Towards the end of the year 1500, Catherine appeared in a vision to Sister Leonora Poggi. It was during this vision that Catherine requested her body be placed in a special chapel that was easily accessible for those visiting her remains. Catherine gave Leonora detailed instructions as to its location and physical layout. The nuns on their own decided to keep her in this sitting position so that the many pilgrims, who requested to kiss her feet, with reverence and devotion, could continue. The chapel was immediately provided, and the Saint was removed from the wooden reliquary.
Catherine remained there for the next 188 years. Then in the spring of 1688 a larger and much more beautiful chapel, immediately adjacent, was completed. It was artistically decorated with frescoes by the famed artists Franceschini, Ahlener, and Quaini. So on August 11, 1688 her body was moved with great reverence and solemnity. It is here that Saint Catherine of Bologna (the Saint) is still enshrined.
Making her sanctity more visible to the world, God honored Catherine with innumerable wonders and signs, It was through her holy intercession, not only in Bologna but in numerous other places, that the nuns and other religious, priests and bishops and individuals in all walks of life, were given special favors, abundant graces and other extraordinary miracles.
She appeared to hardened sinners, who were then led to sincere contrition, thanks to Catherine’s gracious counsel. People hopelessly ill, even gangrenous patients, those, whose conditions were judged incurable, received perfect health when they touched objects that had been used by Catherine. Sprained limbs, burns of various degrees. Those with paralysis… those dying of consumption…were healed through our Saint’s prayers. Interestingly, everything Jesus told John the Baptist’s disciples (Mt.1 1: 4-5) also happened through Catherine’s intercessions.
As an example, a fifteen-month-old child, whose parents had lost all hope for any recovering, was healed. The little boy was crippled, numbed and close to death because of a violent fever. One of his relatives, the Countess Ippohita Codronchi, told his parents to pray to Catherine, “the Saint of Bologna”. The child immediately returned to his senses and soon afterward regained his full health!
The fame of her miracles soon spread beyond Italy’s borders. Many prominent and not so prominent people came to venerate her body. Even the Emperor Charles V, Saint Charles Torromeo, visited her shrine. The visits of many other distinguished, royal and ecclesiastical persons led to almost a public cult of Saint Catherine. Finally in Rome, on Trinity Sunday, May 22. I712, the Pope declared Catherine of Bologna a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.