Caterina Fieschi was born in Genoa in 1447 into one of the city's great noble families. At thirteen she wished to become a nun but was refused, and at sixteen she was married for family reasons to Giuliano Adorno, a careless and extravagant husband. For about ten years she was deeply unhappy, at first withdrawn and then seeking distraction in the pleasures of society.
In March 1473, while kneeling before a confessor, she was overwhelmed by a sense of God's love and of her own sin, and her life was changed. She gave herself to prayer, penance and daily Communion, and to the care of the sick poor in the great hospital of Pammatone. Giuliano, ruined by debt, was converted too; he became a Franciscan tertiary, and the couple lived and worked in the hospital.
Catherine of Genoa in the library (1 work)
- The Life and Doctrine of St Catherine of Genoa — 15th century; translation 1907
The life of the Genoese mystic who served the sick in the hospital of Genoa, with her Treatise on Purgatory and her Spiritual Dialogue.