Catherine came from an aristocratic Bolognese family. From the age of 9 she was sent to the court of the Duke of Ferrara as lady in waiting to his daughter. There she received excellent training in reading, writing, music, dancing, singing and art.
She left court and entered a convent in Ferrara. In 1432, together with several other young women, she founded a monastery of the Order of Poor Clares. She returned to Bologna in 1456 and she became the founder and Abbess of a monastery of the same order in association with the church of Corpus Domini.
She died in 1463 at the age of 49 and was buried. After 18 days of alleged graveside miracles, her incorrupt body was exhumed and relocated to the chapel of the Poor Clares, next to the church of Corpus Domini where it remains on display, dressed in her religious habit and seated upright behind glass.
On certain dates she receives visitors, and luckily we were in Bologna on one of these days. You enter the main part of the church and are permitted through a door into the chapel where St Catherine waits silently in her lavishly decorated room.
She was canonized in 1712 and is the patron saint of artists.
She is surrounded by gold and angels.
I have managed to see 2 mummified saints in the last week…what a treat!
Amazing, simply amazing. Thanks
By: Italian Wine Importers on May 3, 2014
at 9:26 pm
I think it is great to find these hidden things in Italy.
By: Debra Kolkka on May 4, 2014
at 10:44 am
Great!! 🙂
By: alifemoment on May 3, 2014
at 9:58 pm
I hope you visit Catheine one day.
By: Debra Kolkka on May 4, 2014
at 8:03 pm
Thank you, I hope I will! 🙂
By: alifemoment on May 4, 2014
at 8:05 pm
Deb , I have learned so much about Italy from reading your blogs ! I really enjoy the photos and intresting stories !
By: Anonymous on May 3, 2014
at 10:11 pm
Thank you, I enjoy finding interesting things to share with you.
By: Debra Kolkka on May 4, 2014
at 8:03 pm
Goodness, they do like their mummified saints in Italy! 😀
By: Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial on May 3, 2014
at 10:31 pm
They do…and they are a bit creepy.
By: Debra Kolkka on May 4, 2014
at 8:04 pm
This is a great post – I’d only heard about St Catherine of Siena up to now…
By: Francis on May 3, 2014
at 11:05 pm
Now you will have to visit Catherine of Bologna.
By: Debra Kolkka on May 4, 2014
at 5:24 am
Again I have learned something new about an Italian city I love and have visited 5 or 6 times. I have never heardof this saint. Thanks. I do enjoy your blog.
By: Joan Schmelzle on May 3, 2014
at 11:24 pm
I hadn’t heard of her either until a friend told us about her sitting there in her golden bower.
By: Debra Kolkka on May 4, 2014
at 5:23 am
It is certainly beautiful and worth a visit (thanks Debra); however, I am sure that St Catherine would not approve this rich display. She left the Court to live as a Poor Clare, a contemplative life of fast and prayer. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12251b.htm I am sure that she would have chosen a very humble burial…
By: mulino dominillo on May 4, 2014
at 6:22 am
I thought the same thing. From what I read about Catherine, she was humble and liked to work to help others. She would be turning in her grave, if she was in one.
By: Debra Kolkka on May 4, 2014
at 7:52 am
I had no idea … thanks … and Bologna seems like an interesting city to visit.
By: aFrankAngle on May 5, 2014
at 12:44 am
The setting is incredibly beautiful. But the face, have to say, is a bit cryptic. I wonder if artists knew that she’s the patron saint for them. Thanks for the share, Debra.
By: rommel on May 9, 2014
at 2:58 am
The saint is a bit creepy, and we thought she might have been given some new hands and feet recently.
By: Debra Kolkka on May 9, 2014
at 7:55 pm
Am thinking the same as Mulino and find the story of Poor Clare inspiring. I, too, find it a bit unnerving to see such an old body dressed in new clothes and surrounded by all the gold and glitter, a far cry from St Catherine’s life of piety and poverty.
By: Sandra Hoopmann on May 14, 2014
at 11:59 pm
It does seem a bit out of place.
By: Debra Kolkka on May 15, 2014
at 3:16 pm