Saint Catherine of Bologna and the Santuario del Corpus Domini

Visiting the Corpus Domini

The church people call “la Santa”, after the saint inside, is officially the Santuario del Corpus Domini, at Via Tagliapietre 19, a ten-minute walk southwest of Piazza Maggiore. Entry is free.

Two sets of hours matter. The church itself is open daily, and the Chapel of Saint Catherine, where her body is, opens on only four days. These are the sanctuary’s published times as of October 2026:

Mass is at 18:30 Monday to Saturday and 11:30 on Sundays and holidays. From December to April the services move into the sacristy. The sanctuary says hours may change, so check santuariocorpusdomini.it before you go.

Outside chapel hours, visitors have been able to glimpse the saint through a small round window to the left of the high altar. As of October 2026 that window is not accessible because of restoration work, and some paintings by Ludovico Carracci are also temporarily out of view. Plan around the chapel hours.

The Missionari e Missionarie Identes now look after the liturgy and welcome pilgrims. The sanctuary describes itself as a place of peace and adoration and invites visitors to pause in silence. Most people inside are there to pray. Keep your voice low, leave the phone in your pocket in the chapel, and come outside Mass times if you are visiting as a tourist.

Who Saint Catherine was

Caterina de’ Vigri was born in Bologna on 8 September 1413. Pope Benedict XVI, who devoted a general audience to her in December 2010, described her father, Giovanni de’ Vigri, as rich and cultured. At about ten she was sent to the Este court in Ferrara as a lady-in-waiting to Margherita d’Este, daughter of Niccolò III.

At fourteen she left the court for a community of young women living a religious life, and she later bound herself to the Rule of Saint Clare, joining the Poor Clares, the Franciscan order for women.

In 1456 the city of Bologna asked for a Poor Clare house of its own, and she was sent to lead it as abbess. She arrived on 22 July 1456 and founded the Corpus Domini monastery, the first Poor Clare community in the city. She died there on 9 March 1463.

She left a book, The Seven Spiritual Weapons, written as guidance for her sisters, along with paintings and illuminated manuscripts. Pope Clement XI canonized her on 22 May 1712. Catholics venerate her as the patron saint of artists, and her feast day is 9 March.

Her body in the chapel

According to the sanctuary and to Bologna Welcome, they exhumed her eighteen days later, intending a more dignified burial, and reported that the body showed no sign of decay.

They later placed her seated on a throne. Today she sits upright in a glass case on an antique gilded wooden throne given by the Bentivoglio family in 1488. She wears a Poor Clare habit, which is replaced from time to time.

The chapel also holds objects from her life: a fifteenth-century viella, a stringed instrument, manuscripts, a breviary, paintings and her bed.

It is a striking room, and for many visitors an affecting one. Treat it as what it is: a shrine where people come to pray, not a museum exhibit.

The church itself

The present church was built between 1477 and 1480. Cardinal Giacomo Monti commissioned a Baroque makeover in 1687, with frescoes by Marcantonio Franceschini. Second World War bombing destroyed the vaults and much of the Baroque decoration, and the building was restored after the war.

Two Bolognese scientists are buried here. Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) lies in a chapel on the left of the nave with his wife, Lucia Galeazzi, and Laura Bassi (1711-1778) is also buried in the church.

The last Poor Clare nuns left the monastery in 2023.

How to get there from Piazza Maggiore

It is 712 metres, about ten minutes on foot. Leave the square at its southwest corner and walk south down Via Massimo D’Azeglio for about 600 metres. Turn right toward Via Tagliapietre, and the church is a short way along.

Combine it with the Basilica di San Petronio, which you pass as you leave the square, or continue across the center to the Santo Stefano complex, another of Bologna’s oldest places of worship. Everything else on this site starts back at Piazza Maggiore.

If you are planning a longer stay, our guide to where to stay in Bologna compares the areas around the center.