About 
St. Catherine of Alexandria
The holy great-martyr Catherine lived at the end of the third century, a time when Christianity was nearly contemporary with those who lived in a dynamic age which in many respects resembles our own--is a vibrant example of the essential role which God calls Christian lay women and men to play in the process of evangelization. And in our day especially, the Church has taken great pains to emphasize the role of lay people as evangelizers. Saint Catherine was the daughter of an illustrious and privileged family. Born and raised in the great city of Alexandria, which in those days was the capital of the Roman province of Egypt, she was a convert to Christianity.
Blessed with physical and spiritual beauty, Catherine was a highly educated woman--unusal in those times--who used her considerable erudition and influence to spread and defend the Christian faith. Inspired by her heroic example, and by her public and courageous teaching during a time of persecution in Alexandria, many of her contemporaries, including the emperor's wife, came to accept the truth of the Gospel. Catherine was put to death by order of the Roman Emperor Maximinus II in 307, on November 24th, which is the day of her early memorial. Tradition states that she was placed on a spiked wheel to die. The wheel broke and subsequently Catherine was beheaded. In the 8th century her earthy remains, rediscovered by the Christians of Egypt--who, since 641, had come under the rule of Islam--were transferred for safekeeping to the famous monastery on Mount Sinai which bears her name.
The 9th century Menology (that is, a Lives of the Saints) compiled for the Byzantine Emperor Basil I relates the circumstances of Saint Catherine's martyrdom as follows. A festival in honour of the pagan idols was being held in Alexandria. Catherine, "on seeing the slaughter of the animals, was so greatly moved that she went to the Emperor Maximinus. She reasoned that with him vigorously and said, 'Why have you abandoned the Living God to worship lifeless idols?' But the emperor had her thrownn into prison and she was punished severely. Then he commanded that fifty orators be brought, and ordered them to debate with Catherine, threatening to burn them all if they did not prove victorious against her. But it was the orators who found themselves defeated. They accepted baptism and were summarily executed by fire. Catherine, however, was beheaded."
Saint Catherine is the patron of teachers, students, philosophers, speech-makers, mechanics/wheel-wrights and people on trial. Saint Catherine of Alexandria, pray for us!
Holy great-martyr Catherine, pray to God for us!
