This week in Christian history: Fuller born, Puritan leader gets important assignment, Christian mystic dies

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, April 25, 2021

Catherine of Siena dies – April 29, 1380

Saint Catherina of Siena (1347-1380), a patron saint of Italy and notable mystic. | Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the anniversary of Catherine of Siena, a patron saint of Italy who reportedly experienced several mystical visions before she died at age 40.

A native of Tuscany, Catherine grew up to become a tertiary, or member of a monastic order who is allowed to remain outside a cloistered community, of the Dominican order.

She was known for her efforts to mediate conflicts within the Church and to serve the poor, while having visions and hundreds of various dictated writings on spiritual matters.

“She rapidly gained a wide reputation for her holiness and her severe asceticism. In her early twenties she experienced a ‘spiritual espousal’ to Christ and was moved to immediately begin serving the poor and sick, gaining disciples in the process,” noted Britannica.

“The record of her ecstatic experiences in The Dialogue illustrates her doctrine of the ‘inner cell’ of the knowledge of God and of self into which she withdrew.”