Pope Gregory XI Left Avignon for Rome 650 Years Ago

Pope Gregory XI left Avignon on September 13, 1376. He was the final Pope of the era known as the Avignon papacy or the Avignon captivity, during which the successors of Saint Peter lived on the banks of the Rhone instead of in Rome since the start of the 14th century.

Catherine Benincasa, a Dominican tertiary from Siena, played an extraordinary role in this transition. Despite having no political means or ecclesiastical office, she used extraordinary frankness in letters to persuade Gregory XI to overcome his fear and return to Rome. In June 1376, she traveled to Avignon to personally exhort the pontiff to return to Italy.

Catherine viewed the return to Rome as a necessity for restoring peace and renewing the Church. She demanded courage and determination from the Pope, whom she called the sweet Christ on earth, while simultaneously calling for the conversion and reform of the Church. Her determination helped Gregory XI overcome his own long hesitations and the resistance of certain French cardinals and members of the papal entourage who opposed the departure from Avignon.

Following his departure on September 13, 1376, the Pope arrived in Rome on January 17, 1377. Catherine was later proclaimed a doctor of the Church, a saint, and the patron of Europe and Rome.

In the present day, a statue of Catherine stands on the Via della Conciliazione near the Castel Sant Angelo. Recent viral photographs taken from a specific angle create an optical curiosity where the leaning silhouette of the saint appears to kiss the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica.