Catherine of Siena

Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), born Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa, was the daughter of a Sienese cloth dyer who rejected marriage to join the Dominican mantellate as a mystic and ascetic. Her reputation gave her rare political weight: she helped persuade Pope Gregory XI to leave Avignon for Rome in 1376 and negotiated for peace between the papacy and Florence.

She dictated her major work, The Dialogue, in 1377–1378, then backed Urban VI in Rome during the Great Schism. She died in Rome in 1380 and was canonized in 1461.