URJ-UCCS: Undergraduate Research Journal at UCCS

Vol. 11 No. 3
Articles

Self-Murder She Wrote: The Asceticism of St. Catherine of Siena as Seen in Her Letters

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  • Sydney Schneider

Published 2018-09-11

Keywords

  • Medieval,
  • St. Catherine of Siena,
  • Suicide,
  • Self-Murder,
  • Asceticism,
  • Fasting,
  • Starvation
    • ...More
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How to Cite

Schneider, S. (2018). Self-Murder She Wrote: The Asceticism of St. Catherine of Siena as Seen in Her Letters. URJ-UCCS: Undergraduate Research Journal at UCCS, 11(3), 13–27. Retrieved from https://urj.uccs.edu/index.php/urj/article/view/337
Copyright Notice

Abstract

After St. Catherine's death in 1380 from starvation, she continues to be recognized as one of the greatest women in the Church. As a result, her death remains overlooked in many scholarly sources. When looking at the regulations of self-murder, or suicide in the fourteenth century, it is clear that her death from starvation produces questions. This essay utilizes St. Catherine's letters and other scholarship written about St. Catherine and self-murder in the fourteenth century to help provide answers to the question, did St. Catherine of Siena commit self-murder?
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