Catherine of Genoa is remembered both for her ministry of nursing the sick during repeated plagues, and also for the works that she wrote recounting her mystical experiences. Her writings became widely known when they were made the subject of Baron Friedrich von Hügel's classic work The Mystical Element of Religion (1908).

Catherine was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1447, the youngest of five children. As a teenager, Catherine wanted to become a nun,…