From a very young age, Catherine felt a strong attraction to prayer and service to others. At the age of sixteen, she entered the Dominican Third Order and dedicated her life to prayer, penance and caring for the sick and needy. .... Like St. Dominic what most characterized St. Catherine’s life and spirituality was her love of Christ and her passion for the Cross. For her, the Cross was the way to union with God and the source of salvation.

In The life of St. Catherine of Siena, the saint’s biographer and confessor, Blessed Raymond of Capua, recounts a time in which while sharing a lengthy conversation with the saint on God and various spiritual matters, he found himself, “being weighed down by the weight of flesh”, and eventually succumbing to sleep.