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Catherine
was born in Egypt in the fourth century. She was a renowned
beauty of royal descent. When she was eighteen, a hermit came
and told her that she was chosen to be a bride of Christ. He
showed her a picture of the Madonna and child, and she instantly
converted. Catherine went on to chastise the Roman Emperor Maxentius
for his anti-Christianism and, enamored with her, he allowed
her to debate fifty of his best philosophers. She converted
all fifty of them and Maxentius executed them all. But she was
spared and put into a dungeon. There she befriended Faustina,
the wife of Maxentius, and converted her, along with two hundred
of the Emperors soldiers. Maxentius then executed all of them.
But again Catherine was spared and, when she refused to denounce
her Christianity and marry the newly-widowed Maxentius, he strapped
her to a contraption called the "Catherine wheel,”
which was supposed to have maimed, tortured and killed her.
Instead Angels descended and exploded the wheel, which killed
thousands of onlookers. He then beheaded her and, legend has
it, milk flowed from her neck. Catherine is also the patron
of unmarried women, philosophers, wheelwrights, nurses, potters,
spinners, millers, librarians, rope makers, secretaries, school
girls and universities; and she's invoked against diseases of
the tongue. Her feast day is November 25. |
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| St.
Catherine of Alexandria
Patron St. of
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