Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), born Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa, was an Italian Dominican mystic, one of the greatest spiritual figures of the Middle Ages and one of the first two women, with Teresa of Avila, to be proclaimed Doctors of the Church.[1][2] The daughter of a Sienese dyer, with no schooling, she became counsellor to popes, peacemaker among the Italian cities, and the author of a spiritual work of the first rank.[3][4]
Having entered the Third Order of Saint Dominic at a very young age — the Mantellate, those penitents dressed in white and black who lived in the world — she first led a life of reclusion and prayer in the family home, then threw herself into a public life of unheard-of intensity: nursing plague victims, reconciling enemies, corresponding with the mighty of her day.[5][6]
Her name remains attached to an historic act: it was largely under her spiritual pressure that Pope Gregory XI left Avignon to bring the papacy back to Rome in 1377, ending nearly seventy years of pontifical exile.[7][8] A witness to the beginning of the Great Western Schism (1378), she wore herself out defending the unity of the Church until it killed her, at thirty-three years of age.
She leaves a spiritual doctrine of recognized depth: the interior cell of self-knowledge, Christ the Bridge thrown between earth and Heaven, the Blood of Christ as the measure of God's love. Canonized in 1461, a Doctor of the Church in 1970, declared co-patroness of Europe in 1999, she remains a model of holiness at once contemplative and engaged in history.
Siena, 1347: a child of the people in the time of the plague
The youngest of a great family of dyers
Catherine was born on 25 March 1347 in Siena, in the working-class district of Fontebranda, in the very heart of the Tuscan Trecento.[9][10] Her father, Jacopo Benincasa, was a prosperous wool-dyer; her mother, Lapa Piagenti, the daughter of a poet, gave birth to a large family. Tradition, based on the testimony of her confessor, makes Catherine the twenty-third or twenty-fourth of twenty-five children; she had a twin sister, Giovanna, who died in infancy.[11][12]
A few months after her birth, Europe was ravaged by the Great Plague of 1348, which may have carried off half the population of Siena. Catherine thus grew up in a world marked by mass death, wars between cities, the crisis of the Church and the exile of the popes in Avignon — a decisive context for understanding the urgency that would run through her whole life.[13][14]
The vision at San Domenico (c. 1354)
At about six years of age, returning from the home of her married sister, Catherine is said to have had her first vision. Lifting her eyes toward the Dominican church of San Domenico, she saw, says her biographer, Christ in glory, dressed in pontifical vestments, the tiara on His head, smiling upon her and blessing her.[15] Seized with awe, the child stood motionless, her eyes fixed, until her brother pulled her by the hand; she is said to have told him then, according to Blessed Raymond of Capua's account, that had he seen what she saw, he would never have torn her away from so sweet a vision.[16]
From that moment, Raymond of Capua recounts, the child changed: she began to pray, to impose small penances on herself, to flee from games. At about seven years of age, she secretly made a vow of virginity, giving herself wholly to Christ as to her only Spouse.[17][18]
Refusing marriage and the "interior cell"
In adolescence, her family wanted to marry her off. Catherine resisted: she cut off her hair, accepted to be treated as the household servant, and endured reproaches and humiliations without complaint.[19][20] It was then that she received the light that would structure her whole spirituality: no longer able to withdraw into a room, she learned to build herself an interior cell which she would never leave, the sanctuary of the soul where God dwells.[21][22]
In substance, the light received invited her to make within herself an interior dwelling and never to leave it — a central teaching taken up again in The Dialogue[23]
This image — the cella interiore — is the key to her doctrine: one can be plunged into the most devouring action and yet remain, without interruption, united to God within oneself.[24]
Entering the Dominican Mantellate
A consecration in the world, not in the cloister
About 1363, at sixteen or seventeen, after long resistance from her mother, Catherine obtained admission among the Mantellate of Siena, those Dominican tertiaries — mostly widows — who wore the black mantle over the white habit, lived in their own homes and devoted themselves to prayer and works of mercy.[25][26] Catherine was one of the rare young girls admitted to this group.
For about three years, she led a life of quasi-reclusion in a small room of her father's house, in silence, fasting and continual prayer, going out only for Mass. This retreat was her hidden novitiate, the time in which the mystical union was forged that would later make possible her extraordinary public life.[27][28]
The mystical espousals (c. 1367)
At the end of this retreat, about 1367, Catherine received the grace of the mystical espousals. In a vision, Raymond of Capua reports, Christ placed on her finger a ring — invisible to others, but which Catherine said she always saw — sealing her definitive union with Him.[29][30]
But the fruit of this union was not withdrawal; it was mission. Christ ordered her to leave her cell to go and serve her neighbour: this is the fundamental Catherinian paradox, in which the highest contemplation issues in the widest charity.[31] She then put herself at the service of the sick, plague victims and the condemned, tending the most repulsive wounds, watching over the dying, accompanying to the scaffold the young Niccolò di Toldo, whom she led to a Christian death.
"At once I saw, as one sees the brightness of the sun, Him who is God and man; He was present, and He received the blood." — Catherine of Siena, letter to Raymond of Capua on the execution of Niccolò di Toldo[32]
"Knowing that you are not": the spiritual doctrine
Self-knowledge and knowledge of God
All Catherine's spirituality rests on a twofold movement: knowing oneself in order to discover one's nothingness as a creature, and knowing God in order to discover His infinite love. These two kinds of knowledge are inseparable: true humility is born of their meeting.[33][34]
This truth is summed up in a formula that has become famous, handed down by Raymond of Capua (Legenda Major) and taken up by Catherine herself in her Prayers, which condenses her whole spiritual anthropology:
"I am she who is not, and You alone are He who is." — Catherine of Siena, Prayer XVII[35]
Far from crushing, this word liberates: if the creature is nothing of itself, then everything in it is gift, and God's love becomes the sole measure of its dignity.[36]
Christ the Bridge between earth and Heaven
The master image of the Dialogue is that of the Bridge. By Adam's sin, the way to Heaven was broken; to restore it, God made His crucified Son a bridge thrown between earth and Heaven, the only passage by which man can reach life.[37]
"I am the Way, the Truth, the Life. Whoever goes by Me does not walk in darkness, but in the light." — Christ to Catherine, The Dialogue[38]
This Bridge has three steps, which Catherine identifies with the feet, the open side and the mouth of the Crucified — figures of the three stages of the soul rising from servile fear to filial love, then to perfect union.[39] The doctrine of the Bridge makes the Cross not an obstacle but the very way of salvation.
The Blood of Christ, measure of love
No expression returns more often from Catherine's pen than Blood — sangue. The Blood of Christ is, for her, the measurable proof of God's love: God did not content Himself with saying that He loved; He proved it to the last drop.[40][41] She signed her letters "in the precious Blood" and exhorted unceasingly to "drown oneself in the Blood of the Lamb".
"The blood of Jesus Christ sets the soul ablaze with the fire of true charity." — printed summary of the letter to the priest John of Pisa, Letters[42]
This spirituality of suffering offered up — the soul uniting itself to the Passion to "make reparation for many" — makes Catherine one of the great medieval figures of the victim vocation, alongside Saint Angela of Foligno (see the Ignispedia dossier Victim souls).[43]
In the service of the Church: peace and the pope's return
Peacemaker among the Italian cities
From 1374, Catherine emerged definitively from the shadows. Surrounded by a circle of disciples — the bella brigata, her spiritual "family" of lay people, priests and religious — she travelled through Tuscany to reconcile families at war, bring back sinners, preach conversion.[44][45] Her reputation for holiness was such that crowds came to confess; three Dominicans received a special mandate to absolve those she brought.
It was in this context that she was summoned, in 1374, to the general chapter of the Dominicans at Florence, most likely so that her orthodoxy and her mystical phenomena might be examined. She emerged confirmed, and then received as director and confessor Blessed Raymond of Capua, future Master General of the Order and her first biographer.[46][47]
The return of the popes from Avignon to Rome (1376-1377)
Since 1309, the popes had resided at Avignon, under the de facto tutelage of France. Catherine saw in this exile one of the causes of the Church's corruption and called with all her strength for the pope's return to Rome, to the tomb of Saint Peter.[48][49]
In 1376, she went in person to Avignon, as ambassadress of Florence, and pleaded directly with Gregory XI. Her letters to this pope are of a staggering boldness for a young woman of the people addressing the sovereign pontiff: she begged him to take courage, not to yield to fear.
"Come, come, come; do not wait for the time, for the time does not wait for you. [...] Be a generous man, without fear." — Catherine of Siena, letter to Gregory XI[50]
"And I implore you, for the sake of Jesus crucified, not to be a timid child, but a courageous man." — Catherine of Siena, letter to Gregory XI[51]
On 13 September 1376, Gregory XI left Avignon; he entered Rome on 17 January 1377, ending nearly seventy years of pontifical exile.[52][53] Raymond of Capua, her confessor and first biographer, presents Catherine's letters and her coming to Avignon as decisive in this decision; the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913, art. "Gregory XI") likewise records that Gregory XI yielded to Catherine's urgent prayers to bring the pontifical see back to Rome.[54][55]
The Great Western Schism (1378-1380)
The joy was short-lived. Gregory XI died in 1378; the election of his successor Urban VI, contested by some of the cardinals who elected an antipope (Clement VII), opened the Great Western Schism, a rift that would last nearly forty years.[56][57]
Catherine, without hesitation, recognized Urban VI as the legitimate pope and spent herself without counting the cost for unity: she wrote to him, supported the faithful cardinals, exhorted princes. Summoned to Rome by the pope himself at the end of 1378, she consumed her last strength there in prayer and in the offering of her life for the Church.
"I commend to You this Bride, eternal God [...]. I offer You my life anew for Your sweet Bride, holy Church." — Catherine of Siena, final prayer of the Dialogue[58]
The written work of an unschooled woman
The Dialogue of Divine Providence (1377-1378)
Catherine's masterpiece is The Dialogue of Divine Providence (Il Dialogo della Divina Provvidenza), also called the Book of Divine Doctrine, composed for the most part in 1377-1378, largely dictated in a state of ecstasy to her secretaries.[59][60] The work presents itself as a long conversation between a soul and the eternal Father, who answers her four petitions: for herself, for the reform of the Church, for the whole world, and for divine Providence.
The book unfolds the great Catherinian themes — the Bridge, the Blood, the cell of self-knowledge, the reform of the Church, divine Providence — in a Tuscan language of seizing power. It ends with a Trinitarian thanksgiving that is one of the summits of mystical literature:
"O eternal Trinity! O Godhead, who, by the union of Your divine nature, gave so great a price to the blood of Your only Son!" — The Dialogue, ch. CLXVII[61]
"Fire above every fire, Fire that alone burns and is not consumed, Fire that consumes all sin and all self-love in the soul." — The Dialogue, ch. CXXXIV[62]
The prodigious character of this work lies in the fact that its author most likely could neither read fluently nor write: Catherine dictated, and the theological depth of the text, compared with her lack of formation, was one of the chief arguments for her doctorate.[63][64]
The Letters
Catherine left nearly 380 Letters, addressed to popes, kings, queens, cardinals, condottieri, prisoners, prostitutes, monks and ordinary folk.[65] They are a monument of nascent Italian prose and a unique witness to the Church and politics of the fourteenth century. All bear the same stamp: the call to conversion, the demand for courage, the signature "in the precious Blood of Jesus crucified".
The Prayers
Lastly, 26 Prayers (Le Orazioni) have been preserved, prayers collected by her disciples, most often spoken aloud during her ecstasies, between 1376 and 1380.[66] They show a soul turned wholly toward the Trinity and the Church.
The mystical phenomena
The invisible stigmata of Pisa (1375)
In 1375, at Pisa, praying before a crucifix in the church of Santa Cristina, Catherine received the stigmata — the five wounds of Christ. According to Raymond of Capua, who witnessed the scene, she asked that these marks remain invisible to the eyes of men; all her life she felt their pain, but the wounds became visible only after her death.[67][68] The Dominican Order has always defended their authenticity.
Catherine herself recounted the scene to Raymond of Capua:
"I saw the crucified Lord coming down toward me in a great brightness. The impulse of my soul wanting to run to meet its Creator lifted my body upright. Then I saw coming down upon me, from the marks of His most holy wounds, five rays of blood directed toward my hands, my feet and my heart, and I cried out at once: 'Ah, Lord my God, let the marks not appear outwardly on my body!' I was still speaking when the rays, before reaching me, changed their blood-red colour into a dazzling whiteness. It was in the form of pure light that they struck me in the five places of the body: the hands, the feet and the heart." — Catherine of Siena, account of her stigmatization to Raymond of Capua[69]
The eucharistic fast
In her last years, Catherine lived an almost total fast, feeding practically on nothing but the Eucharist. This phenomenon — inedia — was for her adversaries an object of suspicion, and for Catherine herself a cross: she attributed it not to any merit but to a physical inability to feed herself, the fruit of her union with Christ.[70][71] Her hunger for communion was burning, to the point that she was sometimes accused of excessive eucharistic desire.
Her disciple and biographer Tommaso Caffarini reports, in his Legenda Minor (ch. XII), that Catherine desired to receive communion every day, whereas the custom of her time was rather to avoid frequent communion: had she been able, she would have communicated daily, seeing in the venerable Sacrament the means of uniting herself, body and soul, to her Spouse.[72]
The exchange of hearts
Tradition also reports the episode of the exchange of hearts: Christ is said to have taken Catherine's heart, then to have given her another — His own. This episode, recounted by Raymond of Capua, expresses in vivid imagery the total transformation of the mystic into her Lord, after the word of Saint Paul: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20).[73]
Death in Rome and legacy
The last days (29 April 1380)
In Rome, in the winter and spring of 1380, Catherine offered herself without reserve for the unity of the Church torn by the Schism. Exhausted by fasts, penances and spiritual anguish, struck by an attack that gradually paralysed her, she died on 29 April 1380, at thirty-three years of age — the very age of Christ.[74][75] Her last words, according to witnesses, were an offering: "Blood, blood!", then "Father, into Thy hands I commend my soul and my spirit."[76]
The relics: the head in Siena, the body in Rome
Catherine's body rests in Rome, beneath the high altar of the Dominican basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. But her head was, according to tradition, brought back to Siena by her disciples and is kept in the basilica of San Domenico, where it is venerated with her thumb.[77] This partial translation, frequent in the Middle Ages, testifies to her native city's attachment to its most illustrious daughter.
Canonization, doctorate and patronages
Canonization by Pius II (1461)
Catherine was canonized on 29 June 1461 — on the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul, in the Vatican basilica — by Pope Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini), himself a Sienese, who wished to honour the greatest saint of his city.[78][79] Her feast was fixed on 29 April.
The quarrel of the stigmata (1472-1727)
Catherine's stigmata had not been mentioned in the acts of the canonization, and artists, encouraged by the Preachers, depicted her with wounds in her hands and feet — though she never bore any visible marks. The Franciscans appealed to the Holy See, and one of their own, elected pope in 1471 under the name of Sixtus IV, forbade with a flurry of bulls (1472-1478) depicting Catherine with the wounds, and even mentioning her stigmatization: the only saint whom it was permitted to represent with the stigmata remained Francis of Assisi.[80]
"The quarrel hardened after the glorification of Catherine in 1461. [...] The Franciscans appealed to the Holy See; they were fortunate: one of their own, elected pope in 1471 under the name of Sixtus IV, reacted without delay: with a flurry of bulls (1472-1478), he forbade depicting Catherine with the wounds and even mentioning her stigmatization." — Joachim Bouflet, Les Stigmatisés[81]
The quarrel died out only with the insertion into the Roman breviary of the account of Catherine's stigmatization (1630), then the concession to the Order of Preachers of the feast of the saint's stigmata, by a Dominican pope (1727).[82]
Patroness of Italy (1939) and Doctor of the Church (1970)
In 1939, Pope Pius XII proclaimed Catherine principal patroness of Italy, jointly with Saint Francis of Assisi.[83] But the most radiant recognition came on 4 October 1970: Pope Paul VI declared her a Doctor of the Church.[84]
With Teresa of Avila, proclaimed Doctor a week earlier, Catherine became one of the first two women raised to this dignity in the whole history of the Church — a distinction reserved for saints whose doctrine carries authority. For a fourteenth-century woman, unschooled, the event was of considerable scope.[85][86]
"Her teaching contains such richness that in 1970 the Servant of God Paul VI declared her a Doctor of the Church." — Benedict XVI, catechesis of 24 November 2010[87]
Co-patroness of Europe (1999)
Finally, on 1 October 1999, by the motu proprio Spes Aedificandi, Pope John Paul II declared Catherine of Siena co-patroness of Europe, alongside Saint Bridget of Sweden and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), and with the three traditional patrons — Benedict, Cyril and Methodius.[88] The pope thus wished to place the building of Europe under the patronage of holy women, of whom Catherine was the model of courage and unity.
Six centuries after her death, the dyer's daughter of Fontebranda thus remains one of the most heeded voices of the Catholic tradition: a contemplative thrown into history, who dared to remind popes of their duty and sinners of God's love, and whose whole doctrine perhaps rests in a single formula: the whole way to Heaven is Heaven, since Christ said: "I am the Way" (Jn 14:6).[89]
To go further
- Saint Dominic de Guzmán (c. 1170-1221) — founder of the Order of Preachers, whose spiritual daughter Catherine was.
- Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) — the great Dominican Doctor whose doctrine illuminates Catherine's theology.
- Saint Angela of Foligno (1248-1309) — Franciscan mystic, another great medieval figure of union with the suffering Christ.
- Victim souls — the Ignispedia dossier on suffering offered up, in which Catherine holds a central place.
- Saint Teresa of Avila — the Carmelite proclaimed Doctor of the Church a week before Catherine, in 1970.
Notes and References
Benedict XVI, catechesis of the general audience of 24 November 2010, devoted to Saint Catherine of Siena (full text on vatican.va). The pope retraces there her life and her role alongside Gregory XI, and stresses the richness of her teaching (Dialogue, Letters, Prayers), which earned Catherine the doctorate of the Church in 1970.
1 3 5 10 18 21 24 28 31 34 36 41 45 60 63 75 86 87Paul VI, apostolic letter proclaiming Saint Catherine of Siena a Doctor of the Church on 4 October 1970 — a week after Saint Teresa of Avila (27 September 1970). Catherine and Teresa are the first two women Doctors of the Church.
2 64 84 85Catherine of Siena, reference biographical note, cross-checked with the Marian encyclopedia (codexdei.mariedenazareth.com) and classic hagiographical notices (nominis.cef.fr). Verified data: born 25 March 1347 in Siena, died 29 April 1380 in Rome.
4 6 7 9 12 13 20 25 30 44 47 48 53 56 59 65 66 68 71 74 77 78 83Historical context of the Avignon papacy and the return to Rome: Gregory XI left Avignon on 13 September 1376 and entered Rome on 17 January 1377; death of Gregory XI and beginning of the Great Western Schism in 1378. Cross-checked reference historical data.
8 14 49 52 57Blessed Raymond of Capua, Legenda Major (Vita Sanctae Catharinae Senensis), c. 1385-1395 — biography composed by her confessor and spiritual director, the primary source for Catherine's life. Raymond of Capua (c. 1330-1399), Master General of the Order of Preachers, was a direct witness of many episodes.
11 15 16 17 19 26 27 29 46 54 67 70 73Paraphrase: the interior watchword received in her youth, handed down by Raymond of Capua (Legenda Major). No verbatim is quoted here. The doctrine is developed in The Dialogue under the name of the "cell of self-knowledge" (e.g. ch. LXIII). Verified text: Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena and Prayers, trans. E. Cartier (library PDF, p. 69 in file pagination for ch. LXIII).
22 23Catherine of Siena, Letter CXLIII (Gigli ed. no. 97) to Brother Raymond of Capua ("Conversion and execution of Nicolas Tuldo, of Perugia"), § 6: "At once I saw, as one sees the brightness of the sun, Him who is God and man; He was present, and He received the blood." Trans. E. Cartier (library PDF of the Letters, p. 305 in file pagination; Cartier gives the name in French as "Nicolas Tuldo").
32Saint Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, ch. I: "A soul that ardently desires God's honour and its neighbour's salvation first applies itself [...] to knowing God's goodness toward it. This knowledge gives birth to love...". Complete French translation, local library.
33Formula handed down by Raymond of Capua (Legenda Major): the Father's word to Catherine on her nothingness as a creature. It is found in the first person in the Prayers: "I am she who is not, and You alone are He who is" (Prayer XVII, § 13). Verified text: Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena and Prayers, trans. E. Cartier (library PDF, p. 251 in file pagination).
35Saint Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, ch. XXVI-XXIX (doctrine of Christ the Bridge and its three steps); quotation of Jn 14:6: "I am the Way, the Truth, the Life". Complete French translation, local library.
37 38 39 89Printed summary of Letter XCIV (Gigli ed. no. 48) to the priest John of Pisa: "The blood of Jesus Christ sets the soul ablaze with the fire of true charity." Trans. E. Cartier (library PDF of the Letters, p. 6 in file pagination).
40 42Saint Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, Treatise on Discretion (ch. IV-VII), on the satisfaction and reparation offered for others through desire and suffering united to charity.
43Catherine of Siena, Letter V to Gregory XI, § 2-3: "come, come, come; do not wait for the time, which does not wait for you" and "Be a generous man, without fear". Trans. E. Cartier (library PDF of the Letters, p. 21 in file pagination).
50Catherine of Siena, Letter X to Gregory XI, § 6: "And I implore you, for the sake of Jesus crucified, not to be a timid child, but a courageous man". Trans. E. Cartier (library PDF of the Letters, p. 28 in file pagination).
51Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), art. "Gregory XI" (online: newadvent.org/cathen/06799a.htm): "yielding to the urgent prayers of St. Catherine, decided to remove the papal see to Rome" — Gregory XI yielded to Saint Catherine's urgent prayers and decided to bring the pontifical see back to Rome, despite the protests of the King of France and of most of the cardinals.
55Prayer XXVI (prayer after the "terrible accident"), § 2-3: "I offer You my life anew for Your sweet Bride"; "I commend to You this Bride, eternal God". Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena and Prayers, trans. E. Cartier (library PDF, p. 260 in file pagination).
58The Dialogue, ch. CLXVII: "O eternal Trinity! O Godhead, who, by the union of Your divine nature, gave so great a price to the blood of Your only Son!"; and ch. CXXXIV, § 1: "Fire above every fire, Fire that alone burns and is not consumed, Fire that consumes all sin and all self-love in the soul". Trans. E. Cartier (library PDF, pp. 219 and 164 in file pagination).
61 62Joachim Bouflet, Les Stigmatisés, Cerf, 1996, pp. 34 and 37 — the quarrel of the stigmata: bulls of Sixtus IV (1472-1478) forbidding Catherine to be depicted with the wounds, insertion of the account in the Roman breviary (1630) and feast of the stigmata conceded to the Preachers by a Dominican pope (1727); and p. 36 for Catherine's account of her stigmatization to Raymond of Capua.
69 80 81 82Fact reported by Catherine's disciple and biographer, Tommaso Caffarini, Legenda Minor, ch. XII, as relayed in Véra Grita, Porte-moi avec toi ! (presented by F.-M. Léthel and R. Carelli, trans. M. Wirth; Ital. ed. Portami con te!, Elledici, Turin, 2017), p. 50, relaying Raymond of Capua (Caffarini), Legenda Minor, ch. XII.
72Account of the eyewitness Ser Barduccio di Piero Canigiani, Catherine's secretary: letter to Sister Catherine Petriboni (monastery of San Piero a Monticelli, Florence) containing the Transit de la séraphique Vierge sainte Catherine de Sienne — Catherine there "called out repeatedly: 'Blood, Blood!'", then, "after the example of the Saviour, said: 'Father, into Thy hands I commend my soul and my spirit'" (Engl. trans. Algar Thorold, The Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin Catherine of Siena, London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1907, pp. 343-344).
76Canonization of Catherine of Siena on 29 June 1461 by Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini), the Sienese pope, in Saint Peter's Basilica. Biography of Pius II and chief dates of the pontificate.
79John Paul II, Spes Aedificandi, apostolic letter in the form of a motu proprio of 1 October 1999, proclaiming Saint Bridget of Sweden, Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) co-patronesses of Europe (full text on vatican.va).
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