Oratory of Saint Catherine of the Night

These evocative rooms, located in the heart of Santa Maria della Scala, where Saint Catherine of Siena paused in prayer and brought comfort to the sick, still preserve today the intensity and the atmosphere that for so many centuries accompanied the religious fervor of the Saint's very numerous devotees.
Known since the 14th century as the Confraternity of Saint Michael the Archangel, the company was chiefly devoted to pietas for the deceased. The company had in fact been established near the hospital cemetery and the so-called 'carnaio', whose chasm plunged from the upper level, corresponding to the Piazza del Duomo, down to that of Piazzetta della Selva, situated much lower.
In the 17th century the oratory was enriched with numerous stuccoes and paintings, including four canvases depicting the life of Saint Catherine, attributed to the Sienese painters Rutilio Manetti and Francesco Rustici. On the altar stands an interesting fourteenth-century marble Madonna that is probably the company's oldest devotional image, while at its sides are arranged four angels and Saints Dominic and Catherine in adoration.
In addition to numerous paintings, carvings, reliquaries and furnishings, the Company also preserves a fine panel by Taddeo di Bartolo depicting the Madonna and Child, four angels and Saints John the Baptist and Andrew, dated 1400, and four coffin endboards showing Saint Catherine protecting four confreres beneath her mantle, the risen Christ, the Saint's Stigmata and the Deposition, to be attributed to a Sienese artist of the first decades of the 16th century.