There were now just 30,000 people living in Rome, compared to a million in imperial times. The city that was once the head of the world had become, wrote the poet Petrarch, "The rubbish heap of history." But salvation would come from an unlikely source. The church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva is the final resting place of the woman who would rescue Rome's fortunes. Her name was Caterina Benincasa, but she's better known as St Catherine of Siena. She spent much of her life in a state of feverish rapture, of long periods of deep meditation, and it was said that Jesus's wounds bled from her body. In 1370, Catherine was 23. She was broken-hearted by the fall of Rome. She believed the Pope had betrayed Christianity itself by abandoning his city. It was an article of faith for believers that the Pope was the natural heir of St Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, and to properly exert his authority, he had to rule from the Holy City.


现在罗马仅有三万人居住，而在帝国时期这一数字是一百万。这座曾经统领着全世界的城市成了诗人彼特拉克笔下所描绘的——“历史的垃圾堆”。然而罗马却将以一种出人意料的方式得到救赎。将拯救罗马命运的这一位女人，神庙遗址圣母堂(The church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva) 是她最后的长眠之地。她的名字是卡特里纳·贝宁卡萨，她另一个名号“锡耶纳的圣凯瑟琳”则更为人熟知。她一生之中很长时间里都处在一种极度喜悦的状态，一种长时的深度冥想中。而且据说她是一位极虔诚的教徒。公元1370年，凯瑟琳23岁。她对罗马的衰败深感痛心。她认为，教皇既已抛下他的城市，那么他就已经背叛了基督教本身。对信徒们来说，教皇毋庸置疑是第一任罗马主教圣彼得的自然继承人。而教皇要行使他的权利，必须立足于神圣之城进而统治（整个基督教界）。