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Tomb of St. Catherine of Siena (Santa Maria sopra Minerva)

Saints & Tombs Not Applicable
Rome, Italy 14th century Feast day: April 29

The Roman basilica holding the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church.

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The Story

The Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, steps from the Pantheon in Rome, is the city's great Dominican church and the resting place of St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church and one of the most remarkable women in Christian history. It is also Rome's only surviving medieval Gothic church, its blue star-spangled vaults rising unexpectedly behind a plain Renaissance facade. Catherine was born in Siena in 1347, the twenty-third child of a wool dyer, and became a Dominican tertiary while still a young woman. Though she never learned formal theology, her letters and her Dialogue — dictated, tradition holds, while in ecstasy — counseled popes, princes, and ordinary sinners with astonishing authority. She nursed plague victims, labored for peace among the Italian cities, and in 1376-77 played a decisive part in persuading Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy from Avignon to Rome. She died in Rome on April 29, 1380, at the age of thirty-three, and was buried at the Minerva, where her body now rests beneath the high altar; according to the traditional account, her head was taken to Siena a few years later and is venerated in the Basilica of San Domenico there. The room in which she died was later reconstructed within the church's complex. Pope Pius II canonized her in 1461; Paul VI declared her a Doctor of the Church in 1970 — with St. Teresa of Avila, the first woman so honored — and St. John Paul II named her co-patroness of Europe in 1999. She is also co-patroness of Italy. The basilica around her tomb holds treasures of its own, including Michelangelo's Risen Christ and the tomb of Blessed Fra Angelico, the Dominican painter. Pilgrims come to pray at the altar of a woman who told her contemporaries, 'Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.'

Church Recognition

St. Catherine of Siena was canonized by Pope Pius II in 1461, declared a Doctor of the Church by St. Paul VI in 1970, and named co-patroness of Italy and of Europe; Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where her body rests beneath the high altar, is a minor basilica entrusted to the Dominican Order.

Catholic Teaching

Catherine's tomb invites the faithful into the communion of saints and the veneration of relics (CCC 946-962; 1674), while her life and writings — cited in the Catechism itself (CCC 313, 356) — witness to the dignity of the lay and consecrated vocation to holiness and to loving service of the Church's unity.

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Practical

Additional Information

The body of St. Catherine rests beneath the high altar of Santa Maria sopra Minerva (her head is venerated in Siena).

Go Deeper

See the basilica's official website at https://www.santamariasopraminerva.it, read St. Catherine's Dialogue and her letters, Sigrid Undset's classic biography Catherine of Siena, and the Catechism on the communion of saints (CCC 946-962).

Doctors of the Church

Location

Visit the official website ↗ See it on the interactive map →

In the Area

Other sacred sites within 40 miles.