Catherine died in Rome at about age 33 after a period of severe fasting and illness; her feast is kept on this date.
Catherine of Siena died in Rome on 29 April 1380, at approximately thirty-three years of age. Her final years had been marked by severe ascetic practices, including extreme fasting that modern scholars have sometimes linked to a form of self-imposed starvation undertaken as an act of spiritual devotion and penance, a practice not uncommon among medieval mystics known as mulieres sanctae.
In the months before her death, Catherine remained deeply engaged in the political and spiritual crises of the Church, particularly the onset of the Western Schism following the contested election of Pope Urban VI in 1378. She continued to write letters and offer counsel from her sickbed, urging unity and obedience to the Roman pontiff even as her body weakened.
According to accounts from her disciples, she suffered what may have been a stroke or series of strokes in her final weeks, losing the use of her legs before dying surrounded by her spiritual companions in Rome, far from her native Siena.
Her death marked the end of an extraordinary life that had seen an uneducated woman rise to become a trusted advisor to popes and a celebrated mystic and writer. Her body was initially buried in Rome, though her head was later translated to Siena, where it remains a venerated relic. Her feast day, observed on 29 April in most calendars, commemorates the date of her death.