including allies and opponents, a mercenary captain, a
prostitute, a homosexual, and the prisoners of Siena.
Unfortunately, the early compilers of these letters were
intent on edifi cation and sometimes on maintaining
confi dentiality, and so they deleted much of the personal
content. But even abridged, the letters provide a window
onto Catherine’s evolving thought and personality and
onto the history and culture of her age. They are par-
ticularly interesting because her activities extended so
far beyond the normal bounds for a woman of her time
and of her status in church and society.
During an eleven-month period in 1377 and 1378, in
addition to her missions of mediation, Catherine com-
posed a book that came to be known as The Dialogue (Il
dialogo) because she cast it as a conversation with God.
Her purpose in writing it was to share with her disciples
and others the insights into Christian life that she had
gained from her own prayer and experience. Also, dur-
ing the last few years of Catherine’s life, her secretaries
often recorded her words as she spoke aloud in ecstasy.
Twenty-six such prayers have been preserved.
The volume by Dupré Theseider (1940) is the only
truly critical edition of Catherine’s letters. At the time
of the present writing, his work was being continued by
Antonio Volpato, but further volumes had not yet been
published. Letters and fragments of letters discovered
more recently can be found in Dupré Theseider (1931),
Fawtier (1914), Gardner (1907), and Motzo (1911).
Critical editions of Catherine’s other works are those
by Cavallini (1968, 1978).
Catherine’s works were among the earliest dis-
seminated (and printed) in the Italian vernacular, and
she was the fi rst woman to produce extensive work in
that vernacular. Because she used the Sienese dialect,
her writings became important (through the works of
Girolamo Gigli) in the eighteenth century, when various
Italian dialects were contending for supremacy.
Critics have offered varying assessments of Cathe-
rine’s genius and her importance in the history of Ital-
ian literature. Most of their analyses have concentrated
nearly exclusively on her letters in preference to her
other works. Her style is oratorical but spontaneous and
unstudied; probably, she never proofread most of her
letters. Her thinking drew heavily, on the Bible and on
preaching, conversation, and her own reading. There are
clear strains in her thought of the ideas of, among others,
Augustine, Gregory the Great, Bernard de Clairvaux,
Thomas Aquinas, and especially her near contemporary
Domenico Cavalca. While she does not add any really
new link to the content of theological tradition, she does
bring a refreshing new synthesis that is markedly pasto-
ral and strongly based on experience. For clarifi cation,
she resorts less often to conceptual argumentation than
to everyday images, which, over the years, she develops
individually and interweaves.
Catherine was canonized in 1461. In 1939 she was
proclaimed patron of Italy, with Saint Francis of Assisi.
In 1970 Pope Paul VI named her a doctor of the church,
a title that she and Teresa of Avila are so far the only
women to bear.Further ReadingEditions
Cavallini, Giuliana, ed. Il dialogo (1968). Rome: Edizioni Ca-
teriniane, 1968.
——, ed. Le orazioni. Rome: Edizioni Cateriniane, 1978; Siena:
Cantagalli, 1993.
Dupré Theseider, Eugenio. “Un codice inedito dell’ epistolario
di santa Caterina da Siena.” Bullettino dell’Istituto Storico
Italiano e Archivio Muratoriano (47), 1931.
——, ed. Epistolario di Santa Caterina da Siena. Rome: Istituto
Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo, 1940.
Fawtier, Robert. “Catheriniana.” Mélanges d’Archéologie e
d’Histoire, 34, 1914, pp. 3–95.
Gardner, Edmund G. Saint Catherine of Siena: A Study in the
Religion, Literature, and History of the Fourteenth Century
in Italy. London: Dent; New York: Dutton, 1907.
Le lettere di S. Caterina da Siena, 4 vols., ed. Niccolò Tommaseo,
rev. Piero Misciattelli. Florence: C/E Giunti-G. Barbèra, 1940.
(Originally published 1860.)
Motzo, Bacchisio. “Alcune lettere di santa Caterina da Siena in
parte inedita.” Bullettino Senese di Storia Patria, 18, 1911,
pp. 369–395.Translations
Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue, trans. Suzanne Noffke, O.P.
New York: Paulist, 1980.
Foster, Kenelm, and Mary John Ronayne, eds. I, Catherine:
Selected Writings of Catherine of Siena. London: Collins,- (Includes translations of selected letters.)
The Letters of Saint Catherine of Siena, trans. Suzanne Noffke,
O.P., 2 vols. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renais-
sance Studies, 2000–2001.
The Prayers of Catherine of Siena, trans. Suzanne Noffke, O.P.
New York: Paulist, 1983.
Scudder, Vida, ed. Selected Letters of Catherine Benincasa:
Saint Catherine of Siena as Seen in Her Letters. London:
Dent; New York: Dutton, 1927. (Includes translations of
selected letters.)
Studies
Bell, Rudolph M. Holy Anorexia. Chicago, Ill., and London:
University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Cavallini, Giuliana. Catherine of Siena. London: Geoffrey Chap-
man, 1998.
——. Things Visible and Invisible: Images in the Spirituality of
Saint Catherine of Siena, trans. Sister Mary Jeremiah. New
York: Alba House, 1996.
Dupré Theseider, Eugenio. “Il problema critico delle lettere di
santa Caterina da Siena.” Bullettino dell’ Istituto Storico Ital-
iano e Archivio Muratoriano (49), 1933, pp. 117–278.
Fawtier, Robert. Sainte Catherine de Sienne: Essai de critique
des sources, 1, Sources hagiographiques. Paris: De Boccard,
1921.
——, Sainte Catherine di Sienne: Essai de critique des sources, 2 ,
Les oeuvres de Sainte Catherine de Sienne. Paris: De Boccard,- Noffke, Suzanne. Catherine of Siena: Vision through a
Distant Eye. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical, 1996.
CATHERINE OF SIENA, SAINT