ST CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA; 25th NOVEMBER
ST CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA 25th NOVEMBER St Catherine was a young noble woman from Alexandria who had consecrated her virginity to Our Lord and, like St Catherine of Siena, had a mystical vision in which Christ placed a ring on her finger. She must have had a great deal of courage, for she upbraided the Emperor Maximinus for his persecution of Christians. The Emperor assembled seventy pagan scholars to refute her arguments regarding the faith. She however, in her learning and articulate discussion, converted the pagan scholars to the faith instead. The Emperor then attempted to execute her on a spiked wheel, but, when she ascended to the gallows, a bolt of lightening destroyed the wheel and killed the executioner. In the end she was beheaded. She was named as one of the fourteen Holy Helpers and is invoked against sudden death. She, of course, was the inspiration for the fireworks called the Catherine Wheel and is the Patron saint of philosophers. Michael P Foley, in his book, “D...