Catherine Benincasa was born on 25 March 1347 –feast of the Annunciation– in the town of Siena (Italy), a marvellous gem of architecture in beautiful Tuscany.

Her century surely represented one of the darker periods in the Church’s history; it was characterised by:

ü great corruption within and without the Church, a laxity of discipline; the Popes abandoned Rome and moved the papal seat to the better-protected town of Avignon, in the south-western part of France.
ü the fragmentation of the power of many rulers, as they were at constant war against each other. Almost all Italian towns were involved in the battles in which up to a third of the European population was killed.

Catherine’s father was a prosperous dyer and her mother worked hard at home bringing up her 25 children; Catherine, being the last but one child, as always happens in these cases, enjoyed special attention from her family. Yet the attention she received could not be compared to that which her Lord would soon give her.

When she was six years old, she had a spiritual experience that marked her life decisively: in the sky, just above the church of the Dominican friars, she had a vision of Jesus. This encounter, absolutely unexpected and gratuitous, introduced her to the world and to the boundless Mystery of God’s Love. From the time of this amazing, wonderful vision, overwhelmed by this joy that she had received as a gift, Catherine’s whole life was a constant search and preaching of the Love she so passionately desired and loved.

As a child and into her teens Catherine spent much time in solitude, dedicating herself to prayer and doing penance. She was ever more rapt in the mystery of God’s Love, and constantly contemplated it in Jesus’ passion on the cross. Strong conflicts with her mother, who had no understanding of what Catherine was experiencing, gradually became not an obstacle but a way for her to verify the truth of the desires which the Lord had planted in her heart.

Strongly attracted by Dominican spirituality, she obtained permission, not without meeting difficulties from her parents and from the leader of the “Mantellate”, to join this movement of lay women: at sixteen years of age, she became a Dominican Tertiary. Here she met other women, most of them widows, who, while continuing to live in their own homes, dedicated themselves to prayer and to the service of the needy.

In this period Catherine’s passion for penance and contemplation, experienced in solitude, became ever stronger.

The young Mantellata understood ever more deeply that one of the best ways of showing love for God is to approach and care for those who are victims of selfish and uncontrolled self-love.  Catherine perceived that self-love is one of the greatest sins: it pervades the human heart –hers, too- producing sour fruits of poverty, division, violence, wars and death.

She began scoring the city streets, going into prisons, visiting the most dangerous quarters in search of the suffering, those forgotten in hospital: she took tender care of a prostitute abandoned by all because of the stench of her wounds; in spite of the crowd’s menacing shouts she accompanied –remaining at his side to comfort him by her presence and words- a man condemned to death; she fearlessly faced an epidemic of plague, carrying medicine and giving comfort to the dying.

We must also mention the great number of letters she sent to people on all kinds of social levels to advise and give comfort, to scold and encourage: it is no wonder that they began calling her “Mother”.

Taught, indwelt and spurred on by the Love of God she had experienced in her “inner cell”, Catherine’s passion for her neighbours grew and grew, and directed her gaze outward. She faced the issues of the political, economic and social situation of her time, and realized that:

ü the Church, torn apart by wars and taken up by temporal power, had distanced itself from Rome and was concerned only for its own interests,
ü civil authorities were involved in fratricidal conflicts and their consuming desire was to  gain power and possess wealth.

Catherine realized that in this society “people do not know each other, and do not love the Truth”. Without hesitation she left Siena to become “ambassador of Peace and Truth” to the ecclesiastical and political authorities. A frail but strong-willed woman, she travelled to the large cities of northern Italy and then into France; after much effort and trouble, she succeeded in convincing the Pope to return to Rome even if it was only for a brief period.

We can easily understand why this young woman, so far removed from all the traits characteristic of women of her epoch, was an object of astonishment, often of scandal, but also of wonder and admiration. At the beginning, the Dominican friars themselves were doubtful about her; only after a difficult confrontation did Catherine finally win their support and the help she needed to carry out her extraordinary Dominican vocation.

Catherine’s passion for God and for this wounded and confused world, born from the experience that “God is Love, whose sole desire is the salvation of all humanity”, found an echo in many peoples’ hearts, and gave rise to the “Beautiful Brigade”.  This was a community of men and women of all social levels, who, thanks to Catherine, came to know, live and preach the Good News.

Her profound knowledge of the divine Mystery as revealed in Jesus was entrusted to writing in the book known as The Dialogue.   Consumed by the boundless gift of self to that  Mercy whom she contemplated and embodied, Catherine died in Rome on 29 April 1380, without seeing the reconciliation of the Church, still divided by the great western schism, but offering her life for that Church, for which she had always battled and which she had always loved.