Catherine of Bologna
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Saint Catherine of Bologna O.S.C. |
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| Religious; Virgin | |
| Born |
8 September 1413 Bologna, Italy |
| Died | 9 March 1463 (aged 49) Bologna, Italy |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 1524, Old Saint Peter's Basilica, Papal States by Pope Clement VII |
| Canonized | 22 May 1712, Saint Peter's Basilica, Papal States by Pope Clement XI |
| Feast | 9 March |
| Attributes | Religious habit |
| Patronage |
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Saint Catherine of Bologna (8 September 1413 – 9 March 1463) was an Italian nun as well as both an artist and saint.
The patron saint of artists and against temptations, Catherine de' Vigri was venerated for nearly three centuries in her native Bologna before being formally canonized, in 1712. Her feast day is 9 March.
Catherine came from an aristocratic Bolognese family, the daughter of Benvenuta Mammolini of Bologna and Giovanni Vigri, an ambassador to Niccolò III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara. From the age of nine, she was raised at the court of the Duke of Ferrara as a lady-in-waiting of his daughter Margherita d’Este. During this time, she received an excellent training in reading, writing, music, singing, drawing and illuminating.
In 1426, however, after twelve years at court, she left and entered the convent of Corpus Domini at Ferrara. The convent, which had been established in 1406 as a lay community living a semi-religious life and following the Augustinian rule, was experiencing much tension at the time about whether instead to adhere to the Franciscan rule (something which eventually happened in stages in the early 1430s). This fluid situation, experienced by Catherine in her early years at Corpus Domini, is reflected in her writings. In 1432 together with other young women of Ferrara, she founded a monastery of the Order of Poor Clares.
She returned to Bologna in 1456 when her superiors and the governors of Bologna requested that she should be the founder and Abbess of a monastery of the same Order, which was to be established in association with the Church of Corpus Domini in Bologna. Catherine is the author, among other things, of Treatise on the 7 Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare.
When, on 9 March 1463, she died at the age of 49, Catherine was buried. After eighteen days of alleged graveside miracles, her incorrupt body was exhumed and relocated to the chapel of the Poor Clares in Bologna (Cappella della Santa), next to the church of Corpus Domini where it remains on display, dressed in her religious habit, seated upright behind glass.
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