Catherine of Siena’s American Daughters

Catherine of Siena (1347-80) was made a saint in 1461, less than a century after she died. In 1970 Pope Paul VI declared her a Doctor of the Church, a rare title given only to saints who have made major contributions to theology or doctrine. Pope Gregory XI, who met with Catherine in 1377, would probably have been horrified. Catherine had travelled to Avignon in southern France, where the popes had been living for 70 years, in an attempt to convince Gregory to return to Rome. He did, but he died a year later, regretting that he had listened to what he called ‘meddling women’. His return did not solve the Church’s problems, and instead led to the Great Schism, in which there were two and later three popes. Catherine wrote hundreds of letters and travelled widely trying to heal the schism, reform problems in the Church, and convince warring Italian city-states to make peace. She failed, and she died in Rome when she was 33.