St Catherine of Alexandria

Virgin, Martyr (3rd century - c. 305)
Feast / Memorial Day: November 25
Patronage: Apologists, lawyers, librarians, philosophers, preachers, scholars, teachers, theologians, unmarried girls, wheelwrights, against sudden deaths
Also known as Katherine of Alexandria, Ekaterina of Alexandria, Katharina von Alexandrien, Great Martyr Saint Catherine, Ϯⲁⲅⲓⲁ Ⲕⲁⲧⲧⲣⲓⲛ, ἡ Ἁγία Αἰκατερίνη ἡ Μεγαλομάρτυς "Holy Catherine the Great Martyr," Catharina Alexandrina

+ SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:

Even if the historical veracity of Catherine's story is doubtful, her importance in the Middle Ages as an exemplar of beauty, intelligence, learning, sanctity, and chastity made her among the most important and influential of saints whose intercession was widely sought. She was particularly venerated in France after some claimed she had spoken to St Joan of Arc. Her status as a virgin-martyr is unchallenged. She is also one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

The facts of her life, whether true or not, are simple. She was the daughter of the Roman governor of Alexandria and was converted to Christianity before she was 20 by one of the Egyptian desert hermits. She underwent a vision in which she was united with Christ in a 'mystic marriage.' She subsequently attempted to convert the Roman emperor, Maximinus, in the process brilliantly confounding the 50 pagan philosophers he had deputed to argue with her. Many of them instead converted to Christianity, as did the empress, Caecilia Paulina. Maximinus then had Catherine imprisoned and subsequently ordered that she be 'broken' on a wheel. When the wheel itself miraculously broke, Catherine was beheaded.