Inspirational Italian Women - Who Changed Italy

There are many powerful stories about Italian women who have changed the course of history in Italy. I love these two stories about Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret who, despite all odds, achieved so much in their lives.

SAINT CATHERINE

All over Siena, Saint Catherine, the most important woman of the Middle Ages, is honoured with statues, paintings and altars. Pilgrims flock to the church she went to whilst growing up, which is the Basilica of San Domenico in the historic centre of Siena. Here you will find her head and tiny thumb. She was buried in Rome, but later her head was detached and returned to Siena. Three of her fingers and left foot are in a church in Venice and Florence has a rib. Yes, it sounds morbid, but everyone wanted a part of Saint Catherine.

She was number 24 of 25 children. The 25th baby was her twin sister who died at birth. She shocked her parents when she was seven, announcing “I’ve had a vision! I’m devoting my life to Christ”. Her mother tried to marry her off when she was just a child aged twelve, but Catherine chopped off her hair and put up a fight. Her parents finally relented and let her join the Domenican nuns as a “tertiary”, a lay person associated with the clergy.

Catherine devoted herself to nursing the sick, but even the devout around her were concerned about her religious zeal, as she would only eat communion wafers. Today, psychologists believe she had survivor’s guilt because of the death of her twin sister and it manifested as anorexia nervosa.

Despite her diet, Catherine became a powerful, influential woman. She had a vision that set her on a path to change the world through letter writing. This was amazing because she was illiterate. Catherine dictated letters to her followers and sent them off to the Pope in Avignon, encouraging him to come back to Rome. The 14th century period was a mess with divisions in the papacy and Italy. Dante hadn’t been successful in persuading the Pope to return, but Catherine was.

For the ultimate push, she rode on horseback to Avignon and had a one-on-one meeting with the Pope. He returned to Rome and died shortly after. Catherine joined the new Pope in Rome, continuing to unite the church with her letter writing. She died in Rome aged 33 of a stroke.

Catherine was canonised in 1461 as the Patron of Nurses and Fire Prevention. In 1939 she was named Co-Patron of Italy, along with Saint Francis of Assisi; in 1970 a Doctor of the Church; in 1999 the Patron of Europe.

She was born in 1347 and died in 1380.

SAINT MARGARET

An hour from Siena is the dreamy hilltop Tuscan town of Cortona. A steep walk uphill from Cortona’s historic centre will take you to the place where Saint Margaret lived and where she is buried and honoured in the Chiesa di Santa Margherita.

This is her story.

Once upon a time in the 13th century, there lived a beautiful, high-spirited farmer’s daughter named Margaret in a little town called Laviano, a neighbour of Cortona. Her mother died when she was seven and Margaret’s father remarried a horrid woman who of course hated Margaret. As the town beauty, Margaret stayed up-beat by enjoying the attention from the local lads, but she always had a feeling there was more to life. Lo and behold along came a knight from Montepulciano who asked Margaret to go and live with him . . . and work as his maid.

Not insulted at all, Margaret, then 17, jumped at this opportunity to get away from the evil stepmother. She moved into the knight’s castle and surprise, surprise, he couldn’t keep his hands off her. Pregnant before you know it, Margaret gives birth to a son and asks her knight whether he’ll marry her now. No said the knight.

Margaret decided not to push it and chose to look on the bright side. Every day she went out to help the poor, although the townsfolk called her names to which she responded, “some day I’ll be a saint”.

One day her knight didn’t return home from a trip, but his dog did and led Margaret into the woods. There she came upon her knight, dead and rotting. Margaret believed it was her fault because other men wanted her, so she thought they probably whacked him on the head, thinking they could take his place. She decided to repent big time. Margaret gave all the riches she had received from the knight back to his family and then went home to her father and stepmother to confess all. Her stepmother threw her out. Of course she did.

In despair she fled to Cortona with her son (who later became a friar), through a gate that’s now called the Porta Margherita, and arrived at the Franciscan Friars. After three years of penance, they let her join their order. Soon a miracle occurred. As Margaret was praying below a crucifix, Jesus himself leaned forward and whispered “Poverelle”. That was another turning point for Margaret.

Inspired, she went back to what she’d been doing in the first place which was helping the poor. This time it was the poor of Cortona and she went all out. She started an order of nuns she called “le Poverelle”, founded a hospital for the poor and sick and a charity organisation to support the hospital.

As she got older, Margaret wanted peace and quiet, so she moved up the hill to the Church of Saint Basil and had it repaired. She died there in 1297 aged 50. Immediately the people of Cortona forgot about Saint Basil, named the church Chiesa di Santa Margherita, and started rebuilding it. What you see now is mainly from the church’s 19th century renovation.

Margaret’s body is in an open tomb above the high altar. She was canonised in 1728 as the Patroness of Fallen Women. No escaping your past.

Ci vediamo la prossima settimana.

Deb