St. Catherine of Siena

Feast Day April 30

Patroness of Nurses and Dominican Tertiaries.

Catherine, a virgin of Siena, born of devout parents, was granted the habit of St. Dominic worn by the Sisters of Penance. Her abstinence was most strict, and her whole life was one of marvelous austerity. When she was staying at Pisa on the Lord's day, refreshed by the Bread from heaven and rapt in ecstasy, she saw the crucified Lord, coming with a great light and, from the mark of His wounds, five rays coming down to the same places in her body. Aware of the mystery, she implored the Lord that the wounds would not be visible, and the color of the rays immediately changed from that of blood to brightness, in the form of pure light touching her hands and feet and heart. But such was the pain she suffered, even though the signs of the bleeding wounds could not be seen, that she believed she would soon have died if God had not lessened it. Her learning was infused, not acquired. She went to Pope Gregory XI at Avignon and showed him that she knew by divine means of the vow he had made to return to the City, a vow known to God alone, and she was the cause of the Pope's going to occupy on person his See in Rome. In about the thirty-third year of her age she went to her Bridegroom, and Pius II enrolled her among the holy Virgins.
(From Matins of the feast of St. Catherine of Siena)