Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue

Born in 1347 to a cloth dyer in Siena, St. Catherine was one of twenty-five children and lived a hidden life of prayer from an early age. At just six years old, she received a vision of Christ clothed in glory—an encounter that marked her forever. From that moment, she vowed to give her life entirely to God. Though she chose not to marry, Catherine also did not enter a convent. Instead, she became a laywoman of the Dominican Third Order, living at home while devoting herself to a life of radical serving the sick, the poor, and even prisoners condemned to die.

Though largely illiterate in her early life, Catherine was gifted with divine insight and, in time, a miraculous capacity to read and write. The Dialogues—her spiritual masterpiece—was dictated while she was in a state of ecstatic union with God and later revised and partially completed by her own hand. It records a mystical conversation between the soul and God the Father, unfolding themes of divine love, virtue, sin, and the redemptive power of Christ. Catherine speaks of the soul’s journey along the Bridge, who is Christ Himself, and reveals in rich detail the many ways by which God draws His children to Himself.

This edition presents a new modern English translation from the original Italian, offering readers an accessible and faithful rendering of this foundational work. At once poetic, theological, and deeply personal, The Dialogues continues to guide and challenge all who long to walk the narrow path of holiness, not only in theory, but in deed and truth.