The Oldest Depiction of the Life of St Catherine of Siena

St Catherine of Siena died on April 29, 1380, the feast of St Peter Martyr, who at the time was one of only three canonized Dominicans, alongside Ss Dominic and Thomas Aquinas. After St Vincent Ferrer, Catherine herself would become the fifth in 1461, canonized by a former bishop of her native city, Pope Pius II. Her feast was therefore originally assigned to May 2nd, and only later then brought back to today. In the post-Conciliar rite, with the suppression of Peter Martyr’s feast (easily one of its most foolish mistakes), she was moved yet again, to the day of her death.

The first known cycle of images of episodes from Catherine’s life, a series of ten panels, was painted by a Sienese artist called Giovanni di Paolo (1403 ca. - 1482); the altarpiece to which they originally belonged was later dismembered, and they now are in several different museums. There is some disagreement among art historians as to the original nature of the commission. Some hold that the panels were made as the predella of an altarpiece of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (shown below), commissioned in 1449 by a guild called the Pizzicaiuoli, for their chapel in the great pilgrim hospice that stands in front of the cathedral of Siena, Santa Maria della Scala.

However, St Catherine is shown with a halo in all the panels, 11 years before her beatification. It is perfectly possible that this was done in anticipation of her inevitable canonization, but many scholars hold that the predella was only added to the Pizzicaiuoli altar after that event, while others believe that they were never part of it at all, and originally surrounded an image of Catherine which has since been lost. The episodes are all taken from the biography of her written by her confessor, Bl. Raymond of Capua, also a Dominican. The original placement of the panels seems also to be a matter of dispute, and I do not shown them here in any particular order.

St Catherine receives the Dominican habit from Ss Augustine (the bishop in the middle), Dominic and Francis. The first appears between the two mendicant founders as a sign of the Church’s authority approving the way of life which they established, since his Rule was used by many of the new non-monastic religious communities that emerged in the 12th and 13th centuries, including the Dominicans.

St Catherine receiving Communion from Christ Himself, who has brought the Host to her from the Mass which Bl. Raymond is celebrating behind her.

The mystical marriage between Catherine and Christ, who is placing a ring on her finger as the Virgin Mary and many other Saints look on. (Something similar is reported of attributed to her namesake of Alexandria.) 

Catherine offers her heart to Christ, in the midst of a mystical vision, indicated by the fact that she is floating on a cloud.

St Catherine gives her cloak to a beggar, who, of course, turns out to the Lord; He then appears to her and gives the cloak back to her.

St Catherine meets Pope Gregory XI, the last of the Avignon Popes; she was the person principally responsible for persuading him to return the seat of papacy to Rome after almost 70 years.

St Catherine prays to Christ to revive her dying mother.

She receives the Stigmata; this took place while she was praying in the church of Santa Maria della Spina (of the Thorn) in Pisa, which at the time had a relic of one of the thorns of Christ’s crown.

Catherine dictating her dialogues to Bl. Raymond. 

Dominican friars gathered around her deathbed.

Regardless of how the panels of the life of St Catherine were originally arranged, this image of the Crucifixion would certainly have been placed exactly in the middle of them, right where the priest stood while saying the Canon of the Mass.

The altarpiece of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, to which the predella belonged, if in fact they did originally form part of the same commission.