Caterina di Giacomo di Benincasa was born on 25 March in Siena Italy, to Giacomo di Benincasa, a cloth dyer who ran his enterprise with the help of his sons, and her mother, Lapa Piagenti, possibly the daughter of a local poet. She and her sister were the twenty-third and twenty-fourth of twenty-five siblings and the only one of the twin daughter able to breast feed from her mother, which may have given the two a special bond that manifested later in her mystical visions.
Her father also showed considerable interest in her intellectual endeavors and supported her learning to read, although her level of literacy remains unclear, as the term illiterate , during the Middle Ages, had varied interpretations.
Most likely, she learned to read at an elementary level from studying the scripture during her adolescent and young-adult periods of religious solitude. Catherine lived until she was thirty-three and had no formal education, yet she is canonized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church, a doctor of the Roman Catholic Church, and wrote over three hundred and eighty lettersβmany of which had huge social and political impact.
Also, when Catherine had visions later in life and wrote her letters, she often had a trusted spiritual advisor to write down her narrations. She reported to her family and spiritual advisor that the vision was of Christ with the Apostles Peter, Paul, and John the Baptist. She also chose to envision her mother as the Virgin Mary and her brothers as the apostles. In an attempt to avoid an arranged marriage around the age of twelve, Catherine protested by cutting off her hair and taking a secret vow of virginity.
Some scholars emphasize the fact that Catherine may have begun her refusal of food and cutting of her hair to deny her sexual female identity.
