behalf
and overcome the outspoken opposition and hostility of some of the
cardinals, who had declared in favor of Clement VII. in his stead, and
had even gone so far as to declare him elected. Catherine was not able
to effect a conciliation, however, and here began the papal schism, as
the discontented cardinals continued their opposition with renewed vigor
and maintained Clement VII. as anti-pope. She was more successful in
another affair, as, immediately after her trip to Rome, in 1378 she
induced the rebellious Florentines to come to terms of peace with Urban.

The remaining two years of her life were spent in labors for her
Dominican order, and she visited several cities in its behalf. At the
time of her death, it was commonly reported that her body worked a
number of miracles. The authenticity of these supernatural events,
however, was ever somewhat in doubt, as the Franciscans always stoutly
denied the claims that were made by the Dominicans in regard to this
affair. Catherine was canonized in 1461, and April 30th is the special
day in each year devoted to her memory. Among the other celebrated nuns
and saints of the fourteenth century may be mentioned the Blessed
Marina, who founded the cloister of Saint Matthew at Spoleta; the
Blessed Cantuccia, a Benedictine abbess; and the Holy Humilitas, abbess
of the Order of Vallombrosa at Florence; but none of them compare in
pious works or in worldly reputation with the wise and hard-working
Catherine of Siena.

In the fifteenth century there was a still further increase of the
religious orders for both men and women, which came with the continual
extension of the field of religious activity; for the mother Church was
no laggard at this time, and never ceased to advance her own interests.
In this general period there were three nuns in Italy, each bearing the
name of Catherine, who by their saintly lives did much for the uplifting
of those about them. The first of this trio was Catherine, daughter of
Giovanni Vigeo. Though born in Ferrara, she was always spoken of as
Catherine of Bologna, as it was in the latter city that she spent the
greater part of her long and useful life. There she was for many years
at the head of a prosperous convent belonging to the nuns of the Order
of Clarissa, and there it was that she had her wonderful visions and
dreamed the wonderful dreams, which she carefully wrote down with her
own hand in the year 1438. For more than threescore years af