Lay Siege to Heaven by Louis De Wohl

Continuing his popular series of novels about saints of the Church, de Wohl devotes his considerable talents to an interpretation of one of the most unusual women of all time, St. Catherine of Siena. The daughter of a prosperous dyer in 14th-century Siena, Catherine devoted her life to Christ, persuaded the Pope to move from Avignon to Rome, subdued the warring City-States of Italy, and changed the face of her world.