Shrines of Italy: Church of Saint Catherine of Genoa

The Church of Saint Catherine of Genoa is a small and relatively obscure sanctuary, located in the heart of Genoa itself, one of Italy’s Western-most coastal cities. It was first constructed in 1488 in association with the Pammatone Hospital, and the two structures were connected by an underground tunnel for several centuries. The Church itself changed hands many times over the centuries, having once been occupied by the Capuchins, Jesuits, and Augustinians, before returning to Capuchins in 1838.

From roughly the 16th to the 18th century, various Genoese families contributed to the embellishment of the church, eventually culminating in the ornate Romanesque interior that we see today. As with many churches during the Second World War, it sustained some significant damage during an aerial bombardment in 1942, which subsequently led to a series of restorations.

In 1960, the remains of Saint Catherine of Genoa were moved to their current location inside of a large mausoleum designed by Eugenio Fuselli. While more than five centuries of decay have certainly taken their toll of Saint Catherine’s remains, she is nonetheless regarded as incorrupt due to the sanctity of her life and the significance of her spiritual insight.

She was born in Genoa in 1447 to a noble family, and was the youngest of five children. Upon her father’s death in 1463, she was married to a young Genoese nobleman, Giuliano Adorno, as a diplomatic effort to end a long-lasting feud between the two families. Predicably enough, the marriage turned out quite poorly, with both parties detesting each other for the better part of 10 years. This all changed however, when Catherine experienced a personal conversion in 1473, at the prompting of a special grace received in confession. She subsequently began to live a life a great sanctity, and focused much of her time on assisting the sick and the poor.

Her dramatic change of heart eventually led to the conversion of her husband, at which point they took up residence in Pammatone Hospital, and dedicated themselves to works of charity. Giuliano become a Franciscan tertiary, while Catherine became the manager of the hospital where she would work until her death in 1510.

Toward the end of her life, she became something of a mystic, having committed many of her interior inspirations to papers, such as her “Treatise on Purgatory,” and her “Dialogues on the Soul and the Body.” The quality of these writings eventually led to her canonization in 1737, and Pope Pius XII would later declare her as the patroness of all hospitals in Italy.

While there are many titles by which Saint Catherine can be invoked, this one is perhaps the most fitting, and certainly the most deserved.