![]() In the sixth century, the Emperor Justinian ordered a monastery established in her name. One account claimed that angels took her body to Mt. Unable to torture her to death, the emperor simply ordered her beheaded. When Catherine was presented before the wheel, she touched it and a miracle occurred that caused the wheel to shatter. It is a brutal punishment that results in a slow and painful death, normally reserved for the worst criminals. The breaking wheel is an ancient form of torture where a person's limbs are threaded among the spokes and their bones are shattered by an executioner with a heavy rod. The emperor angrily ordered her to be executed on a breaking wheel. Catherine refused, saying she was married to Jesus Christ and that her virginity was dedicated to him. This would have made her a powerful empress. It is believed that Maximilla was alive and with her husband at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312, seven years after the death of Catherina.įollowing her imprisonment, Maxentius made a final attempt to persuade the beautiful Catherine to abandon her faith by proposing marriage to her. ![]() However, this is not mentioned in the historical record and may be a legend. The emperor eventually executed his own wife over her conversion. According to some legends, the emperor's own wife, Valeria Maximilla was converted by Catherine. ![]() Word of her arrest and the power of her faith quickly spread and over 200 people visited her. Despite the torture, she did not abandon her faith. Unable to defeat her rhetorically or to intimidate her into giving up her belief, the emperor ordered her to be tortured and imprisoned.Ĭatherine was arrested and scourged. Her words were so moving that several of the pagans converted to Christianity and were immediately executed. However, Catherine was moved by the power of the Holy Spirit and spoke eloquently in defense of her faith. Rather than order her execution, Maxentius summoned fifty orators and philosophers to debate her. When the emperor Maxentius began persecuting Christians, Catherine visited him to denounce his cruelty. Around the age of fourteen, she experienced a moving vision of Mary and the infant Jesus, and she decided to become a Christian.Īlthough she was a teenager, she was very intelligent and gifted. As a member of the nobility, she was also educated and was an avid scholar. At that time, Alexandria was one of the finest cities in the world, and a center of learning and culture as well as faith.Ĭhristian tradition states she was of noble birth, possibly a princess. The young saint was born around 287 in Alexandria, Egypt. There are no surviving primary sources attesting to her existence, but the fact that her memory, and the stories about her, have been kept alive - and handed down in the tradition - certainly confirm her existence, and her life of heroic virtue and holiness. She is also recognized as the Great Martyr and Saint by the Orthodox Church. Of course, the Church of the first Millennium was undivided. Saint Catherine of Alexandria is a canonized saint in the Catholic Church who, per Christian tradition, was martyred around 305 in Alexandria, Egypt.
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