Portrait of Saint Catherine of Siena, printed at Valensa, 1511 by Joffre. Saint Catherine of Siena. (1347-1380) was a tertiary (are generally lay members of religious orders, men and women who do not necessarily live in a religious community and yet can claim to wear the habit and participate in the good works of some great order) of the Dominican Order, and a Scholastic philosopher and theologian. She also worked to bring the papacy of Gregory XI back to Rome from its displacement in France, and to establish peace among the Italian city-states. She was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1970. She is one of the two patron saints of Italy, together with St. Francis of Assisi. Catherine dedicated much of her life to helping the ill and the poor, where she took care of them in hospitals or homes.