The feast day of Saint Catherine of Siena is on 29 April. Born in Siena in 1347 she was the youngest child of a very large family. She resisted her parents’ encouragement to marry and she became a Tertiary when she was about 17 and continued to live in strict retirement in her parents’ house with, no doubt, some domestic strain. At the age of 20, Saint Catherine received the stigmata and experienced a mystic exchange of hearts with Our Lord, following which she played more of a rôle in the household and the world, and began her practice of frequent reception of the Blessed Sacrament and heroic service of the poor, where she actively demonstrated her love of God. Her reputation spread and she in time became counsellor to Popes, Cardinals and Princes in Italy. Famously, she eventually cajoled and persuaded Pope Gregory XI to return the Papal Court to Rome from Avignon. Her Dialogue was dictated while in ecstasy. In 1380 she died in Rome where she had been counseling Pope Urban VI, “The Christ on earth”. One of her sayings was “Make in thy soul as it were a spiritual cell”, an encouragement to us all for recollection

 Howard Trust