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This is one of several versions of the story of St Catherine:
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| Anthony Van Dyck, The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine |
She was the well educated daughter of aristocratic, pagan parents in Alexandria in the 4th century AD. Converted to Christianity by a hermit, she dreamt she was the bride of Christ and woke up with His ring on her finger. She protested against the persecution of Christians under the Emperor Maximinus (one of the last pagan Emperors). The Emperor sent some notable philosophers to argue with her: she converted them. He sent a Centurion: she converted him. Finally Maximinus offered her marriage, she refused him. She was condemned to be broken on the wheel (hence the modern 'Catherine wheel' firework): it was the wheel that miraculously broke. She was then beheaded and she bled milk. She was carried to heaven by angels, or alternatively to the Monastery of St Catherine at Mount Sinai, the site of Moses' conversation with God in the burning bush. Some historians think that the 'angels' were actually monks of the Monastery (the Greek for 'monk' is actually 'angel'). Sometimes pieces of the wheel are said to have killed large numbers of pagan onlookers.
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| Jan Provost, The Martydom of St Catherine |
Most saints die bravely for their faith, but Catherine went further than that. She not only died bravely but she had the intelligence and the skill to persuade her persecutors that they were wrong. They chose to die with her. She was an enemy to political extremism and religious oppression - and they have not died.
She was one of the most popular Saints in the Middle Ages, the patron Saint of the University of Paris and one of the heavenly voices that spoke to Joan of Arc. Both Oxford and Cambridge have a college dedicated to her.
Philosophers, students and people of learning because of her education and persuasive logic.
Wheelwrights: (and also potters, millers, engineers and makers of things) because the wheel she was to be tortured on broke under her.
Women without power: maids, servants, virgins, prostitutes.
The caring professions: nurses, doctors.
She is the patron saint of the dying, to which we will all come. She seems to us to focus many of the problems of the modern world that concern us all: political extremism, technology, education, the independence of women, death, love, marriage and fulfilment.
The Historical Reality
St Catherine is said to have died in c 307 but the historical truth is that she may never have existed. Certainly, the Catholic Church came to this conclusion in the 17th century and finally removed her festival on November 25th from the calendar of saints' days in 1969. In the Calendarum Romanum of that year it says:
..non solum Passio S. Catharinae est omnino fabulosa, sed de ipsa persona Catharinae nihil certum affirmari potest.
.. not only is the Passion of St Catharine a complete fable, but of the same Catharine nothing certain can be said.
However, the physical existence of a hero or heroine is of far less importance than the legend which people find worth believing. A saint is created by popular opinion because his or her story exemplifies qualities which ordinary people think are important. Sadly, the modern world esteems historical accuracy as being more important than spiritual values.
The Story Gets Embroidered
The first mention of her, in the sixth century, gives a much shorter version than the current one:
A wealthy woman from Alexandria saw the ritual sacrificing of animals to pagan gods, and protested. She was imprisoned, but after her release continued to object, and was beheaded.
During the Crusades, her story was embellished: she acquired a family and several extra attributes. There are a number of different versions, but an important addition to the story, which is illustrated in many charming paintings, is this:
Soon after her conversion, she had a dream in which she met Mary and Jesus. She was informed that she was to spread the word of Christianity, would become a martyr, and would become the bride of Christ in heaven.
Attempts to trace or verify her story are made rather difficult by variants of spelling. Catherine herself is written as:
Catherine, Katherine, Katharine, Catharine, Caterina, Katerina, Ekaterina, Aecaterina, Haecaterina, Hecatherina
And there may be many more. It is generally thought that her name derives from the Greek 'katharos' meaning 'pure'. Other familiar words from the same root are: 'catholic', 'cathar' etc.
To add to the confusion, there are several Roman Emperors with similar names to 'Maximinus' in the third and fourth century AD. So, for instance, some versions of the story give Maxentius as the tyrant, but this is less plausible, as he was never ruler of Egypt, nor known for persecution of Christians.
Maximinus, her opponent in most versions of the legend, was Caesar of Egypt and Syria from 305 - 308, Emperor of Rome from 308 - 314 and the last pagan Emperor before the Roman world became Christian under Constantine. But there is no historical evidence to connect him with anyone like St Catherine.
The foundation of the myth seems to have been Hypatia, a pagan mathematician and philosopher of Alexandria, 'whose great eloquence and rare modesty and beauty, combined with her remarkable intellectual gifts, attracted to her classroom a large number of pupils'. From about 400 AD, she was the recognised head of the Neoplatonist school there, working on Diophantine equations. In this kind of algebra the results have to be whole numbers. Fermat's famous last theorem is one example and the mathematics of quantum mechanics another. In March 415 she was barbarously done to death with oyster shells in a Christian church by the Nitrian monks and the fanatical Christian mob. The Christian spin doctors seem to have hijacked her story to create St Catherine's.
The Orthodox Story
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| The Monastery of Mount Sinai |
St Catherine is still considered to be the second most important saint by the Greek Orthodox Church. Her image and attributes are shown in many Greek churches and are instantly recognisable to their congregations today.
In AD 800, when the eruption of Muslims out of the Arabian deserts first shook Europe, we hear that the saint appeared in a dream to a monk and explained that she was buried at the Monastery of Mount Sinai. As a result her body was miraculously recovered and part of it now lies in a tomb by the high altar in the church there.
The Monastery on Mount Sinai, said to be the oldest in the world, was possibly founded in the fourth century by Helena, mother of Constantine, to celebrate Moses' conversation with God in the burning bush which is still growing in one of the courtyards. The fortified monastery and the present church there were built by the Emperor Justinian in 527. Since the burning bush is also of great importance to Islam, the monastery is under the protection of Mohammed and has a small 10th or 11th century mosque. After the discovery of St Catherine's body, the church became a major object of pilgrimage and the foundation became known as the Monastery of St Catherine. There are slight references to a military order of St Catherine during the middle ages. This was not conventual, and has left few traces. It seems to have been formed by voluntary groups of knights, whose mission was to protect pilgrims in their journey across the lands controlled by Muslims. There may have been an association with other military orders, such as the Templars, or the Hospitallers. It has also been suggested that the 'Order of St Catherine' consisted simply of men who had been to the monastery and claimed knighthood on their return to Europe.
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An active order of Greek Orthodox monks still lives at Mount Sinai, under the Archbishop of Sinai, who maintain the world's second largest collection of manuscripts, icons and reliquaries. Visitors are welcome to see the Egyptian tourism site: www.tourism.egnet.net, and http://touregypt.net/catherines.htm. A library was built in 1942 to rehouse the irreplacable manuscripts and is now being rebuilt to provide more space and better environmental conditions. A St Catherine Foundation has been formed, with help from Prince Charles and finance from western charities including the Getty Foundation, to assist the monks in their tasks as custodians.
Rouen in northern France has a strong connection with Sinai: Simon de Treves went from Sinai to Rouen where a St Catherine's Monastery was built in 1030. He came to England with William the Conqueror in 1066. Three finger bones from the Saint's body were brought to Rouen in the 11th century by Simeon Pentaglosus, a monk from Sicily, who could speak 5 languages and effectively started her cult in Europe. Abbotsbury has a direct connection with Rouen because Thola, who was born there, married Orc, a thane of King Canute. The King gave them the neighbouring manors of Abbotsbury and Portesham; they were used to finance the refoundation of the abbey in about 1030. Another link with Rouen was that the nunnery of Montvilliers there owned the nearby manor of Friar Waddon in Dorset. The monastery at Abbotsbury may have belonged to Glastonbury: St Catherine's Chapel here is very similar to the chapel on the hill there.
The monastery was sold to the Strangways family, who still own Abbotsbury, by King Henry VIII in 1530. Most of the buildings were pulled down for their materials and sold.