Spiritual Life

St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr

Life of St. Catherine the Martyr

St. Catherine was born and raised in the city of Alexandria in the late third century A.D. Her parents were pagans of royal descent. Catherine was highly admired for her beauty, intelligence, wisdom in disputation, and insights in Holy Books. At the age of eighteen, she got a degree in theology and philosophy, which made her aware of the corruption and falsity of paganism which she therefore denounced and consequently converted to Christianity.

The Miracle

She saw in her dream Virgin Mary holding the Holy Child asking Him to look at St. Catherine but The Christ Child refused to do so as she wasn’t baptized. When Catherine woke up, being sure it was a vision, she accepted the sacrament of baptism.

The following night she saw Our Lord Jesus appearing in heavenly light and giving her a ring that signifies acceptance and approval and so she received the grace of being accepted by Him as His mystical spouse.

The Emperor Orders and Catherine refuses

In 173 A.D Emperor Maxentius II came to Alexandria and gave offerings to the gods. He ordered the people to eat from these offerings, threatening those who refused to be sentenced to death. Catherine rebelled against the emperor’s decision and convinced the others not to eat. This enraged the Emperor who subsequently summoned fifty philosophers to confute her. They all converted to Christianity and were thereupon burned to death by the enraged Emperor who also imprisoned the virgin hoping to seduce her as he greatly admired her beauty.

The Absence of the Emperor and the Conversion of the Empress

The Emperor was satisfied while his wife, Empress Faustina, was eager to meet Catherine. The Empress saw in her dream Saint Catherine holding golden crown and approaching the queen and placing the crown on her head saying: “This is from Our Lord as sign of obedience.” The following day both the Empress and general Porphyruis, visited the Saint in jail and both converted and were baptized

The Emperor Returns- Heavenly Miracle

As soon as the emperor returned to Alexandria, he summoned Catherine trying to persuade her to deny her faith. Having refused his offer of a royal marriage, he ordered that the Saint be tortured to death on a spike-studded wheel. When she was fastened to the wheel, the bonds were miraculously loosed and the wheel itself broke, its spikes flew off and killed some of the onlookers, which made the crowd hail: “The Lord of Catherine is the true God”

The empress was enraged by what the emperor did and she publicly confessed her conversion; subsequently, the emperor ordered that his wife and the general be beheaded.

Our Lord listened to Saint Catherine’s prayers; the emperor died after escaping from his enemy and so persecution of Christians stopped in 313 A.D . In 562 A.D Hermits took the body of the Saint to a monastery in Mount Sinai where she was buried.