Patronage
2 saints are venerated as patrons of Italy, led by Francis of Assisi (feast day October 4).
1181 — 1226 · Feast day: October 4
Francis of Assisi — the 'Little Poor One' — stripped himself naked in the public square to renounce his inheritance and embrace radical poverty. He preached to birds, crossed enemy lines to meet an Egyptian sultan, and became the first recorded person in Christian history to receive the Stigmata, the physical wounds of Christ.
1347 — 1380 · Feast day: April 29
A lay Dominican mystic, political counselor, and Doctor of the Church, Catherine of Siena persuaded Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome from Avignon after nearly seventy years in France. She dictated her theological masterpiece 'The Dialogue of Divine Providence' and left nearly 400 letters to popes, rulers, and ordinary sinners alike.