes the tenacity, which was spontaneous, unafraid of authority and fearless in the face of death. Catherine was head strong in her desire to be a Dominican religious who corresponded with Popes and peasants alike. Catherine was born in 1347, in Siena, Italy; there she lived through the Black Death, famine and numerous civil wars. During her lifetime, the papal residence moved from Rome to Avignon and back again, and the great western Schism pitted Pope against anti-pope. Her confessor has capsulated her life within this text, recounting her escapades in which she was eventually led to her being declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI in 1970.