St. Catherine of Siena, TOSD

Feast Day: April 29

Born: March 25, 1347, in Siena, Italy
Died: April 29, 1380, in Rome, Italy

Born in 1347, Catherine grew up as an intensely religious person and entered the Dominican Third Order at the age of 18. She spent the next three years of her life living in seclusion, prayer and austerity; however, she soon began to grow a following because of her evident holiness.

In 1378, when the Great Schism began splitting the allegiance of Christendom between multiple popes, Catherine moved to Rome, praying and pleading on behalf of the cause of Pope Urban VI and the unity of the Church. She offered herself as a victim of the Church in its agony.

Catherine was canonized in 1461 and named a doctor of the Church in 1970. She is the patron saint of illness, miscarriages, people ridiculed for their piety and nurses among others.