Today was all about paying homage to the most famous Benincasa you have never heard of. Her name is Catherine and she only lived 33 years. She is the patron saint of Europe and Italy. So yeah she’s a pretty big deal.
She was buried near the pantheon in Rome in the church of Maria Sopra Minerva. We went and saw where her body rests last week.
Her body happens to be right next to a lesser known Michelangelo of which we got a nice picture of courtesy of Jackie.
But if you were to lift the top off the coffin you would find no skull. Why? Because it was stolen by the Sienese. Because after all, wouldn’t she want to be buried in Siena? Well the Romans wouldn’t allow the Sienese to take back their beloved Catherine so instead they just took her head and right thumb and transported the relics all the way back to her hometown of Siena. So today we saw them. They are showcased in the church across the way from this picture.
We lit a candle for our famous great aunt and walked around her home town today. Then we climbed the steps she would walk up every day to the duomo.
And saw her house on the way.
Siena was just like Florence but with hills and less people. Also I had this idea that when we came to town and said our name was Benincosa we would get the royal treatment. But it seemed that nobody cared. Not even the priest who was there at St Catherine’s heads resting place. A prophet gets no respect in his home town. Thus it is written.
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