St Catherine of Siena
The background of this painting of Saint Catherine of Siena is taken from a work of Ambrogio Lorenzetti, a Sienese artist of the fourteenth century. He was commissioned to paint a mural to be hung in the Town Hall of Siena (c. 1338-39) entitled The Allegory of Good and Bad Government.
Catherine is shown as part of the city-state she loved, interceding for it even as she was active in caring for its sick and poor.
As a mystic, on the one hand, she made a ‘cell in her heart’ and on the other hand, she was very active politically in both Church and State.
The painting is the work of Brother Bernard Coleman OFM of Canterbury, England and was commissioned by Sister Columba Cleary OP, Prioress General 1975-1987.
St Catherine of Siena

Many Dominican congregations of Sisters have St Catherine of Siena’s name in their title. Mother Rose Niland, our foundress, chose Catherine’s name for our Congregation, influenced mainly by the King Williamston and Stone congregations. The Decree of Approval of our Congregation encourages “all the Sisters of the Institute to an ever deeper commitment to their consecrated life in accordance with the spirit of St Dominic and under the constant protection of St Catherine of Siena”. So St Catherine is very much part of our identity.
“Preach the Truth as if you had a million voices. It is silence that kills the world”.
St Catherine of Siena
St Catherine of Siena
As a Dominican woman St Catherine is an appropriate role model as we live our lives today. She was not a nun, but belonged to the Dominican Lay group, the Mantellate, in Siena, and was involved with them in works of compassion, caring for the sick and the poor.
Catherine reminds us that with God’s grace it is possible to have an influence in the Church and in the world. This is our vocation.
She lived to the utmost the Dominican motto “to contemplate and to give to others the fruits of our contemplation”. Very early in her life she discovered the joy of contemplation. She had a passionate love of God, of Jesus, and spent many hours in prayer.
Even when she was busy she had “a cell within’’ where she kept in touch with God at all times. We, sisters, are called to a life of prayer and contemplation. Our Constitutions guide us in this: “Prayer is the centre of our lives, deepening our awareness of the presence of God and leading us to bring to others an awareness of this presence’’. Catherine loved the Divine Office and is portrayed by artists reciting it with Jesus. The Prayer of the Church is celebrated in our communities every day.
In the year 1970 Catherine was recognised by the Church as a theologian. She had an intense desire to know God, to know about God. She never went to school or university, but learned her theology from her prayer and contemplation, from listening to her Dominican brethren, from priests from other orders, from conversations. She talked incessantly about God, about Jesus. The great doctrines of the Church were her constant study. As Dominican sisters we follow her in this. We recognise the need to study and to develop our knowledge of theology. A number of sisters have degrees in theology and we are constantly reading, attending talks and lectures. Our Constitutions tell us that study is “essentially a reflective pondering on the word of God and on the world we live in”.
Very early in her life God called Catherine to move out into the society in which she lived and to preach the Gospel. She loved people and engaged with them. In fact, she was deeply involved in the world around her. She preached in many ways: through conversations with individuals, through counselling, through friendships, through the community that gathered around her, through letter writing. She would certainly have made use of the media for her preaching .
We follow Catherine in her zeal for preaching. In our 2010 Chapter we took as our motto “Make the preaching of the Good News your life’s work” (2 Tim 4:5), so preaching the Gospel is what we are about. Our call is to evangelise through education. In the past this was done mainly through schools. Now we have a variety of ministries.
Our convents are centres of prayer, learning and hospitality. We have centres for preaching at the Niland Centre, at Harpenden, at Cricklewood in the UK; and a new prayer garden project in South Africa. One of our sisters lectures at the Angelicum, Dominican University in Rome. Our sisters in South Africa work with the poor, with street children, in schools, in catechetics. We hope that our preaching brings hope to our troubled world. The world at the time of Catherine was very similar to our times: problems in the Church, power struggles between nations, lack of peace.
Catherine knew what it was like to interact with people. She belonged to a large family, a large household, and she created a community of diverse people around her. She must at times have found this shared life difficult. She was so inflamed with God’s love and zeal for his glory that those who fell far below her standard must often have exasperated her. She wrote: “ The mercy I wish for myself I give to others”. Her teaching on the second great commandment is very deep and down to earth. She had an intense desire for the salvation of all. She often said: “My soul hungered for their salvation”. As sisters who live in community we are inspired by Catherine’s approach to others, and try to live it as best we can. Community life is essential for us.
Traditionally St Catherine has often been portrayed mainly in terms of a rather neurotic woman and the emphasis has been on her ecstasies and asceticism. However, especially since she has been made Doctor of the Church, studies and new translations have been made of her written works and a new emphasis has emerged. She is recognised as a very creative theologian, a deeply beautiful mystic, and a passionate lover of peace and justice. Saint Catherine remains an inspiration to us, sisters.
Dominican Life
Community, Prayer, Study and Preaching are the four ‘pillars’ of our Dominican life
Our Story
Explore the story behind our Dominican order
Mother Rose Niland
Foundress of the “Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena of Newcastle, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa”
Obituaries
In memory of our dearly departed Sisters
Rest in Peace