Catherine of Alexandria

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel and The Great Martyr Saint Catherine (Greek ) is a Christian saint and martyr who is claimed to have been a noted scholar in the early 4th century. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, it was rumoured that she had spoken to Joan of Arc. The Orthodox Church venerates her as a "great martyr", and in the Catholic Church she is traditionally revered as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
Catherine was the daughter of Costus, a pagan governor of Alexandria. She announced to her parents that she would only marry someone who surpassed her in beauty, intelligence, wealth, and social status. This was an early foreshadowing of her eventual discovery of Christ. "His beauty was more radiant than the shining of the sun, His wisdom governed all creation, His riches were spread throughout all the world."
==Life and legend==
Catherine was born and raised a pagan, but miraculously converted to Christianity in her late teens. It is said that she visited her contemporary, the Roman Emperor Maximinus, and attempted to convince him of the error of his ways in persecuting Christians. She succeeded in converting his wife, the Empress, and many pagan philosophers whom the Emperor sent to dispute with her, all of whom were subsequently martyred. Upon the failure of the Emperor to win Catherine over, he ordered her to be put in prison; and when the people who visited her converted, she was condemned to death on the breaking wheel (an instrument of torture). According to legend, the wheel itself broke when she touched it, so she was beheaded.
According to Christian tradition, angels carried her body to Mount Sinai, where in the 6th century, the Eastern Emperor Justinian established Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai, the church being built between 548 and 565 in Saint Katherine city, Egypt. Saint Catherine's Monastery survives, a famous repository of early Christian art, architecture and illuminated manuscripts that is open to visiting scholars still.
Her principal symbol is the spiked wheel, which has become known as the Catherine wheel, and her feast day is celebrated on 25 November by most Christian churches. However, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates it on 24 November, because Empress Catherine the Great did not wish to share her patronal feast with the Leavetaking of the feast of the Presentation of the Theotokos. Because she was Catherine the Great's patron, the Catholic Church of St. Catherine, one of the first Catholic churches built in Russia, was named after Catherine of Alexandria.
== Medieval cult==
St. Catherine was one of the most influential saints in the religious culture of the late middle ages, and arguably considered the most important of the virgin-martyrs. Her power as an intercessor was renowned, and firmly established in most versions of her legend, in which she specifically entreats God at the moment of her death to answer the prayers of those who invoke her name. The development of her medieval cult was spurred by the reported rediscovery of her body around the year 800 at Mount Sinai, with hair still growing and a constant stream of healing oil emitting from her body.S.R.T.O d'Ardeene and E.J. Dobson, Seinte Katerine: Re-Edited from MS Bodley 34 and other Manuscripts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981), xiv. There are a handful of pilgrimage narratives that chronicle the journey to Mount Sinai, most notably those of John Mandeville and Friar Felix Fabri.John Mandeville, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1964); Felix Fabri, The Wanderings of Felix Fabri (New York: AMS Press, 1971), 217. However, the monastery at Mount Sinai was the best-known site of Catherine pilgrimage, but was also the most difficult to reach. The most prominent western shrine was the monastery in Rouen that claimed to house Catherine's fingers. It was not alone in the west, however, accompanied by many, scattered shrines and altars dedicated to Catherine, which existed throughout France and England. Some were better known sites, such as Canterbury and Westminster, which claimed a phial of her oil, brought back from Mount Sinai by Edward the Confessor.Christine Walsh, "The Role of the Normans in the Development of the Cult of St. Katherine" in St. Katherine of Alexandria: Texts and Contexts in Western Medieval Europe eds. Jacqueline Jenkins and Katherine J. Lewis (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2003), 31; Katherine J. Lewis, "Pilgrimage and the Cult of St. Katherine of Alexandria in Late Medieval England" in St. Katherine of Alexandria: Texts and Contexts in Western Medieval Europe eds. Jacqueline Jenkins and Katherine J. Lewis (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2003),44. Other shrines were the focus of generally local pilgrimage, many of which are only identified by brief mentions to them in various texts, rather than by physical evidence.Lewis, "Pilgrimage and the Cult of St. Katherine", 49-51.
St. Catherine also had a large female following, whose devotion was less likely to be expressed through pilgrimage. The importance of the virgin-martyrs as the focus of devotion and models for proper feminine behavior increased during the late middle ages.John Bugge, Virginitas: An Essay in the History of the Medieval Ideal (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1975), 132; Katherine J. Lewis, The Cult of St. Katherine of Alexiandria in Late Medieval England (Rochester: The Boydell Press, 2000), 229; Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Alters: Traditional Religion in England c.1400-c.1580 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 174. Among these, St. Catherine in particular was used as an exemplar for women, a status which at times superseded her intercessory role.Katherine J. Lewis, "Model Girls? Virgin-Martyrs and the Training of Young Women in Late Medieval England" in Young Medieval Womeen eds. Katherine J. Lewis, Noel James Menuge and Kim M. Phillips (New York: St. Martin's PRess, 1999). Both Christine de Pizan and Geoffrey de la Tour Landry point to Catherine as a paradigm for young women, emphasizing her model of virginity and "wifely chastity."Christine de Pizan, The Treasure of the City of Ladies trans. by Sarah Lawson (New York: Penguin Books, 2003), 146; Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies trans. by Rosalind Brown-Grant (New York: Penguin Books, 1999), 203; Rebecca Barnhouse, The Book of the Knight of the Tower (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 126, 193.
==History and veneration==
Historians such as Harold Thayler Davis believe that Catherine ('the pure one') may not have existed and that she was more an ideal exemplary figure than a historical one.Harold Thayler Davis. Alexandria: The Golden City. (Principia Press of Illinois, 1957). She did certainly form an exemplary counterpart to the pagan philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria in the medieval mindset; and it has been suggested that she was invented specifically for that purpose. Like Hypatia, she is said to have been highly learned (in philosophy and theology), very beautiful, sexually pure, and to have been brutally murdered for publicly stating her beliefs. Catherine is placed 105 years before Hypatia's death, although the first records mentioning her are much later.
 
Because of the fabulous character of the account of her martyrdom and the lack of reliable documentation, the Roman Catholic Church in 1969 removed her feast day from the General Roman Calendar.Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 147 But she continued to be commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on November 25.Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001 ISBN 88-209-7210-7) In 2002, her feast was restored to the General Roman Calendar as an optional memorial.
The 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia describes the historical importance of the belief in her as follows:
==Media==
In 2009, a feature-length movie about Catherine began production at Pinewood Studios.Pinewood Studios Article Entitled Katherine of Alexandria, the film will span the life of the saint, as depicted in a diary found, which is claimed to date back to the 4th Century, belonging to 'Jabal Ekatherina'.Official Film Website for Katherine of Alexandria
==References==
== See also ==
* Catherinettes
* Catherine wheel
* Saint Catherine of Alexandria, by Raphael
* Saint Catherine, by Caravaggio
* Catharina - Lunar crater named after St. Catherine
* Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
* Santa Catalina Island - California Channel Island named after St. Catherine
* Santa Catalina Mountains - A prominent mountain range north of Tucson, Arizona, United States was named after St. Catherine in 1697.
* Se Cathedral - dedicated to Saint Catherine
* Cartagena de Indias - Main Colombian city which Saint Catherine is patron.
*Santa Catarina - One of the three states in southern Brazil.
* St. Catherine Band Club 
* St. Catherine's Day
== External links ==
* Pagbilao Church - Saint Catherine of Alexandria Church
* Iconographical Themes in Art - Saint Catherine of Alexandria
* Details of Saint Catherine's life - Saint Catherine Orthodox Church; includes a gallery of icons of the saint
* Feast of the Holy Great Martyr and Most Wise Catherine of Alexandria - Greek Orthodox Archdiocese
* St Catherine's church in Muhu island (Estonia)
* Representetions of Saint Catherine
* Katherine of Alexandria - Official Film Website
Category:287 births
Category:305 deaths
Category:Ancient Roman women
Category:Christian folklore
Category:Eastern Orthodox saints
Category:Eastern Catholic saints
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Category:Roman Catholic saints
Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar
Category:Egyptian Roman Catholic saints
Category:Egyptian saints
Category:Fourteen Holy Helpers
Category:Saints of the Golden Legend
Category:4th-century Christian martyr saints
Category:3rd-century Romans
Category:4th-century Romans
Category:4th-century Christian female saints
ar:كاترينا الإسكندرانية
br:Katell Aleksandria
bg:Света Екатерина
ca:Caterina d'Alexandria
cs:Kateřina Alexandrijská
da:Katharina af Alexandria
de:Katharina von Alexandrien
et:Aleksandria Katariina
el:Αγία Αικατερίνη (Μεγαλομάρτυς)
es:Catalina de Alejandría
fr:Catherine d'Alexandrie
fy:Katarina fan Aleksanderje
ko:알렉산드리아의 카타리나
hr:Katarina Aleksandrijska
it:Caterina d'Alessandria
he:קתרינה מאלכסנדריה
ka:დიდმოწამე ეკატერინე
lv:Svētā Katrīna no Aleksandrijas
hu:Alexandriai Szent Katalin
mt:Santa Katarina ta' Lixandra
arz:القديسه كاترين
nl:Catharina van Alexandrië
ja:アレクサンドリアのカタリナ
no:Katarina av Alexandria
pl:Katarzyna z Aleksandrii
pt:Catarina de Alexandria
ru:Екатерина Александрийская
fi:Katariina Aleksandrialainen
sv:Katarina av Alexandria
th:แคทเธอรินแห่งอเล็กซานเดรีย
uk:Свята Катерина
vec:Santa Catarina d'Ałesandria
zh:聖凱瑟琳