Sometime when I wasn’t looking they changed St. Catherine of Siena’s feast day from April 30, today, to April 29. Catherine di Benincasa, now known as St. Catherine of Siena, was born in 1347 and died on April 29, 1380. Catherine is a Big Deal. Born in an age in which women writers were rare, her writings and letters are treasured and considered some of the finest in Italian literature. She wrote in the vernacular Tuscan dialect of Italian. Her letters (in English) are collected here.
You sometimes hear complaints about women’s lack of influence in the Catholic Church. Catherine influenced popes, generals, and sovereigns. She was a teacher, an ambassador, and a great leader with no wealth or armies at her command and only the power to persuade and to lead.
A Doctor of the Church is an ecclesiastical writer whose works are so great that they are considered to bring blessings upon the entire Church. There are three women Doctors of the Church: St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux (named by John Paul II).
