Corpus Domini

Born into a noble Bolognese family, Caterina de'Vigri (1413–63) was raised in the ducal court of Ferrara as a lady in waiting, where she was given a good education in literature, art and music. In 1426 she entered the Corpus Domini convent in Ferrara, but eventually Church superiors called her back to her native Bologna to serve as abbess of a convent in Bologna, attached to the church of Corpus Domini.

Caterina painted and wrote, and as a mystic became famous for her account of her visions of God and Satan in the Treatise on the Seven Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare, which she kept hidden until on her deathbed, but later went through 21 editions, and translations into most European languages.

After she was buried, so many miracles occurred that 18 days later her body was exhumed, and found uncorrupted, was seated on a throne, where her mummy has remained ever since, now behind glass, in the Cappella della Santa (she was canonized as St Catherine of Bologna in 1712).