Editing Catherine of Siena (section)

== Later life ==
{{further|Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine}}
[[File:Giovanni di Paolo The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena.jpg|thumb|left|[[Giovanni di Paolo]], ''The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena'']]

According to [[Raymond of Capua]], at the age of twenty-one ({{circa|1368}}), Catherine experienced what she described in her letters as a "[[Bridal theology|Mystical Marriage]]" with [[Jesus]],{{sfn|Raymond of Capua|2003|pp=99–101}} later a popular subject in art as the ''[[Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine]]''. [[Caroline Walker Bynum]] imagines one surprising and controversial aspect of this marriage: "Underlining the extent to which the marriage was a fusion with Christ's physicality{{nbsp}}[...] Catherine received, not the ring of gold and jewels that her biographer reports in his [[Thomas Bowdler|bowdlerized]] version, but the ring of [[Holy Prepuce|Christ's foreskin]]."<ref name="Bynum">{{cite book|title=Holy Feast and Holy Fast. The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zhjT8CIZLM4C | first=Caroline Walker|last=Bynum|author-link=Caroline Bynum|year=1987|publisher=[[University of California Press]] | page=[https://archive.org/details/holyfeastholyfas00bynu/page/246 <!-- quote="Underlining the extent to which the marriage was a fusion with Christ's physicality""Catherine received, not the ring of gold and jewels that her biographer reports in his bowdlerized version, but the ring of Christ's foreskin". --> 246] |isbn=978-0-520-06329-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Rag and Bone. A Journey Among the World's Holy Dead | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-FrEhVhIBgC&pg=PT58 | first=Peter | last=Manseau | year=2009 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] | location=London| isbn=978-142993-665-1 |quote=Some {{bracket|nuns}},  imagined wearing the foreskin as a wedding ring}}</ref> Catherine herself mentions the ring ‘of flesh’ motif in one of her letters (#221), equating the wedding ring of a virgin with the flesh of Jesus; she typically claimed that her own wedding ring to Christ was simply invisible.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jacobs|first1=Andrew|title=Christ Circumcised: A Study in Early Christian History and Difference|date=2012|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=192|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NU2D35QoNjEC&q=catherine+of+siena&pg=PA192|access-date=22 October 2015|isbn=978-0812206517}}</ref> She wrote in a letter (to encourage a nun who seems to have been undergoing a prolonged period of spiritual trial and torment): "Bathe in the blood of Christ crucified. See that you don't look for or want anything but the crucified, as a true bride ransomed by the blood of Christ crucified – for that is my wish. You see very well that you are a bride and that he has espoused you – you and everyone else – and not with a ring of silver but with a ring of his own flesh."<ref>The Letters of Saint Catherine of Siena, Volume II, Suzanne Noffke OP, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Tempe Arizona 2001, p. 184</ref> Raymond of Capua also records that she was told by Christ to leave her withdrawn life and enter the public life of the world.{{sfn|Raymond of Capua|2003|pp=105–107}} Catherine rejoined her family and began helping the ill and the poor, where she took care of them in hospitals or homes. Her early pious activities in Siena attracted a group of followers, women and men, who gathered around her.<ref name="Gardner" />

Between the years 1367 and 1374, Catherine devoted herself to helping the sick and incarcerated of Siena.<ref name="Vauchez 2018">{{Cite book |last=Vauchez |first=Andre |title=Catherine of Siena: A life of passion and purpose |publisher=Paulist Press |year=2018}}</ref> With her help in the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala and within the neighborhood that she was living, Catherine's acts of charity became well-known. This led to her being known as {{lang|it|santa donna}}, or a holy woman. This reputation of holiness eventually led to her involvement in politics and a hearing with the pope.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Scott |first=Karen |date=2009 |title=St. Catherine of Siena, "Apostola" |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/3168001 |journal=Cambridge University Press|volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=34–46 |doi=10.2307/3168001 |jstor=3168001 |s2cid=162503623 }}</ref>

As social and political tensions mounted in Siena, Catherine found herself drawn to intervene in wider politics. She made her first journey to [[Florence]] in 1374, probably to be interviewed by the Dominican authorities at the General Chapter held in Florence in May 1374, though this is disputed (if she was interviewed, then the absence of later evidence suggests she was deemed sufficiently orthodox).<ref name=foley/> It seems that at this time she acquired Raymond of Capua as her confessor and spiritual director.{{sfn|Noffke|1980|p=5}}

After this visit, she began travelling with her followers throughout northern and central Italy advocating reform of the clergy and advising people that repentance and renewal could be done through "the total love for God."{{sfn|Hollister|Bennett|2002|p=342}} In Pisa, in 1375, she used what influence she had to sway that city and [[Lucca]] away from alliance with the anti-papal league whose force was gaining momentum and strength. She also lent her enthusiasm toward promoting the launch of a new crusade. It was during this time in Pisa, according to Raymond of Capua's biography, that she received the [[stigmata]] (visible, at Catherine's request, only to herself).{{sfn|Noffke|1980|p=5}}
{{Christian mysticism}}
Her physical travels were not the only way in which Catherine made her views known. From 1375{{sfn|Noffke|1980|p=5}} onward, she began dictating letters to scribes.<ref name="Siena. Available Means 2001"/> These letters were intended to reach men and women of her circle, increasingly widening her audience to include figures in authority as she begged for peace between the republics and principalities of Italy and for the return of the [[Papacy]] from [[Avignon Papacy|Avignon]] to [[Rome]]. She carried on a long correspondence with [[Pope Gregory XI]], asking him to reform the [[clergy]] and the administration of the [[Papal States]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Traub |first=Maria Gonnella |date=2018 |title=Review of The Avignon Papacy Contested: An Intellectual History from Dante to Catherine of Siena |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45173053 |journal=Italica |volume=95 |issue=4 |pages=664–666 |jstor=45173053 |issn=0021-3020}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Saint Catherine of Siena, 1347–1380 |url=https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/saints/saints-stories-for-all-ages/saint-catherine-of-siena-1347-1380/ |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=Loyola Press}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Catherine of Siena – The Dialogue |url=https://www.abigailadamsinstitute.org/catherine-of-siena-the-dialogue |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=The Abigail Adams Institute |language=en-US}}</ref>

In June 1376 Catherine went to [[Avignon]] as ambassador of the [[Republic of Florence]] to make peace with the Papal States (on 31 March 1376 Gregory XI had placed Florence under interdict). She was unsuccessful and was disowned by the Florentine leaders, who sent ambassadors to negotiate on their own terms as soon as Catherine's work had paved the way for them.{{sfn|Noffke|1980|p=5}} Catherine sent an appropriately scorching letter back to Florence in response.<ref>Letter 234 in Tommaseo's numbering.</ref> While in Avignon, Catherine also tried to convince Pope Gregory XI, the last [[Avignon Papacy|Avignon Pope]], to return to Rome.{{sfn|Hollister|Bennett|2002|p=343}} Gregory did indeed return his administration to Rome in January 1377; to what extent this was due to Catherine's influence is a topic of much modern debate.<ref>See Bernard McGinn, ''The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism'', (Herder & Herder, 2012), p. 561.</ref>

Catherine returned to Siena and spent the early months of 1377 founding a women's monastery of strict observance outside the city in the old fortress of Belcaro.{{sfn|Noffke|1980|p=6}} She spent the rest of 1377 at Rocca d'Orcia, about {{convert|20|mi}} from Siena, on a local mission of peace-making and preaching. During this period, in autumn 1377, she had the experience which led to the writing of her ''Dialogue'' and learned to write, although she still seems to have chiefly relied upon her secretaries for her correspondence.<ref name="Gardner" /><ref>This experience is recorded in Letter 272, written to Raymond in October 1377.</ref>

Late in 1377 or early in 1378 Catherine again travelled to Florence, at the order of Gregory XI, to seek peace between Florence and Rome. Following Gregory's death in [[Western Schism|March 1378 riots]], the revolts of the [[Ciompi]] broke out in Florence on June 18, and in the ensuing violence Catherine was nearly assassinated. Eventually, in July 1378, peace was agreed between Florence and Rome and Catherine returned quietly to Florence.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />

In late November 1378, with the outbreak of the [[Western Schism]], the new Pope, [[Urban VI]], summoned her to Rome. She stayed at Pope Urban VI's court and tried to convince nobles and cardinals of his legitimacy, both meeting with individuals at court and writing letters to persuade others.{{sfn|Noffke|1980|p=6}}

For many years she had accustomed herself to a rigorous abstinence.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/CSIENA.HTM| title = Butler, Alban. ''The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints'', Vol. IV, D. & J. Sadlier, & Company, (1864)}}</ref> She received the Holy [[Eucharist]] almost daily. This extreme fasting appeared unhealthy in the eyes of the clergy and her own sisterhood. Her confessor, Raymond, ordered her to eat properly. However, Catherine replied that she was unable to, describing her inability to eat as an {{lang|it|infermità}} (illness). From the beginning of 1380, Catherine could neither eat nor swallow water. On February 26, she lost the use of her legs.{{sfn|Noffke|1980|p=6}} 

Catherine died in Rome on April 29, 1380, at the age of thirty-three, having suffered a massive stroke eight days earlier, which paralyzed her from the waist down. Her last words were, "Father, into Your Hands I commend my soul and my spirit."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Caffarini|first1=Tommaso|title=Libellus de supplemento: legende prolixe virginis beate Catherine de Senis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2SIGHAAACAAJ|year=1974}}</ref>