She was a woman who had a tremendous zest for life and who put all of herself into whatever she was convinced about. The truth she was most convinced about was God's overwhelming, staggering love for humanity manifested in Jesus Christ. As a result of living in and out of this truth, she became a great mystic, madly in love with the God who loved her, and at the same time an important historical figure who worked tirelessly for the renewal of the church and of the world in which she lived.

Born in 1347 in Siena, Italy, she was the twenty-third of her parents' twenty-five children. At a young age, Catherine decided that she wanted to give her life completely to God. She was 16 or 17 when she joined the 'mantellate', a group of lay Dominican women, who lived in their own homes and dedicated their lives to prayer and charitable activity. Catherine spent her first three years as a 'mantellata' in a secluded life of prayer at home. After this period of solitude, Catherine dedicated herself to care for the poor and the sick; she ministered to prisoners, and, increasingly, was drawn into a ministry of peace-making between feuding families and States in the political turmoil of her day.

Catherine, though uneducated, was filled with wisdom. The magnetism of her personality and the authenticity of her holiness so attracted others that they longed to be in her company and to learn from her how to be true followers of Christ. In the midst of all her hectic busyness, she remained deeply contemplative. She was tireless in her preaching of the truth and dictated hundreds of letters to the pope and to monarchs counselling them on the performance of their duties. She also dictated the Dialogue describing her conversations with Christ while in a state of ecstasy.

Catherine worked passionately for the unity of the Church. She demanded that the pope in residence in Avignon return to Rome. She was uncompromising in her loyalty to the authentic successor of Peter while the Church struggled with rival papacies. For the last eighteen months of her life her role of peace-maker was completely taken up with trying to restore unity to the church. On 29 April, 1380 she died in the arms of her close friend Alessa, surrounded by many other friends and followers. She was thirty-three years old.

In 1970 Catherine was named a Doctor of the Church and Patroness of Europe.