25 November: St Catherine of Alexandria

Today is the feast day of St Catherine of Alexandria. Here are some things you may or may not know about her:

1. She's also known as St Catherine of the Wheel, because her executioners tried to kill her by tying her to a spiked wheel, but when they tried to do so, the wheel shattered. The Catherine Wheel Firework is named after her.
2. As well as the wheel, she is often pictured with a dove (because one fed her when she was in prison) hailstones, a bridal veil and ring, a sword, a crown and a book.
3. She was the daughter of Constus, the governor of Egyptian Alexandria during the reign of the emperor Maximian. A studious child, she read a lot, and one day had a vision of The Virgin Mary who persuaded her to convert to Christianity.
4. According to Rufinus, her name at birth wasn't Catherine, but Dorothea. She took the name Catherine when she became a Christian, because it means 'pure'.
5. She went to the emperor himself to make a case for Christianity and to try and stop his cruelty to Christians. According to the legend, the emperor, rather than immediately have her killed as he would anyone else, possibly because she was just a young girl, called in fifty of his philosophers to argue with her and persuade her to put aside her Christian faith. Several of the philosophers were so impressed by her arguments that they became Christians on the spot. The emperor was less lenient to them – they were executed on the spot.
6. Catherine, meanwhile, was whipped severely, then put in prison. She wasn't given any food, the plan being that she'd starve to death, but God sent a dove to bring her food, and Angels to put ointment on her wounds. While in prison, she had over 200 visitors, all of which she converted to Christianity and all of which were executed.
7. At this point, the emperor decided to change tack. Torture and starvation clearly weren't working, so he asked Catherine to marry him instead. She turned him down, of course, because she had dedicated herself to Christ.
8. This was when he ordered her death by being tied to a wheel. When that didn't work, he had her beheaded. The legend says that instead of Blood, a milky substance flowed from her neck. It's also said that her body produced a constant stream of healing oil.
9. St Catherine is patron of unmarried girls. There are traditions whereby young single women pray or recite rhymes to St Catherine to help them find suitable husbands. In France, on her feast day, women are allowed to propose marriage to men. Also in France, young women who are not married by the 25 November after their 25^th birthday are known as Catherinettes and a special celebration was held for them. Another custom was for such young women to have a beautiful headdress made for St Catherine's statue. "Capping Saint Catherine" became an expression meaning to still be an old maid at 25.
10. St Catherine is also the patron of: craftspeople who work with wheels (such as spinners or potters); librarians; dying people; knife sharpeners; mechanics; millers; milliners; hat-makers; nurses; philosophers; preachers; scholars; schoolchildren; scribes; secretaries; tanners; several towns in the Philippines, Malta and Greece; and Balliol College.

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