198 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
cap, knelt before her and asked for forgiveness. Catherine's cures of the sick won the confidence of tlie people. On this visit she was accompanied by her mother and a group of likeminded women.
A large chapter j.n^Catlierine's lifeJs -intenvojvmijwn^t^ history of Florence. The spirit of revolt against the Avignon regime was rising in upper Italy and, when the papal legate in Bologna, in a year of dearth, forbade the transportation of provisions to Florence, it broke out into war. At the invitation of the Florentines, Catherine visited the city, 1375 and, a year later, was sent_asa^ delegate to Avignon
jo negotiate terms of peajae^ She was received with honor by the pope, but not without hesitancy. The other members of the delegation, when they arrived, refused to recognize her powers and approve her methods. The cardinals treated her coolly or with contempt, and women laid snares at her devotions to bring ridicule upon her. Such an attempt was made by the pope's niece, Madame de Beaufort Turenne, who knelt at her side and ran a sharp knife into her foot so that she limped from the wound.
The dyer's daughter now turned her attention to the task of confirming the supreme pontiff in his purpose to return to Rome and counteract the machinations of the cardinals against its execution. Seeing her desire realized, she started back for Italy and, met by her mother at Leghorn, went on to Florence, carrying a commission from the pope. Her effort to induce the city to bow to the sentence of interdict, which had been laid upon it, was in a measure successful. Her reverence for the papal office demanded passive obedience. Gregory's successor. Urban VI., lifted the ban. Catherine then^turned to SiengLAvhere she_jliutated the Dialogue, a mys^i^^al ti''^^^i«<^ inf^nlpatimr pj^ajiar,
"obedience, discretion and_otherjvjjlueSi, Catherine declared that God alone had been her guide in its composition.
In_the difficulties^ which arose ^ soon after Urban 's elflcti_on , that pontiff looked to Siena and called its distinguished daughter^ to^^eT~ They had^nfet in^AvIgnon. Accompanied by her mother and other companions, she reached
§ 21. CATHERINE OF SIENA, THE SAINT. 199
the holy city in the Autumn of 1378. They occupied a house by themselves and lived upon alms.i Her summons to Urban "to battle only with the weapons of repentance, prayer, virtue and love " were not heeded. Her presence, however, had a beneficent influence, and on one occasion, when the mob raged and poured into the Vatican, she appeared as a peacemaker, and the sight of her face and her words quieted the tumult.
She died lying on boards, April 29, 1380. To her companions standing at her side, she said : " Dear children, let not ni}'- death sadden you, rather rejoice to think that I am leaving a place of many sufferings to go to rest in the quiet sea, the eternal God, and to be united forever with my most sweet and loving Bridegroom. And I promise to be with you more and to be more useful to you, since I leave darkness to pass into the true and everlasting light." Again and again she whispered, " I have sinned, O Lord ; be merciful to me." She prayed for Urban, for the whole Church and for her companions, and then she departed, repeating the words, " Into thy hands I commit my spirit."
At the time of her deathCatherine of_Siena_was not yet thirty-three years old. A magnificent funeral was ordered by Urban. A year after, her head, enclosed in a reliquary, was sent to her native Siena, and in 1161 she was_canQnized by the city's famous son, pope Pius XL, who uttered the high praise " that none ever approached her without going away better." In 1865 when Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome was reopened, her ashes were carried through the streets, the silver urn containing them being borne by four bishops. Lamps are kept ever burning at the altar dedicated to her in the church. In 1866 Pius_IX. elevated the dyer's daughter to the dignity of patron_saint and protectress of Rome, a dignity she shares with the prince of the Apostks.^ With Petrarch she had been the most ardent advocate of its claims as the papal residence, and her zeal was exclusively religious.
1 Gardner, p. 298, says one of the two houses is still shown where they dwelt.