Siena, Italy: Basilica of Saint Dominic (Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico) and the head of Saint Catherine of Siena
About Saint Catherine of Siena:
Siena is the birthplace of Saint Catherine of Siena. She was the youngest of 25 children (talk about large families!) and experienced visions from an early age and seemed destined for sainthood. Throughout her life she experienced almost every type to mystical gift. She levitated, performed exorcisms, healed, lived on only the Holy Eucharist for years, received the invisible stigmata, and had numerous visions of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the saints, and the devil.
Her set of spiritual treatises “The Dialogue of Divine Providence” earned her the title Doctor of the Church…..although she was illiterate and could not actually write…she dictated all her writings (only later in life she did learn to read and write).
She gained considerable respect and is perhaps most noted for convincing the papacy to move back to Rome from Avignon, France.
Canonized a saint in 1461, she was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1970.
Her childhood home is now a church: the Sanctuary of St. Catherine.It has precious works and records of the saint. The Church of the Crucifix houses the miraculous 12th Crucifix from which, according to tradition, Saint Catherine received her stigmata.Tradition states that this church had been built on the garden of Catherine’s family on a plot of land adjacent to the church of Saint Antonio. It was consecrated on April 23 1623 by the Archbishop Alessandro Petrucci.
We celebrate her Feast of Saint Catherine of Siena on April 29.
About the Basilica of Saint Dominic (Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico)
Although her body is beneath the main altar in the Basilica of St. Mary Sopra Minerva in Rome, her head is preserved in a reliquary in the Church of St. Dominic in Siena as shown in the photo. The people of Siena wanted to keep her body here in Siena, and according to tradition they smuggled her head out, knowing they could not take her entire body without being discovered.
The Church is open daily from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily (March through October) and 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. November through February. Unlike most churches in Italy, it does not close for a mid-day siesta.
Weekday Masses are 7:30 a.m., 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Sunday and Holy Days Masses are two Masses in addition to this schedule: 10:30 a.m. and 12:00 noon.
A note on the Diocesan website states: “Starting from March (2025), the Basilica of St. Francis in Siena, which houses the Eucharistic Miracle of the Holy Particles and is officiated by the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, will propose a Mass in English every 12 hours to allow tourists and foreigners present in Siena to participate in the Eucharistic Celebration“.
Click here for the official website of the Church of Saint Dominic in Siena. They also have a list of licensed guides on their website.
Groups traveling with their own priest may schedule Masses by contacting them via email.
Traveling to the Basilica of Saint Dominic (Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico) in Siena:
Address:Piazza S. Domenico, 1, 53100 Siena SI, Italy