Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Patron of philosophers, preachers, educators, and female students
Invoked for hope
Feast Day: November 25


Catherine’s story took place long ago, Catherine was born in 287 A.D. to the daughter of the pagan King Costus and Queen Sabinella or Alexandria, Egypt.  Her superior intelligence combined with diligent study left her a noted scholar in all the arts and sciences, and in philosophy.  Having decided to remain a virgin all her life, she announced that she would only marry someone who surpassed her in beauty, intelligence, wealth, and dignity.  Though raised a pagan, she became and ardent Christian in her teenage years, having received a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Jesus Christ, in which the Blessed Virgin gave Catherine to Jesus in mystical marriage.  In her discovery of Christ, she exclaimed, “ His beauty was more radiant than the shining of the sun, His wisdom governed all creation, His riches were spread throughout all the world.”  During a debate against the best philosophers and orators of the time, she won and succeeded in converting all of them to Christianity for which the emperor had them all put to death, and Catherine scourged and thrown in prison. While she remained in prison, she converted over two hundred people, including the empress, and the leader of the army, who in turn were also martyred.  After a failed attempt at proposing marriage to Catherine, Maximinus ordered her broken on the wheel, but when she touched it, the wheel was destroyed. She was then beheaded, and legend says her body was whisked away by angels. She is the patroness of young maidens and female students.  She is called upon to illumine their minds, guide their pens, and impart eloquence to their words.  © 2010

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“The Saints are the Sinners who keep on trying”
-Robert Louis Stevenson

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