Museo della Santa - Bologna

The museum documenting the figure of Catherine de’ Vigri (1413–63), better known as St Catherine of Bologna, is situated in the church of Corpus Domini and the adjacent monastery. After serving as the lady-in-waiting of Margherita d’Este, she joined the Poor Clares of Corpus Domini in Ferrara and later became abbess of the first convent of Poor Clares in Bologna. She was canonised in 1712. On the left side of the nave, the itinerary opens with the chapel where the saint’s incorrupt body, seated on a gilt throne, is worshipped. The Madonna of the Apple and the Christ Child, painted by Catherine herself; manuscripts of her works, the Breviary and the Treatise on the Seven Spiritual Weapons Necessary for Spiritual Warfare; and numerous votive offerings and reliquaries are displayed here. Among the mementos of the saint, who was not only a painter but also an amateur musician, is the famous violeta, an important example of a 15th-century vielle, a type of stringed instrument. In the adjacent room there are small tables made by Giulio Morina in 1594, the saint’s bed, several chairs, a 15th-century wooden crucifix and an embroidered cloak donated by a noble family from Bologna.