Journal of Religious History

Vol. 32, No. 1, March 2008

GERALD PARSONS

A National Saint in a Fascist State: Catherine of

Siena, ca 1922–1943

The annual festival of Saint Catherine of Siena is now the focus of a self-conscious
internationalism which celebrates Catherine as both Patron Saint of Italy and
Co-Patron Saint of Europe. When Catherine of Siena was proclaimed Patron Saint
of Italy in 1939, however, the annual festival in her honour was quite different in
ethos, being a highly patriotic, nationalistic, and even militaristic celebration of
Catherine’s significance in and for Fascist Italy. The article examines the campaign
for Catherine to be proclaimed a “national saint” and “patron of Italy” during the 1920s
and 1930s, locating it within the context of the relationship between Catholicism
and Fascism in Mussolini’s Italy. It also examines the celebration of her annual
festival between 1940 and 1943 in the context of Italian participation in the Second
World War, until the fall of Mussolini and his regime.

The annual festival of Saint Catherine of Siena is celebrated each year on the
weekend nearest to the anniversary of her death on 29 April 1380. As anyone
familiar with these celebrations in Siena will know, in recent decades the
festival has focused increasingly on Catherine of Siena’s significance as a
symbol of peace and unity, both in her own day and the present. The culmina-
tion of this trend was the transformation of her annual festival from a “Festa
Nazionale” into a “Festa Internazionale” following Catherine’s official
proclamation, in 1999, as a Co-Patron Saint, not just of Italy, but of Europe.
Accordingly, since 2000, the festival has focused on the contemporary
relevance of Catherine’s life and teaching for European unity, international
cooperation, peace, and social justice.1
To those familiar only with the recent internationalist ethos and the pre-
dominance of the theme of peace in the annual festival in honour of Catherine
1. For the way the annual festival in honour of Saint Catherine has been transformed during its
history, see G. Parsons, “From Nationalism to Internationalism: Civil Religion and the Festival
of Saint Catherine of Siena 1940 –2003,” Journal of Church and State, no. 46 (2004): 861–85.
For the recent and contemporary emphasis on European unity, internationalism and peace see,
especially, 877–82.

Gerald Parsons is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, Milton Keynes,
UK.

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of Siena, it may be surprising to learn that, when originally proclaimed Co-

Patron Saint of Italy in 1939, Catherine was portrayed in a quite different way.
Both in the campaign for her proclamation as “Patrona d’Italia” and in the
first annual celebrations of her new status she was presented as an overtly
nationalistic and patriotic figure who, moreover, could be readily associated
with the values and ethos of Fascist Italy.
The present article explores this theme. First, it briefly locates the campaign
for the proclamation of Catherine of Siena as Patrona d’Italia within the
context of church-state relations in Italy during the Fascist period. Second, it
examines the extent to which those who campaigned for her proclamation as
Patrona d’Italia appealed to Fascist values in advocating Catherine’s cause.
Third, it examines how, after her formal proclamation as Patrona d’Italia in
June 1939 until the fall of Mussolini in July 1943, Catherine and her new
status as Patrona d’Italia were celebrated in the context of the final years of
the Fascist regime and Italy’s participation in the Second World War.

The Context: Church and State in Italy in the Fascist Era

The campaign to secure recognition of Catherine of Siena as Patron Saint of
Italy began in the early 1920s, gathered pace in the 1930s, and achieved its
aim in June 1939 when Pope Pius XII proclaimed Catherine a Co-Patron
Saint of Italy, together with Francis of Assisi. It thus coincided with the
establishment of the Fascist regime and its domination of Italy from the mid-
1920s onwards. It is therefore important to locate the campaign within the
broader context of relations between church and state in Fascist Italy.
As numerous studies over several decades have consistently demonstrated,
the relationship between Italian Fascism and Roman Catholicism was never
simple, always ambiguous, and frequently subject to profound tensions.2 On
the one hand, Italian Fascism always included a strongly anti-Catholic element
and there was ongoing tension between Fascist and Catholic organisations,
especially in relation to youth movements. Mussolini consistently tried to
bring the Church under Fascist influence, whilst Fascism presented itself as an
alternative “religion” with its own rites, rituals, festivals, sacred symbols,
myths, and beliefs.3 On the other hand, Mussolini — ever the pragmatist and

2. See, for example, D. Binchy, Church and State in Fascist Italy (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1977 [1941]); A. Jemolo, Church and State in Italy 1850 –1950 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1960),
166–277; R. Webster, Christian Democracy in Italy 1860 –1960 (London: Hollis and Carter,
1960), 57–161; A. O’Brien, “The Osservatore Romano and Fascism: The Beginning of a New
Era in Church-State Relations, October 1922–July 1923,” Journal of Church and State, no. 13
(1971): 445–63; J. Pollard, The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929–32 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1985); T. Koon, Believe, Obey, Fight: Political Socialization of Youth in Fascist
Italy, 1922–1943 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985), 116 – 42; F. Malgeri,
“Chiesa cattolica e regime fascista,” Italia Contemporanea, no. 194 (1994): 53–63; E. Gentile,
The Sacralization of Politics in Fascist Italy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
1996), 53–56, 62–64, 69–75; Le religioni della politica: Fra democrazie e totalitarismi (Rome-Bari:
Laterza, 2001), 134–54; G. Zagheni, La Croce e il Fascio: I cattolici italiani e la dittatura
(Milan: San Paolo, 2006).
3. Koon, Believe, Obey, Fight , 11, 26 –28, 71; Gentile, Sacralization of Politics . See also
E. Gentile, “Fascism as Political Religion,” Journal of Contemporary History, no. 25 (1990):
229–51; Gentile, “New Idols: Catholicism in the Face of Fascist Totalitarianism,” Journal of
Modern Italian Studies, no. 11 (2006): 143 –70.

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opportunist in his pursuit of political advantage — presented the appearance

of a positive relationship with the Catholic Church whenever this might prove
beneficial to his regime. In particular, the Catholic Church in Italy offered
Mussolini and Fascism a potential point of access to a mass audience and
constituency. By calculatedly cultivating a rapport with the Church — even if
only amidst continuing ambiguity — Mussolini played skilfully to the
“cultural Catholicism” of Italian society. Conversely, by avoiding prolonged
confrontation of an overt kind between Fascism and Catholicism, Mussolini
avoided the threat of alienating the majority of Italian Catholics.
The 1920s thus witnessed various gestures of goodwill towards the Church
— as well as outbursts of anti-Catholic rhetoric and violence and sharp
conflicts over Catholic youth movements — whilst, for Catholicism, Fascism
appeared to offer an alternative to the threat posed by Socialism and Com-
munism. Behind the scenes, both Mussolini and Pope Pius XI explored the
possibility of formally ending the dispute between church and state that had
endured since 1870. For both parties, the resulting conciliazione of 11 February
1929 — embodied in the Lateran Treaties and Concordat — represented an
important achievement. Whilst Mussolini gained in international prestige and
popularity with ordinary Italians by resolving the formal contradiction
between loyalty to Catholicism and loyalty to Italy, Pius XI famously spoke of
the conciliazione “restoring God to Italy and Italy to God” and of Mussolini
being a man that providence had placed in the church’s path.4
Despite the brief but intense dispute between 1929 and 1931 over the status
of Catholic Action and the precise implications of the Lateran Treaties and
Concordat, the conciliazione initiated a period of substantial coexistence
between the regime and the Church, at least until the visit of Hitler to Italy in
May 1938 and the introduction of the anti-Semitic Racial Laws of 1938
prompted renewed controversy. Thus the years from 1932 to 1938 are commonly
described as a period of “consensus” and of a “marriage of convenience”
between Catholicism and Fascism in Italy. During this period, Mussolini and
the regime enjoyed the public support of the Italian Catholic Church, especially
through the participation of clergy and bishops in public ceremonies and
celebration of the regime’s achievements and policies in episcopal sermons,
pastoral letters, and other pronouncements — a trend nowhere more clearly
demonstrated than in the Italian bishops’ endorsement of the invasion of
Ethiopia and of Italian support of Franco in the Spanish Civil War.5
Italian Fascism, meanwhile, repaid such compliments, not only by promoting
particular policies congenial to the Church — such as those concerning

4. For the Lateran Treaties and Concordat see, Binchy, Church and State, 167–253; Jemolo,
Church and State in Italy, 226–37; Webster, Christian Democracy in Italy, 109–11; Pollard,
Vatican and Italian Fascism , 15–74; Malgeri, “Chiesa cattolica e regime fascista,” 55–56;
F. Margiotta Broglio, “Dalla Conciliazione al giubileo 2000,” in Storia D’Italia, Annali 16, Roma,
la città del papa, ed. L. Fiorani and A. Prosperi (Turin: Einaudi, 2000), 1153 –57; R. Riciotti, La
Ferita Sanata: I Patti Lateranensi e l’accordo di Villa Madama fra storia, politica e diritto
(Rimini: Il Cerchio, 2004); Zagheni, La Croce e il Fascio, 163–66.
5. Binchy, Church and State, 677–80; Jemolo, Church and State in Italy, 259– 60; Pollard,
Vatican and Italian Fascism, 89; Zagheni, La Croce e il Fascio, 242 – 47.

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marriage, adultery, divorce, and the encouragement of large families6 — but

also by emphasis upon the Roman Catholic Church as the historic vehicle for
the preservation of the spirit of “romanità.” Whilst ancient Rome — and
especially the “golden age” of Augustus — was evoked by Mussolini as the
pre-eminent expression of Italian greatness, whose values of law, justice, and
order were now being revived under Fascism, the Roman Catholic Church
was presented as the institution which, when the Roman empire had declined
and fallen, preserved the spirit of romanità and its civilizing mission. Without
the Roman Catholic Church, it was claimed, the values of romanità would
have been lost to European civilisation, and thus European supremacy would
have been impossible.7 Even the celebration of the bi-millennium of the
Emperor Augustus in 1937–38 — in many ways the highpoint in the regime’s
promotion of romanità — included this theme, both in the lavish Mostra
augustea della romanità and in aspects of the design and accompanying
inscriptions in Piazza Augusto Imperatore.8 The latter project, despite being a
celebration of Mussolini’s Italy as the successor to Augustan Rome, never-
theless incorporated three Roman churches within its design and included
statues of the Milanese Saints Charles and Ambrose and Latin inscriptions
honouring Achille Ratti — previously Cardinal of Milan and now Pope Pius XI
— and his role in the conciliazione. The Roman Catholic Church was portrayed
as spiritual intermediary between classical romanità and contemporary
Fascist romanità.9 For their part, meanwhile, although Catholic apologists
characteristically argued that it was the Catholic Church that made the legacy
of Rome truly universal and eternal — rather than Rome and its traditions
that facilitated the rise of the Church — nevertheless, prominent Catholics
endorsed the concept of a rebirth of a “civiltà romana” in which Catholicism
was central, whilst articles in La Civiltà Cattolica in 1937 and 1940 discussed
the Mostra augustea della romanità and the concept of romanità in highly
favourable terms and affirmed that the great role entrusted to the Church by
Providence was to perpetuate and continue the conquests of romanità.10
Clearly, therefore, despite consistent curtailment of Catholic societies and
organisations and restrictions on the Catholic press, for many in the Catholic
Church, the Fascist regime nevertheless continued — from the early gestures

6. Binchy, Church and State, 388, 397–98, 405; Zagheni, La Croce e il Fascio, 203.
7. R. Visser, “Pax Augusta and Pax Mussoliniana: The Fascist Cult of the Romanità and the
Use of “Augustan” Conceptions at the Piazza Augusto Imperatore in Rome,” in The Power of
Imagery: Essays on Rome, Italy and Imagination, ed. P. van Kessel (Rome: Apeiron, 1992), 109 –
30, especially 119–20; Margiotta Broglio, “Dalla Conciliazione al giubileo 2000,” 1163 – 67;
Zagheni, La Croce e il Fascio, 126 –30; Gentile, New Idols, 147– 48.
8. Visser, “Pax Augusta and Pax Mussoliniana,” 111–12, 119–20, 124 –25; Gentile, Sacralization
of Politics, 76–77; F. Scriba, “The Sacralization of the Roman Past in Mussolini’s Italy. Erudition,
Aesthetics, and Religion in the Exhibition of Augustus’ Bimillenary in 1937–38,” Storia della
Storiografia, no. 30 (1996): 19–29, especially 23 –25.
9. Visser, “Pax Augusta and Pax Mussoliniana,” 123 –25.
10. A. Ferrua, “La mostra augustea della romanità,” La Civiltà Cattolica, no. 2100 (1937):
481–91; Ferrua, “La difesa della romanità,” La Civiltà Cattolica , no. 2165 (1940): 321–30. See
also A. Riccardi, Roma ‘città sacra’? Dalla Conciliazione all’operazione Sturzo (Milan: Vita e
Pensiero, 1979), 6, 30 –57; O. Logan, “Christian Civilization and Italic Civilization: Italian Catholic
Theses from Gioberti to Pius XII,” in The Church Retrospective, ed. R. Swanson (Woodbridge:
Boydell, 1997), 484–85.

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of goodwill in the mid-1920s to the association of Catholicism, Fascism and

romanità in the late 1930s — to appear to offer the opportunity for a re-
Christianisation of Italian society. It is, moreover, precisely within this
complex interplay of interests that the campaign for the proclamation of
Catherine of Siena as Patron Saint of Italy must be located and interpreted.

“La Santa degli Italiani”: The Campaign for Catherine of Siena to be

Proclaimed Patrona d’Italia
The campaign for Catherine of Siena to be proclaimed patron saint of Italy
began in earnest in the mid-1920s. It was preceded, however, by a number of
notable earlier examples of recognition of her potential as a symbol of Italian
national sentiment. In both 1859 and 1861, for example, Sienese celebrations
of Catherine linked her explicitly to the issue of Italian independence. In 1859
the prestigious relic of Catherine’s head — which was, and still is, preserved
as a focus of devotion in the church of San Domenico in Siena — was chosen
as the centrepiece for the annual Sienese festival of Domenica in Albis when
a locally venerated image is taken in procession to the cathedral for eight
days of public devotion. The official accounts of expenditure for the festival
concluded with an explanation of what was to be done with the surplus funds
that had been collected. The largest single sum — of 885 lire — was to be
passed to the civic authorities to be given “to the Italian war of independence,”
specifically for the cost of spiritual assistance for the army, for chaplains, for
the care of the wounded, and for families in need as a result of the war.11 Also
in 1859 — and immediately after the festival of Domenica in Albis — a
group of devotees of Catherine, together with the religious community in San
Domenico, organised a further series of days of prayer dedicated to seeking
Catherine’s intercession with God for the protection, blessing and victory of
the Italian forces then fighting “for the holy cause of the independence of her
and our Italian homeland.”12 Similarly, two years later, as part of the Sienese
celebrations of the fourth centenary of Catherine’s canonisation, the com-
mittee responsible for the festivities wrote to the Sienese civic authorities in
May 1861 emphasising Catherine’s role as a heavenly intercessor in the cause
of Italian independence.13
Three decades later, in a lecture in Siena in 1895, Carlo Calisse, Professor
of the History of Italian Law at the University of Pisa, discussed — among
other themes — Catherine’s call for a crusade as a means to promote peace
among her Christian contemporaries through unity in a common cause. This,
Calisse insisted, showed her political wisdom, united with her fervent love of

11. “Rendi-Conto dei Deputati alla Festa che si faceva in Siena nella Domenica in Albis l’anno
1859,” in the Archivio della Nobile Contrada dell’Oca, Siena, inventory number XIII B.4 95.
12. “Deliberazione della deputazione per la commemorazione anniversaria e centenaria della
canonizzazione di S. Caterina da Siena,” Archivio della Compagnia di S. Caterina (1792–1970),
inventory number 97 [5], now held by the Associazione Internazionale dei Caterinati, Siena.
13. “Copialettere e Petizioni della Festa centenaria di S. Caterina del 1861, no.1 al Gonfalo-
niere del Municipio di Siena, 13 Maggio, 1861,” Archivio della Compagnia di S. Caterina (1792–
1970), inventory number 98 [71]. See also S. Bacci, L’Archivio della Compagnia di S. Caterina
(1792–1970) (Siena: Cantagalli, 2003), 118–19.

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both country and church.14 In the second decade of the twentieth century,
interest in Catherine was further fostered by initiatives of the Sienese publishers
Giuntini-Bentivoglio. In 1913 alone their imprint included the Sienese writer,
Federico Tozzi’s Antologia d’antichi scrittori senesi, which culminated in a
celebration of the works of Saint Catherine; a new and substantially expanded
edition of Piero Misciattelli’s Mistici Senesi (first published in 1911) in which
Catherine received particularly full treatment; the first part of a new six
volume edition of Catherine’s Letters and a collection of Catherine’s thoughts
for a popular audience, both also edited by Misciattelli.15 Significantly, in the
expanded version of Mistici Senesi, Misciattelli — an historian of Sienese art
and religion, from a distinguished Catholic family — included a much fuller
treatment of Catherine’s political life and activity. He now portrayed her as an
advocate of the unity both of Italy — under the papacy and in continuity with
the Latin empire — and of Catholic Europe, in crusade against the Turks. This,
Misciattelli asserted, constituted a religious and patriotic ideal on Catherine’s
part, thereby foreshadowing the position he would take in his promotion of
her cause in the 1920s and 1930s.16
In 1918 the annual festival of Domenica in Albis in Siena again prompted
an overt assertion of Catherine’s significance as a specifically Italian saint.
The committee for the festival, headed by the Archbishop of Siena, Prospero
Scaccia, chose the highly revered fifteenth-century statue of Catherine owned
by the Contrada dell’Oca as the sacred image to be honoured that year. In
their letter announcing this decision the committee expressed the hope that
Catherine would intercede for the thousands of Italians now exiled from their
homes (after the Italian defeat at Caporetto the previous October) and for
Italy itself, that the nation might obtain a true peace, that was just, enduring
and victorious. Similarly, the public notice for the festival proclaimed that the
statue had been chosen because the committee, believing itself to be reflecting
the wishes of the Sienese, wished to invoke the protection of Catherine for
Italy in a moment of such gravity.17 The local Catholic newspaper, meanwhile,
reported that the festival of Domenica in Albis in 1918 had been celebrated
with greater solemnity than for many years, with numerous people visiting
the cathedral, especially in the evenings, to honour Catherine and seek her
intercession on behalf of the nation.18
The increasing interest in Catherine of Siena was first given institutional
form in Siena with the foundation, in 1920, of the Società Internazionale di

14. C. Calisse, S. Caterina da Siena (Siena: Tipografia Sordo-Muti di L. Lazzeri, 1895), 19.
15. F. Tozzi, Antologia d’antichi scrittori senesi (Dalle origini fino a Santa Caterina) (Siena:
Giuntini-Bentivoglio, 1913); P. Misciattelli, Mistici Senesi (Siena: Giuntini-Bentivoglio, 1913);
Lettere di Santa Caterina da Siena, 6 vols. (Siena: Giuntini-Bentivoglio, 1913 –22); Pensieri di
S. Caterina da Siena (Siena: Giuntini-Bentivoglio, 1913).
16. Misciattelli, Mistici Senesi, 146 – 49.
17. Both the letter and the public notice may be found in the Archivio della Nobile Contrada
dell’Oca, Siena, inventory number XIII B.9 168, “Comitato per il 2nd Ottavario della Domenica
in Albis in onore della imagine di S. Caterina della Contrada dell’Oca l’anno 1918.”
18. Il Popolo di Siena, 13 April 1918, 3.

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Studi Cateriniani.19 In 1923 the Società began publication of its periodical,

Studi Cateriniani, devoted to the study of Catherine’s life and teaching and to
the promotion of her cult. Other branches of the society were founded
elsewhere in Italy, including, most notably, in Rome, where the local branch
met in the premises of the Arciconfraternita di Santa Caterina da Siena in
Roma.20 In 1926 Rome was also the location for the foundation of another
society dedicated to the promotion of Catherine of Siena and her cult. The
Corporazione dei Caterinati was founded in June 1926 in the church dedicated
to the saint at Magnanapoli, near to the Quirinale. The Corporazione attracted
the support of influential members of Rome’s civil and ecclesiastical elites —
including ministers of the Fascist government such as Pietro Fedele and
Emilio Bodrero. The second article of the Statutes of the Corporazione
specifically committed the new society to making Italians more aware of
Catherine in order to secure her recognition as a “Santa nazionale.” Like the
Sienese Società, the Corporazione also founded branches in other Italian cities.21
Two further projects to celebrate and promote Catherine were also initiated
in 1926. In January, the Corso Universitario di Studi Cateriniani was inaugu-
rated at the University of Siena, establishing annual lectures on Catherine
that rapidly became known as the Cattedra Cateriniana.22 Then, in May, the
Governatore of the Arciconfraternita di Santa Caterina da Siena in Roma,
Arturo Bruchi, wrote to the Governor of Rome, proposing to honour the
figure of Catherine of Siena in Rome by placing a bust of the saint in the
Pincio Gardens, among those of other famous Italians commemorated there.
Bruchi also indicated that the Sienese wished to donate the bust to Rome,
thereby commemorating both the relationship between the cities where,
respectively, Catherine was born and died and her status as an official patron
saint of Rome.23 The proposal was accepted and a bust of Catherine, by the
19. Sources differ concerning when the Society was founded, some giving 1920, others 1922.
In fact, the initiative was proposed in 1920, and an organising committee formed, but the first
formal event — a public lecture in the Sienese Palazzo Pubblico, by Count Giuseppe dalla Torre,
the director of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano — did not occur until January
1922. See, the “Programma e Notizie” which preface Studi Cateriniani: Bullettino della Società
Internazionale di Studi Cateriniani, 1 (1923).
20. For the history of this Arch-Confraternity and its church in Via Giulia, see G. Nozzoli,
“L’Arciconfraternita di Santa Caterina da Siena in Roma,” Studi Cateriniani, no. 5 (1928): 3–9;
Nozzoli, “Carattere nazionale della Confraternita di Santa Caterina da Siena in Roma,” Studi
Cateriniani, no. 6 (1930): 63 – 66; G. Borghini, “S. Caterina da Siena a Via Giulia (1766 –1776):
passaggio obbligato per la cultura figurativa del secondo Settecento romano,” Storia dell’Arte,
no. 52 (1984): 205–19; L. Spezzaferro, “L’omogeneità di una siuazione complessa. Vicende della
chiesa di Santa Caterina da Siena in Via Giulia,” in Siena e Roma: Raffaello, Caravaggio e i pro-
tagonisti di un legame antico (Siena: Protagon, 2005), 439–53.
21. L. Bianchi, “Il Movimento per la proclamazione di S. Caterina a Patrona d’Italia,” in S.
Francesco e S. Caterina Patroni d’Italia: Atti del cinquantenario (Siena: Cantagalli, 1990), 64 –
67; G. Carrara, “La Corporazione dei Caterinati — come si afferma,” Rassegna Cateriniana, no.
8 (1929): 89–92. The Corporazione continued to meet in Santa Caterina da Siena a Magnanapoli
until 1932. Subsequently it met in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
22. T. Nencini, “Noi Cateriniani, nel Culto della Santa, nell’amore di Siena,” Studi Cateriniani,
no. 17 (1941): 46–47.
23. P. Rossi, “Il busto di S. Caterina offerta dai senesi a Roma,” Studi Cateriniani, no. 5 (1928):
10–19. The text of Bruchi’s letter is reproduced on pages 17–19. Catherine of Siena was pro-
claimed a co-patron saint of Rome by Pope Pius IX in 1866, in recognition of her successful
appeal to Pope Gregory XI in 1376 to return from Avignon to Rome and her insistence upon the
Papacy’s presence in Rome.

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Sienese sculptor Arturo Viligiardi — who was a founder member of the Società
Internazionale di Studi Cateriniani — was duly inaugurated in the Pincio
Gardens in April 1928 on Catherine’s annual festival.
In the present instance, it is the broader ideological context of these
initiatives that is of principal interest. At the inauguration of the Cattedra
Cateriniana, in the letter proposing the addition of a bust of Catherine to the
Pincio Gardens, and at the inauguration of the bust in 1928, the celebration of
Catherine was explicitly placed within the context of the rhetoric of national
renewal associated with the Fascist regime and its promotion of a cult of both
“romanità” and “italianità.”
The speeches and lecture to mark the inauguration of the Cattedra
Cateriniana in January 1926 set the pattern. On behalf of the government, the
Minister for Public Instruction, Pietro Fedele, emphasised that the Cattedra
Cateriniana would not only be a centre of scholarly research into the works
of Saint Catherine, but also a spiritual flame that would inspire new genera-
tions with the same faith in “romanità” and “italianità” that had also been, he
asserted, a central feature of Catherine’s own thought. The Rector of Siena
University, Achille Sclavo, and the mayor of Siena, Vittorio Martini, then
both also concluded their speeches with extravagant compliments to Benito
Mussolini, including the claims that in Mussolini more than one of Catherine’s
virtues had been revived, and that Catherine’s vision of a restoration of Italy’s
and Rome’s greatness in her day was now echoed in his contemporary vision
of a renewed Italy. Both speakers also emphasised the intensity of Catherine’s
sense of being Italian and her status as the “most Italian of the Italian
saints.”24 In the first lecture given under the auspices of the new Cattedra
Cateriniana, Piero Misciattelli then spoke of “La romanità di Santa Caterina
da Siena,” asserting that Catherine displayed her “romanità” in her efforts to
secure the peace and unity of Italy — an endeavour that he described as
embodying a modern sense of nationalism, precisely because it extended to
all of Italy, not merely to the Papal States.25
In his letter proposing the bust of Catherine for the Pincio Gardens, Arturo
Bruchi recalled both Misciattelli’s and Fedele’s remarks at the inauguration of
the Cattedra Cateriniana and concluded by reaffirming Fedele’s insistence
that Catherine’s spirit would become the inspiration of new generations,
placing this process firmly within the context of the contemporary — Fascist
inspired — revival of national sentiment, in which Rome and Italy “vibrated”
with new life and greatness.26 Then, in April 1928, the official unveiling of the
bust was accompanied by a ceremony which, once again, emphasised the

24. Rossi, “Il busto di S. Caterina offerta dai senesi a Roma,” 18; see also, “Inaugurazione
della Cattedra Cateriniana,” Studi Cateriniani, no. 3 (1926): 1–14; “Discorso dell Comm. Prof.
V. Martini, Sindaco di Siena,” Studi Cateriniani, no. 3 (1926): 119–21; “La Cattedra di Studi
Cateriniani,” La Diana, no. 1 (1926): 70.
25. P. Misciattelli, “La romanità di Santa Caterina,” Studi Cateriniani, no. 3 (1926): 15 –21. A
longer version of this lecture appeared in Rassegna italiana politica letteraria e artistica 9
(1926): 307–16. Misciattelli had been an early and enthusiastic advocate of Catholic support for
Fascism, for which see P. Misciattelli, Fascisti e Cattolici (Milan: Imperia, 1924).
26. Rossi, “Il busto di S. Caterina offerta dai senesi a Roma,” 18–19.

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themes of Catherine’s devotion to Italy and Rome and related this devotion to
the contemporary example of Mussolini and Fascism. Presenting the bust
on behalf of Siena, the Podestà, Fabio Bargagli Petrucci, claimed that the
ceremony stood in continuity with the long association between Siena and
Rome — a continuity symbolised not least by Catherine’s sense, over five
centuries earlier, that it was only in Rome that the Papacy could properly be
located, because Rome should be eternally the ruler of the world. Therefore,
he affirmed, the Sienese now asked God that Saint Catherine would extend
her protection over Rome, over Italy, and the world, in a spring-time of spiritual
rebirth which shone with the actions of Italy’s eminent Condottiero, Benito
Mussolini.27
The Fascist context and rhetoric of the inauguration of the bust of Saint
Catherine in the Pincio was subsequently reiterated in an article first published
in the Florentine Catholic newspaper, L’Unità Cattolica, and then republished
in the Sienese Catholic paper, Il Popolo di Siena. Entitled “Per la Nostra
Santa,” it opened by reporting the inauguration of the bust the previous
Sunday. Fascist intellectuals, it asserted, had indicated their admiration for
the Saint — as the ceremony in the Pincio demonstrated — not least because
of her role in persuading Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome, thus helping
to restore Rome’s spiritual and material life. The authentic glory of Saint
Catherine, it continued, consisted in the triumph of the Church, the liberation
of the Papacy, the rebirth of Catholic Rome, and the affirmation of the honour
of Italy in being home to the Vicar of Christ. Historians and writers had
therefore honoured Catherine and likened her patriotism to that of Joan of
Arc, the “liberator” of France. In the context of the fourteenth century, the
article continued, Catherine had been the voice of peace, the angel of the
unity of the church, and the apostle of Romanness and of the reestablishment
of the Papacy in Italy, thus recalling and reaffirming the destiny that linked
Catholicism to both Rome and Italy.28
Such speeches and articles foreshadowed the style and content of the
rhetoric that later became a standard feature of the campaign for Catherine to
be officially proclaimed patron saint of Italy. At one level, this is unsurprising
because — as Stefano Cavazza has pointed out — the promotion of the cult
of Saint Catherine during the 1920s and 1930s was an initiative of which
Fascists could easily approve. By virtue of her attempts to restore the papacy
to Rome, Catherine could indeed be interpreted as a forerunner of the idea
of Italian unity and of the moral renewal of the nation, whilst her sense of
discipline and recognition of the importance of hierarchy and unity within the
church were highly compatible with Fascist values and ideology. Moreover,
along with a “patriotic” reading of her life, Catherine could also be presented
as embodying attributes deemed appropriate to the ideal of the fascist

27. Il Popolo di Siena, 5 May 1928, 3; A. Vegni, “L’offerta del Busto di S. Caterina da Siena a
Roma,” La Balzana: Rassegna di Attività Municipale, no. 2 (1928): 26 –29; “Resoconto delle
feste per l’inaugurazione del busto di S. Caterina al Pincio,” Studi Cateriniani, no. 6 (1929): 35 –
36.
28. Il Popolo di Siena, 5 May 1928, 2.

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woman.29 At another level, however, the extent to which devotees of Catherine

were willing to associate her, explicitly, with Fascist achievements is,
nevertheless, striking.
As Paul Corner has recently observed in a critical analysis of the concept
of “consensus” in Fascist Italy, after its seizure of power the Fascist regime
created a situation in which, for most Italians, a genuine choice of being
Fascist or anti-Fascist just did not exist: “there was simply no feasible
alternative to toeing the line if you wished to continue to lead a normal life.”30
Corner’s observation is certainly sufficient to account for the absence of dissent
from the regime and its values in celebrations of Catherine and her national
significance in the 1920s and 1930s. It does not, however, account for the
positive enthusiasm and alacrity with which her followers often associated
Catherine and her legacy with Mussolini and his regime.
The use of pro-Fascist rhetoric in the promotion of Catherine as a national
saint was nowhere more evident than in reactions to the conciliazione of
February 1929. Indeed, even before the announcement of the conciliazione,
the theme of Catherine of Siena as a national saint began to assume a new
prominence. An article entitled “Caterina da Siena, Santa degli Italiani”
appeared in the Corriere della Sera of 9 December 1928 and was subse-
quently reprinted in many other Italian papers. After reviewing the formation
of the societies dedicated to Catherine in Siena and Rome and their aim of
promoting her claim to be an Italian national saint, the article — like the
previous one in L’Unita Cattolica — compared Catherine to Joan of Arc.31 At
the end of December 1928 Emilio Bodrero, Vice President of the Chamber of
Deputies, then gave a lecture to the newly formed branch of the Corporazione
in Milan entitled “Caterina da Siena, Santa Nazionale.” He concluded by
claiming that Catherine’s authentically Italian character had never been more
evident than in the present moment, when the governing regime wished to
establish a new era of good government. The full text of the lecture was also
printed in Il Popolo d’Italia, the newspaper run by Mussolini’s brother,
Arnoldo.32
The announcement of the conciliazione in February 1929, however, took
such sentiments to new heights. Thus, the first edition of Studi Cateriniani for
1929 opened with an article applauding the Concordat and Lateran Treaty.
For all Sienese, it asserted, it was natural to see the parallel between the return
of the Papacy to Rome — which had been the great dream and aspiration of
Catherine’s life and work — and the reconciliation now brought about by the
“holy work” of Pope Pius XI and the “genius” of Benito Mussolini who, like
Catherine, desired “the unity of the nation in the unity of faith.” Thus, the
author affirmed, “Italy was returned to God, and Rome to Italy” — thereby

29. S. Cavazza, Piccole Patrie: Feste popolari tra regione e nazione durante il fascismo
(Bologna: Il Mulino, 1997), 189–90.
30. P. Corner, “Italian Fascism: Whatever Happened to Dictatorship?,” The Journal of Modern
History, no. 74 (2002): 349.
31. “Caterina da Siena, Santa degli Italiani,” Rassegna Cateriniana, no. 8 (1929): 36 –39.
32. “Comunita da Milan: Conferenza di S. E. Emilio Bodrero,” Rassegna Cateriniana , no. 8
(1929): 52–54; Il Popolo d’Italia, 30 December 1928.

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playing on Pius XI’s comment that the Lateran Treaties and Concordat had
“given God back to Italy and Italy to God.”33
This item was followed by an article celebrating Catherine as the “herald of
peace” whose efforts had restored the papacy to Italy in the fourteenth
century, just as the relationship between Italy and the papacy had now been
restored by the efforts of Mussolini. The author quoted from the enthusiastic
response to the conciliazione issued by the archbishop of Siena, Prospero
Scaccia, who in turn echoed Pius XI’s description of Mussolini as a man
sent by providence.34 The article than proceeded, once again, to compare
the achievements of Catherine of Siena and Benito Mussolini. Mussolini,
it argued, had shown that he possessed a conscience characterised by
Catherine’s values, thus demonstrating an affinity linking the thought of the
fourteenth-century Dominican tertiary and the “great man” of the twentieth
century. In their desire for unity and peace between the church and Italy, the
names of Catherine of Siena and Benito Mussolini were linked as heroes with
the same mission of peace. Thus, a great contemporary Italian — Benito
Mussolini — had now restored peace to an Italy torn by postwar disorder and
had reconciled Italy and the church, just as Catherine had restored the Pope to
Rome and peace to Italy in her day.35
Similarly, the February edition of the Florence based Rassegna Cateriniana
— which styled itself the official publication of the “movimento nazionale
cateriniano” — welcomed the conciliazione as the fulfilment of Catherine’s
own hopes for Italy centuries earlier and affirmed that her intercession had
contributed to the present reconciliation of church and state.36 The April
edition then included an article on the Lateran Accord and the thought of
Catherine of Siena in which the author (who signed himself “Guzmanus”)
again compared the circumstances of Catherine’s day — and especially her role
as an ambassador and peacemaker — with the contemporary reconciliation of
church and state. He also reminded readers of the Pope’s statement that God
had been restored to Italy and Italy to God, and concluded by simply asserting
that the “new Italy of the Concordat” had thus proclaimed Catherine “Santa
Nazionale, Santa degli Italiani.”37 The May–June 1929 issue, meanwhile,
reprinted an article by Giuseppe Fatini, first published in La Sera, which
again presented the case for Catherine to be recognised as the “Santa degli

33. “Il Patto Lateranense solennizzato nella Casa di S. Caterina da Siena,” Studi Cateriniani,
no. 6 (1929): 1–3.
34. B. Flury-Nencini, “S. Caterina da Siena aralda di pace,” Studi Cateriniani, no. 6 (1929): 4 –
19. Both remarks by Pius XI may be found in Pollard, Vatican and Italian Fascism, 49–50; Riciotti,
La Ferita Sanata, 26. See also A. Vanni, “Il Patto Lateranense e S. Caterina da Siena,” Studi
Cateriniani, no. 6 (1930): 53 – 62. For archbishop Scaccia’s response see, Il Popolo di Siena, 16
February 1929, 1–3; A. Mirizio, Per la religione e per la patria: Chiesa e cattolici a Siena dalla
Conciliazione al Centrism (Siena: Protagon Editori Toscani, 2003), 51–53.
35. Flury-Nencini, “S. Caterina da Siena aralda di pace,” 10 –11, 14.
36. “Conciliazione, 11 Febbraio 1929;” G. Coiro, “S. Caterina da Siena e l’avvenimento
dell’11 Febbraio 1929,” Rassegna Cateriniana, no. 8 (1929): 25 –29.
37. [Guzmanus], “L’Accordo Lateranense nel pensiero di S. Caterina da Siena,” Rassegna
Cateriniana, no. 8 (1929): 93–102.

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Italiani” and affirmed that this was a popular wish, especially after the
conciliazione had restored the spiritual unity of the Italian people.38
The cause of Catherine’s proclamation as Patron of Italy was given yet
further prominence in early February 1930 — shortly before the first anniver-
sary of the conciliazione — in a lecture under the auspices of the Cattedra
Cateriniana delivered by Father Martin Gillet, the French Master General of
the Dominican Order. Gillet spoke on, “Santa Caterina da Siena e Santa
Giovanna d’Arco — Le Due Sante della Patria.” Asserting that, despite their
many differences, Catherine of Siena and Joan of Arc nevertheless displayed
great similarities in their “patriotic and religious mission,” Gillet argued that
what united the two saints was their common experience that love of country
and love of the church were complementary, not contradictory. Whilst in
Catherine of Siena, Gillet argued, it was love of the church that inspired her
love of country, in Joan of Arc it was love of country that led to love of the
church. The histories of the two saints therefore demonstrated that there was
no contradiction between Catholicism and patriotism.
Indeed, according to Gillet, the two saints shared the aim of reconciliation
between the church and their respective countries: in Catherine’s case, in saving
the church she also saved her country; in Joan’s case, in saving her country,
she saved the church. Catherine had saved the church by securing the return
of the Pope to Rome and thereby brought the possibility of peace and stability
for Italy — although she subsequently suffered a form of martyrdom in
seeing her briefly realised dream dashed by the schism following the election
of Clement VII as rival to Urban VI. Joan, by contrast, sought to save her
country, had suffered martyrdom in the process, but in so doing saved the
church by preventing English domination of France and, therefore, in the long
run of history, also prevented the potential triumph of Protestantism in Latin
countries and the extension of this “heresy” into the Mediterranean world.
Joan of Arc had now been recognised as a national saint in France, but
Catherine, although a co-patron of Rome, had not yet been proclaimed the
“Santa della Patria” in Italy.39
Gillet’s lecture was the catalyst for a determined campaign, during the
1930s, to secure Catherine’s official proclamation as patron saint of Italy.
Indeed, to this end, Gillet repeated his lecture several times: in Rome for the
Corporazione dei Caterinati, and also in Milan and Bergamo.40 In 1932,
during Catherine’s annual festival, over 25,000 signatures were collected in
Siena, through an initiative of the Società Internazionale di Studi Cateriniani,
in support of the cause. Bound in an elaborately decorated book, they were

38. G. Fatini, “La Santa degli Italiani,” Rassegna Cateriniana, no. 8 (1929): 128–32.
39. M. Gillet, “Santa Caterina da Siena e Santa Giovanna d’Arco — Le Due Sante della
Patria,” Studi Cateriniani, no. 7 (1930): 1–25, especially 1–2, 8, 14 –17, 19–20, 23. See also the
report in the local Catholic newspaper, Il Popolo di Siena, 22 February 1930, 2–3. Piero Misci-
attelli also subsequently emphasised the parallel between Catherine and Joan of Arc in an article
published in Siena three years later, “L’Idealismo civile di Santa Caterina da Siena,” La Diana,
no. 8 (1933): 33–50, especially 44.
40. Rassegna Cateriniana, no. 8 (1929): 278; Rassegna Cateriniana, no. 9 (1930): 29, 33 – 42, 48.

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subsequently presented to Pope Pius XI.41 Prospero Scaccia’s successor as

archbishop of Siena, Gustavo Matteoni, also secured the support of three
Italian cardinals, twenty-nine archbishops, and 103 bishops for Catherine’s
recognition as “Patrona d’Italia.”42
Among other enthusiastic reactions, the petition was warmly welcomed
in the Sienese Fascist newspaper, La Rivoluzione Fascista, where it was
observed that the celebration of Catherine’s annual festival that year was more
significant than usual precisely because the petition demonstrated the desire
of Fascists and Sienese in general that Catherine should be recognised as
“Santa Nazionale, protettrice della Patria nostra,” thereby following the
example of the Fascist youth movement, the Opera Nazionale Balilla, whose
organisation for girls — “le Giovani e Piccole Italiane” — had already
adopted Catherine as their patron saint.43 From as early as 1928, moreover,
Catherine’s tomb in Santa Maria sopra Minerva had been the site of a tribute,
during her annual festival, by the Roman branches of the Giovani e Piccole
Italiane.44 Subsequently, during the 1930s, Sienese sources often commented
on devotional visits, either to the chapel of Saint Catherine in San Domenico,
or to the Sanctuary of Saint Catherine, by groups of Giovani e Piccole Italiane,
both from Siena and from elsewhere in Italy, to honour their patron saint.45
In 1936 La Piccola Italiana — the magazine of the Giovani e Piccole
Italiane — organised a nationwide appeal for contributions from Italian girls
to fund a reproduction of a famous late fourteenth-century image of Catherine
and send it to Ethiopia for a church used by Italian troops following the
invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.46 This followed two similar initiatives from
within Siena itself to send reproductions of famous images of Catherine to
Italian troops in Somalia, one of them sponsored by the mothers and wives of
local soldiers serving there, and the other by the family of Giorgio Alberto
Chiurco, one of the founders of Sienese Fascism then serving as a military

41. T. Nencini, “Santa Caterina, Santa Nazionale!,” Studi Cateriniani 9 (1932): 39 – 47; Nencini,
“Noi Cateriniani,” 48; Bianchi, “Il Movimento per la proclamazione di S. Caterina a Patrona
d’Italia,” 71–72; L. Luchini, Siena dei nonni, vol. 2 (Siena: Alsaba, 1994), 295. A copy of the
original appeal to the Sienese for signatures may be found among correspondence of Terenzio
Nencini, now kept in the Archivio Arcivescovile, Siena, inventory number 4033, entitled “Statuti
per varie Congregazione e Confraternite 1895–1956.”
42. Nencini, “Noi Cateriniani,” 48; Bianchi, “Il Movimento per la proclamazione di S. Caterina
a Patrona d’Italia,” 72.
43. La Rivoluzione Fascista, 8 May 1932, 4. For the adoption of Catherine as patron by the
Giovani e Piccole Italiane see also, “Massa. Le Giovani e Piccole Italiane per la Santa Caterina
da Siena,” Rassegna Cateriniana, no. 8 (1929): 161– 62; La Rivoluzione Fascista, 9 May 1931,
4; “Per l’elezione di Santa Caterina a Patrona delle Giovani e Piccole Italiane,” S. Caterina da
Siena, Bollettino Mensile della Basilica di S. Domenico, no. 10 (1931): 3.
44. For the ceremonies in Santa Maria sopra Minerva see, “L’omaggio delle Piccole Italiane a
Santa Caterina,” S. Caterina da Siena, Bollettino Mensile della Chiesa di San Domenico, no. 7
(1928): 184; “La mistica offerta all’altare di S.Caterina da Siena nella Basilica di S.Maria sopra
Minerva,” Studi Cateriniani, no. 6 (1929): 33–34; Nencini, “Santa Caterina,” 43; “Omaggio delle
Giovani e Piccole Italiane a S. Caterina,” Memorie Domenicane, no. 46 (1929): 148; no. 47
(1930): 277; no. 49 (1932): 244.
45. See, for example, Il Popolo di Siena, 3 May 1930, 3; 22 July 1934, 3; Il Telegrafo, 29 April
1932, 4; S. Caterina da Siena, Bollettino Mensile della Basilica di S. Domenico, no. 2 (1934):
108; La Nazione, 3 May 1936, 4; S. Caterina da Siena, Bollettino Domenicano, no. 5 (1937): 9.
46. Il Popolo di Siena, 9 May 1936, 3; La Nazione, 14 July 1936, 4; 3 December 1936, 4.

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doctor with the Italian forces in Somalia.47 The Italian invasion of Ethiopa
also prompted sequences of days of prayer dedicated specifically to Catherine
of Siena in October 1935 and in both February and April 1936. Held in the
Sanctuary of Saint Catherine, in the Oratory of the Contrada dell’Oca, and in
San Domenico, their prevailing theme was the request that Catherine would
extend her protection over Italy’s soldiers and bring them victory.48
Alongside these expressions of Catherine’s significance for Italian national
life, the campaign to secure her official proclamation as Patron Saint of Italy
also continued during the mid- and late 1930s, attracting influential support
both in Siena and beyond. Emilio Bodrero, for example, opened the 1933
lectures for the Cattedra Cateriniana in Siena with a restatement of the com-
parison of Catherine’s era and contemporary Italy, concluding that Catherine
should be recognised as “Santa Nazionale” because she, more than any other
historical figure, reflected the ideals that Mussolini had restored to Italy and
Italians.49 Other prominent Fascists, such as Cesare Maria De Vecchi (who
had been the first ambassador to the Holy See after the conciliazione), and the
President of the Senate, Luigi Federzoni, similarly expressed their hope
that she would be recognised as a national Saint.50 In 1934, a Dominican
priest, Marco Righi, published a study entitled Santa Caterina da Siena e la
Conciliazione in which he argued the influence of Catherine of Siena’s
writings on Pius XI in his preparation for the Lateran Treaties and Concordat. It
was prefaced by a letter from the Archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Giovanni
Battista Nasalli-Rocca, asserting that Catherine would soon be proclaimed
Patrona d’Italia.51 The review of the book in La Nazione appeared under the
headline, “Santa Caterina da Siena e la sua italianità” — a theme that
became increasingly prominent during the mid- and late 1930s, as for example
in the biography of Catherine by Giovanni Bitelli, published in 1938 and
entitled La Santa degli Italiani. In its review of this volume, La Nazione
affirmed that Catherine was one of the chosen symbols of her race — not
simply in broadly Latin terms, but specifically and “rigorously” in respect of
her distinctively Italian character.52
Within Siena, meanwhile, promotion of the cult of Saint Catherine also
continued. In 1934 Archbishop Matteoni called for the annual festival to be
celebrated with greater fervour, whilst the local Catholic paper’s report of the

47. Il Popolo di Siena, 7 March 1936, 3; 2 May 1936, 3; 23 May 1936, 3; 18 July 1936, 3; La
Nazione, 14 March 1936, 4; 24 April 1936, 4; 19 May 1936, 4; Il Telegrafo, 14 March 1936, 4;
23 April 1936, 4; 30 April 1936, 4; 19 May 1936, 4.
48. Il Popolo di Siena, 16 February 1936, 3; 23 March 1936, 4; La Nazione, 19 February 1936,
4; Il Telegrafo, 19 February 1936, 4; S. Caterina, Bollettino Domenicano, no. 4 (1936): 76. See
also the file of documents, “Triduo a Caterina per la protezione dei nostri militari e volontari in
Guerra in A.O. contro l’Etiopia” in the Archivio della Nobile Contrada dell’Oca, Siena, inventory
number XIII B 12 52.
49. S. Caterina, Bollettino Domenicano, no. 1 (1933): 59– 60.
50. G. Dalla Torre, “I Primari Patroni d’Italia,” Vita e Pensiero, no. 30 (1939): 307.
51. M. Righi, Santa Caterina da Siena e la Conciliazione (Rome: Corporazione dei Caterinati,
1934).
52. La Nazione, Cronaca di Siena, 18 December 1934, 4; G. Bitelli, La Santa degli Italiani
(Caterina da Siena) (Turin: Paravia, 1938); La Nazione, Cronaca di Siena, 25 January 1939, 4.
Bitelli was also the author of a biography of Benito Mussolini.

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festival described Catherine as the “Joan of Arc of the Papacy.”53 Later that
year the paper also reported progress in the appeal organised by the Società
Internazionale di Studi Cateriniani to fund a bust of Catherine, together with
a chapel, altar and candlesticks for the church at Littoria, the new city
founded south of Rome on land “reclaimed by Fascism” from the Pontine
marshes.54 After his appointment as Matteoni’s successor in April 1935,
Mario Toccabelli continued to press the cause of Catherine’s proclamation as
patron of Italy, first with Pope Pius XI and then, after April 1939, with the
newly elected Pope Pius XII. In 1938 efforts were increased to reorder and
improve access to the Sanctuary of Saint Catherine in Siena in anticipation of
her now expected elevation to this new status and of the events and pilgrim-
ages that would ensue.55 In 1939, with Catherine’s proclamation as “Patrona
d’Italia” widely known to be imminent, Toccabelli used the local Catholic
newspaper to orchestrate a much more elaborate celebration of her festival
than had been customary. Appealing to the precedent set by the Sienese in
past centuries, Toccabelli announced that the usual ceremonies would be
expanded to include a series of new rituals, including a procession, led by the
civic and religious authorities of Siena, from the cathedral to the Sanctuary
for a blessing with the relics of Saint Catherine, before these were carried,
still in civic procession, to San Domenico, where the relic of her head would
remain on display for the veneration of the faithful.56 On 18 June 1939,
Catherine of Siena and Francis of Assisi were duly proclaimed Co-Patron
Saints of Italy by Pope Pius XII. In Siena there were predictably ecstatic
celebrations of the proclamation both in San Domenico and in the Sanctuary
of Saint Catherine.57

“Una Santa Nazionale”: Catherine as Patrona d’Italia

Unsurprisingly, the first Festa Nazionale in honour of Catherine as Patron
Saint of Italy in 1940 was heavily coloured by overtly Fascist references and
associations. In early December 1939 Il Popolo di Siena announced that
Mussolini had signalled his personal support for the renewal of the Sanctuary
of Saint Catherine in Siena as appropriate to her new status as a national
patron saint.58 In March 1940, Archbishop Toccabelli and the Podestà of Siena,
Luigi Socini Guelfi, presented the plans for the restoration of the Sanctuary at
an audience in Rome with Mussolini who gave a large donation to support the
work. Mussolini also agreed to send a personal representative to the first
Festa Nazionale in honour of the new patron of Italy and formally authorised
other Italian cities to participate in the festival.59
53. Il Popolo di Siena, 15 April 1934, 3; 22 April 1934, 2.
54. Il Popolo di Siena, 22 July 1934, 3.
55. Il Popolo di Siena, 13 February 1938, 3.
56. Il Popolo di Siena, 16 April 1939, 1; 23 April 1939, 1; 30 April 1939, 1; 7 May 1939, 3.
57. Il Popolo di Siena, 25 June 1939, 1, 3; Luchini, Siena dei nonni 301. See also M. Toccabelli,
“La Parola di Mons. Toccabelli,” in Solenni Feste Nazionali a Gloria di Santa Caterina da Siena
Patrona d’Italia, ed. C. Barbieri (Siena: Stabilimento Tipografico S. Bernardino, 1940), 22–24, 58.
58. Il Popolo di Siena, 3 December 1939, 1.
59. Il Popolo di Siena, 7 April 1940, 1; La Rivoluzione Fascista, 31 March 1940, 1; Luchini,
Siena dei nonni 301.

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In April 1940 the first “Festa Nazionale” in honour of Saint Catherine duly
took place. After two weeks of pilgrimages by local parishes and dioceses to
the cathedral, where the relic of the Head of Saint Catherine was on display
on the high altar, the first national festival in her honour began with a pro-
cession in which the Relic of her Head was taken from the cathedral, through
the streets of Siena, stopping in the Campo — the central piazza of Siena —
where the city and people were blessed with the sacred relic, and ending at
the Sanctuary of Saint Catherine. At the Sanctuary the first symbolic stone for
the Portico dei Comuni d’Italia — a new loggia to adorn the entrance to the
Sanctuary — was presented by Prince Giangiacomo Borghese, the Governor
of Rome. The stone was laid by the Duke of Bergamo, representing the King of
Italy, and was blessed by Cardinal Carlo Salotti, Prefect of the Congregation
for Rites, after which Prince Borghese spoke, the representatives of other
Italian cities presented symbolic offerings towards the cost of the construction
of the new Portico, and the ceremony concluded with the singing of the Fascist
hymn, “La Giovinezza.” The next day the Head of Saint Catherine was again
taken in procession, this time from the Sanctuary back to its customary place in
San Domenico where the final acts of the first Festa Nazionale were observed.60
The overtly Fascist dimension to the festival is amply confirmed by photo-
graphs which show the prominence of uniformed Fascists at the various
ceremonies and processions.61 Similarly, the reports of the events and speeches
in the local Catholic paper emphasised the contrast between the Italy of
Catherine’s day (characterised as divided, at odds with the Papacy, disorderly,
and oppressed by foreign powers), and the Italy of 1940 (described as united,
at one with the Papacy, spiritually and politically renewed by Fascism, free,
strong, and independent).62 The fourteen-page special supplement produced
by the local Catholic paper for the first Festa Nazionale featured, at the top,
an image of Catherine against a background of representations of monuments
from various Italian cities, whilst below appeared a photograph of Mussolini
in military uniform and helmet.63 The opening page of the book of tributes
compiled to commemorate the festival also emphasised that the festival enjoyed
Mussolini’s patronage, whilst a pamphlet celebrating Catherine, published the
month following the festival by the Sienese historian Vigilio Grassi, concluded
by asserting that Catherine was no longer the heavenly protector of Siena
alone, but also of all of Italy, “returned, in our times, to Imperial greatness.”64

60. Il Popolo di Siena, 10 March 1940, 1; 14 April 1940, 1; 21 April 1940, 1; 28 April 1940,
1; 5 May 1940, 1; Luchini, Siena dei nonni 302.
61. See Il Popolo di Siena, 5 May 1940, 1; Luchini, Siena dei nonni 297, 300. A volume of
photographs now in the possession of the Associazione Internazionale dei Caterinati, Siena, pro-
vides numerous further examples. I am indebted to the archivist of the Associazione, Dottoressa
Franca Piccini for showing me this volume.
62. See especially, Il Popolo di Siena, 14 April 1940, 1; 21 April 1940, 1; 5 May 1940, 1.
63. La Patrona d’Italia: Foglio di Informazioni, Supplemento al N.15 del Popolo di Siena, 14
April 1940.
64. Barbieri, Solenni Feste Nazionali a Gloria di Santa Caterina da Siena Patrona d’Italia, 1;
V. Grassi, Ricordi Cateriniani nel territorio della Contrada del Drago (Siena: Tip. Nuova, 1940),
38; A. Mirizio, “Chiesa e cattolici a Siena dal Fascismo al secondo Dopoguerra,” in Chiesa e Vita
Religiosa a Siena dalle origini al grande giubileo, ed. A. Mirizio and P. Nardi (Siena: Cantagalli,
2002), 484.

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The account of the Roman celebrations in April 1940 to mark the first Festa
Nazionale of Saint Catherine remarked, meanwhile, that the “highly Italian”
celebrations in Santa Maria sopra Minerva opened with a mass conducted by
Antonio Giordani, the bishop with overall responsibility for the spiritual over-
sight of the Gioventù Italiano del Littorio. The mass, it was reported, was
attended by two thousand girls of the Gioventù Femminile del Littorio each
of whom presented a white rose at the high altar.65 The edition of the
Dominican journal in which this report appeared also carried a series of arti-
cles celebrating Catherine as “Patrona d’Italia.” One of the articles cele-
brated her embodiment of the heroic virtues of her race.66 Another concluded
with an evocation of Catherine looking down protectively upon Italy; upon its
cities, empire, and colonies; upon its armed forces who guard the safety and
prosperity of the nation; and upon the cemeteries of Italian soldiers killed
in the campaigns in Africa and Spain. Finally the article sought Catherine’s
blessing on Italy’s victories — under the signs of the cross and the empire —
and on the king-emperor and the “far-sighted” Duce.67
Within two months of the first Festa Nazionale in honour of Saint
Catherine, Italy entered the Second World War, declaring war on France and
Britain on 10 June 1940. In Siena, in both 1940 and 1941, the declaration of
war prompted further days of prayer to Catherine for the protection of Italian
soldiers and an Italian victory.68 In both 1941 and 1942 the annual festival
for the new “Patrona d’Italia” also retained a confidently and militantly
nationalist and triumphalist tone — not least because, despite early defeats,
Italy still appeared to be on the winning side. The festival included the
presentation of votive candles by the civic authorities to both the Sanctuary of
Saint Catherine and the church of San Domenico, and the exposition of
Catherine’s Head to the faithful. They also, however, included an additional
ceremony of a blessing of the Italian armed forces, through a benediction of
representative troops assembled in front of the “Basilica Cateriniana” of San
Domenico. In 1941, the description of this ceremony included the detail that
Angelo Bartolomasi — the Bishop who headed the Ordinariato Militare,
the organisation responsible for Italian military chaplains — had given the
blessing from the turret of an armoured car.69 In 1942 the blessing of the

65. “I Festeggiamenti Cateriniani,” Memorie Demenicane, no. 57 (1940): 239.

66. M. Fiume, “S. Caterina da Siena e le virtù eroiche della stirpe,” Memorie Demenicane,
no. 57 (1940): 203–9.
67. C. Villani, “A Santa Caterina da Siena Patrona d’Italia,” Memorie Demenicane, no. 57
(1940): 199–202.
68. Il Popolo di Siena, 23 June 1940, 3; 15 February 1941, 2; Il Telegrafo, 16 February 1941,
4. See also “Triduo a Caterina” in the Archivio della Nobile Contrada dell’Oca (see note 48
above), which includes the printed prayer issued for the occasion in 1940.
69. Il Popolo di Siena, 20 April 1941, 1; 27 April 1941, 1; 3 May 1941, 2. The militaristic tone
and Bartolomasi’s use of an armoured car reflect the adoption by the Ordinariato Militare during
the Fascist period of what has been described as a ‘militarised Catholic creed’, as noted in M.
Franzinelli, “L’Ordinariato militare dal fascismo alla Guerra fredda,” Italia Contemporanea, no.
233 (2003): 640–42. See also, M. Franzinelli, Stellate, Croce e Fascio Littorio: L’assistenza
religiosa a militari, balilla e camice near 1919 –1939 (Milan: Francoangeli, 1995), especially
120–318; Il rearmo dello spirito: I cappellani militare nella seconda guerra mondiale (Treviso:
Pagus, 1991), 44–47, 61– 66.

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armed forces was recorded and broadcast on radio to Italian forces on the
various fronts in the war. The tone of the blessings, speeches, and reporting of
the events remained confident and even militaristic, seeking the protection of
Saint Catherine for Italian servicemen and asking her to bring about the just
victory that they and Italy deserved.70
In 1942 the Festa Nazionale was also the occasion for two further initia-
tives related to Catherine, the war, and the Italian armed services. The first
was the presentation of a collection of the thoughts and exhortations of Saint
Catherine, chosen and edited for Italian soldiers. Edited by Luigi Sbaragli —
a decorated military chaplain in the First World War and subsequently the
chaplain to the Balilla and the Giovani e Piccole Italiane in Siena — the
volume was divided into three sections corresponding to Mussolini’s slogan:
“Believe, Obey, Fight.”71 The reviewer of the book in the Bullettino Senese di
Storia Patria enthused that it presented Catherine, not as a distant medieval
voice, but as a living comrade whose thoughts would sustain Italian soldiers,
sailors, and airmen as they fought to save both Latin and Roman civilisation
and the future of the entire world in a war that was a holy crusade. The book,
the reviewer reminded his readers, was first offered to Italian servicemen
during the annual festival of Saint Catherine at the blessing of representative
members of the armed forces, outside the church of San Domenico and in
front of the Crypt of the Fascist Martyrs of Siena.72 The second initiative was
the placing of a large “Album” in the Sanctuary of Saint Catherine in Siena
for the names of Italian military personnel who wished to place themselves
— or be placed by their families — under Catherine’s special protection.73
From 1943 onwards, however, as the tide of war turned decisively against
Italy, the tone of the Festa Nazionale in honour of Saint Catherine — and of
other invocations of her protection — began to change. By April 1943, with
the Italian army in North Africa defeated and their expeditionary force in
Russia involved in a long and bitter retreat from the Stalingrad front, it was
already clear that Italy itself would be invaded. In the Festa Nazionale of
1943 the offering of votive candles, exposition of the Relic of Catherine’s
Head, and blessing of the armed forces all remained — as did the patriotic
hope that Catherine would still intercede for an Italian victory. However, the
prevailing emphasis of the festival was now upon Catherine as protector and
intercessor on behalf of all that Italians held most dear — their families,

70. Il Popolo di Siena, 19 April 1942, 1; 26 April 1942, 1; 3 May 1942, 1–2.
71. L. Sbaragli, La Patrona d’Italia ai Soldati d’Italia in Guerra — esortazioni e pensieri di
Santa Caterina da Siena scelta da p. Luigi Sbaragli (Siena: Accademia degli Intronati, 1942).
For Sbaragli see Nencini, “Santa Caterina,” 43; a review of his war memoirs in the Fascist paper
Il Popolo Senese, 11 February 1929, 4; and his obituary in Bulletino Senese di Storia Patria,
no. 57 (1950): 228–29.
72. G. Prunai, Bulletino Senese di Storia Patria, no. 49 (1942): 214 –16. See also Il Terlegrafo,
2 May 1942, 2. For the Crypt of the Fascist Martyrs in Siena, see, G. Parsons, “Fascism and
Catholicism: A Case Study of the Sacrario dei Caduti Fascisti in the Crypt of San Domenico,
Siena,” Journal of Contemporary History, no. 42 (2007): 469–84.
73. Il Popolo di Siena, 27 September 1942, 2. The “Album” — which contains several thousand
signatures — carries as a title the invocation “Italiam Protege Tuam” and is now kept in the
Archivio della Compagnia di S. Caterina (see note 12 above). For the text of its dedication see
Bacci, L’Archivio della Compagnia di S. Caterina, 135.

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members of their families serving as soldiers, their dead, and the Italian people
as they suffered under the effects of the war.74 It was a change of emphasis
that was also reflected in another pastoral initiative involving Catherine of
Siena in early 1943. In January 1943 the parish priest of San Domenico in
Siena, Giacinto D’Urso, introduced a new ceremony — described as a “Con-
sacrazione dei Militari alla Patrona d’Italia” — to be held on the final
Sunday of each month, at which the names of individual Italian soldiers who
sought the special protection of their national patron saint were read out at the
chapel in San Domenico which housed the relic of her head. Their names
were then placed, literally, beneath the relic of her head.75
The festival of 1943 also, however, included the presentation and blessing
of a bronze Votive Lamp, in honour of Saint Catherine, which was to burn
continually in her Sanctuary in Siena. Given in the name of the women of
Italy for the protection of Italy’s soldiers, sailors, and airmen, the top part of
the lamp consists of four Italian servicemen — two soldiers (one of them in
colonial uniform), a sailor and an airman — placed around the central figure
of Saint Catherine. Below these figures is a bowl shaped base which portrays
four scenes from Catherine’s life, bears a Latin inscription, and has the year
rendered both as 1943 and as year XXI of the Fascist era.76 The lamp thus
symbolised the profound ambiguity of the national festival in honour of
Catherine of Siena in 1943. Bearing a date rendered in Fascist form, and first
conceived two years earlier when an Italian victory still seemed a possibility,
it was now given by Italian women, not for Italian victory, but for the protection
of their husbands, sons and brothers in the Italian armed forces as the tide of
war had already turned against Italy.
Three months later, at the end of July 1943, Mussolini was deposed, and
in September the Italian government signed an armistice with the allies. By
April 1944, with Italy not only invaded by the allies in the south and occupied
by the Germans in the north, but also effectively in a state of civil war
between the rival Italian governments in the south (now fighting with the
allies) and the continuing Fascist Republic of Salò in the north (still fighting
with the Germans), the festival of Saint Catherine was still celebrated in
Siena — which remained in the area of Italy controlled by the Germans and
the rump Fascist Republic. Inevitably, however, the festival reverted to a much
more modest style. In March, Archbishop Toccabelli called for a “crusade of

74. Il Popolo di Siena, 28 April 1943, 1; 9 May 1943, 1.

75. La Nazione, 31 January 1943, 2; 2 February 1943, 2; Il Telegrafo, 31 January 1943, 2;
S. Caterina da Siena, Bollettino Domenicano 10 (1943): 38–40, 54–56. A similar change of emphasis
also occurred within the Ordinariato Militare, for which see Franzinelli, Il rearmo dello spirito,
145–47; Franzinelli, “L’Ordinariato militare,” 642.
76. Il Popolo di Siena, 28 April 1943, 2; 9 May 1943, 1; Il Telegrafo, 28 April 1943, 2; 29 April
1943, 2; 30 April 1943, 2; 1 May 1943, 2; La Nazione, 28 May 1943, 2. A votive lamp had first
been placed in the Sanctuary in December 1940, offered on behalf of Siena by the Podestà,
Il Popolo di Siena, 15 December 1940, 2. The project for the new and more elaborate lamp had
been initiated in 1941 and was funded by public subscription. The original subscription lists are
now held by the Associazione Internazionale dei Caterinati. I am again indebted to Dottoressa
Piccini for this information and for showing me both the lists and a volume of photographs of the
inauguration of the lamp.

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prayer” to Saint Catherine, as patron of Italy, and for offerings for the continued
restoration of the Sanctuary and completion of the Portico dei Comuni. At the
festival in late April, the civic authorities gave votive candles at the Sanctuary
and San Domenico, but with Italy now divided there was no blessing of the
armed forces or reference to the Votive Lamp. The festival was reported in the
local Catholic paper under the simple headline: “O Catherine, protect your
Italy,” accompanied by the affirmation that the Sienese would bring not only
their prayers but those of all Italians.77 Three months later, on the morning of
3 July, Siena was liberated by allied forces as they advanced northwards.

Conclusion
In 1945 the festival of Catherine of Siena was celebrated in Siena in the closing
days of April as the Second World War in Italy came to an end: literally so,
the unconditional surrender of German forces in Italy being signed on 29
April, the feast of Saint Catherine. Already, Catherine had begun to be recast
as the Patron Saint of a post-Fascist Italy. The new head of Italian military
chaplains led the ceremonies and blessed representative soldiers of the Royal
Italian Army, which had fought alongside the allies in liberating northern
Italy. It was described as a blessing of the “resurrected Italian army.”78 After
the Second World War, the Festa Nazionale of Catherine of Siena was quickly
reinvented and became the principal vehicle for the promotion of a very
different Catherine and a very different “Santa Nazionale” and “Patrona
d’Italia.” Although elements of continuity remained — representatives of the
Italian armed forces still received a blessing, and in 1952 even the votive
lamp was restored to the rituals of the annual festival — the accompanying
ideology was quite different. Instead of the “most Italian of the Italian saints,”
who embodied “italianità” and “romanità,” and whose vision of Italian unity
and moral renewal in the fourteenth century was presented as a foreshadow-
ing of Mussolini’s “renewal” of Italy in the 1920s and 1930s, a quite different
Catherine was presented embodying the values of peace, social justice and
Italian participation in a unified and democratic Europe.79 If, however, the
postwar and contemporary image of Catherine and her festival thus express a
self-consciously post-Fascist — and, indeed, self-consciously internationalist
— vision of her significance, it is nevertheless salutary to recall that this was
not always the case. When first promoted and celebrated as a patron saint of
Italy, Catherine of Siena was most emphatically presented as a militantly,
patriotically, national saint in a profoundly fascist state.

77. Il Popolo di Siena, 19 March 1944, 1; 30 April 1944, 1.

78. Rinascita, 29 April 1945, 2; Corriere del Mattino, 21 April 1945, 2; 4 May 1945, 4;
S. Caterina da Siena, Bollettino Domenicano, no. 11 (1946): 13.
79. Parsons, From Nationalism to Internationalism, 872– 85.

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