Santa Maria sopra Minerva 2025: Rome's Gothic Church with Michelangelo's Christ

How Catherine of Siena persuaded the Pope to come back from France — and why that matters

Pope Gregory XI's return from Avignon to Rome in January 1377 (ending the 68-year period of the "Avignon Papacy" during which the papal court had resided in French territory) was directly and specifically influenced by Catherine of Siena's correspondence. Catherine wrote to Gregory XI 13 times between 1376 and 1377, using language of extraordinary urgency and occasionally bluntness — she addressed the pope as "Babbo" (Dad) in some letters, a familiarity that was either charming or outrageous depending on the reader's perspective, and she repeatedly urged him to stop being afraid, to stop listening to advisors who counseled remaining in France, and to fulfill his duty to the Church. The historical significance of the return: the Avignon Papacy had generated the conditions for the Great Western Schism (1378-1417, during which two or three popes simultaneously claimed authority) — had Gregory remained in France, the institutional crisis might have been far more severe. Catherine's letters are preserved in 382 documents that collectively constitute the most extensive political-theological correspondence by a woman in medieval European history. The Minerva church houses her body; the Basilica di San Domenico in Siena houses her head; the Vatican Library holds her correspondence.