The Saints of Siena

Patroness of Italy and of Europe and known in secular life as Caterina Benincasa (Siena 1347- Rome 1380), she was one of the last of the numerous offspring of the dyer Jacopo Benincasa and his wife Lapa. A child of rebellious and tenacious character, she grew up in a modest house at no. 6 Via Costa di Sant’Antonio in the Contrada dell’Oca. As early as 1464, her home, which had become the property of the municipality, was transformed into a sanctuary. St. Catherine is known to the world not only for her charitable and merciful disposition, but above all for her numerous writings, despite being illiterate, and her relationship with the Papacy. In the last years of the so-called Avignon captivity, she went to great lengths to convince the Pope to return to Rome. From around 1370 to 1376, Catherine travelled to various Tuscan cities including Lucca, Pisa (where she received the stigmata) and Florence. She died in Rome in 1380, at only 33 years of age, exhausted by her torments.

San Bernardino, in secular life Bernardino Albizzeschi, was born in 1380 in Massa Marittima, a town where his father held the post of chief magistrate. Losing both parents early in life, he is said to have stayed with his aunts in Siena, the city of origin of his paternal family. The iconography typically associated with the saint includes a model of the city of Siena. The importance of the Saint’s sermons is well-known: through his religious admonitions, St. Bernardino inspired the statutory reforms of 1430, restoring sobriety and faithfulness to the evangelical precepts, and he was responsible for creating the monogram IHS (Iesus Hominum Salvator/Jesus Saviour of Humanity) enclosed within a sun with blazing rays. Because of his devotion to the name of Jesus, he was even branded a heretic and brought before the Pope to stand trial, but his accusers were unsuccessful and he was acquitted.

He was the first saint and martyr of Siena, as well as the city’s patron, remembered for having evangelised the Siena area. Born of a noble family in Rome in 280 AD, his father Tranquillinus was a Roman senator and very close to the emperor Diocletian. He converted to Christianity at the age of twelve, when he accepted baptism. With the persecution of 303 AD, promulgated through the decree of Diocletian, Ansanus was denounced by his father and, forced to flee, he went to Siena for divine inspiration. Because of the numerous baptisms he administered there, his fame grew to the point of once more attracting attention to himself, which lead to his martyrdom.

We know that Siena has three other martyrs as city patron saints: St. Crescentius, St. Sabinus and St. Victor. Depicted kneeling around the Madonna in the Maestà by Duccio di Buoninsegna, two of the three patrons are also represented in sculptural form in the niches of the Loggia della Mercanzia. Golden statues of the saints can be seen inside the Cathedral, above the columns beneath the dome, as well as paintings in the collection of the National Gallery of Siena.