"In an age when most women were shuttered in kitchens or convents, Catherine--the unschooled daughter of a Sienese dyer--engaged in political, social, and spiritual activism. Enflamed by her convictions and mystical devotion, she strove to restore harmony to the world and to lift up the people. She contended with popes, monarchs, and ordinary citizens, cajoling, begging, and--when nothing else worked--commanding people to do her will. She campaigned for peace among the warring factions of her native Tuscany, struggled to reform the church, and helped persuade Pope Gregory XI to leave Avignon and return to Rome. For all this she was both praised and reviled, revered as a holy woman by her friends and disciples, and nearly assassinated by some of her enemies. Exhausted by work and austerities, she died when she was only thirty-three years old--all-consumed by her inner fire"--Cover, p. 2.