You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints. This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute,

an Apostolate helping Catholics understand, live, and share their faith.

Welcome to Form Now. I'm Tim Gray, president of the Augustine Institute, and joining me today is Dr.

Elizabeth Klein, who's a professor of theology at the Augustine Institute, and we wish you a happy feast of St. Catherine of Siena. So it's her feast day today. She's an amazing, remarkable saint. There's a lot to say about her. She led a remarkable life. And of course, she's one of the few doctors of the church. So one of the few

women who's a doctor of the church. And we're going to talk about what a doctor of the church means.

But just a few simple facts about St. Catherine of Sienna. You know, St. Catherine of Sienna was a saint

who was born in the year 1347. She lived to be 33 years old, the same length of time as our Lord, and

she was very devoted to Jesus. She really saw herself as a spouse to Jesus. And of course,

she consecrated herself to serving Jesus Christ and loving Him. And she was the 24th child of 25 children.

So we should, why her mother's not canonized, I don't know, but she probably should be.

Amazing family of 25 kids.

Her father was a middle class merchant who dyed wool and did fairly well for himself and for his family,

even supporting that many children. And she lived at a time of a lot of upheaval and chaos.

Politically in Italy at that time, she, of course, was from Siena. And she also had to deal with

a lot of corruption in the church and a lot of upheaval in the church.

One of the things that we'll talk about is that Pope Gregory the 11th, who was the Pope at the time,

he didn't enjoy living in Rome, especially for the summers in Rome, but also because of the political situation.

And the king of France welcomed him to

Avignon France. And it was, you know, the wine tasted better there and the climate was better.

And so the papacy kind of moved to southern France. And, you know, Catherine will play a pivotal

role in bringing the Pope back to Rome where he belonged. And we'll talk a little bit about that too.

But a remarkable woman, but, you know, doctor at the church, but also, by the way, before I forget,

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