Her story
No one doubts that she lived, but the story of her life is legend, written down long after her death.
Her legend says she was a young Christian of Alexandria, so learned that she silenced the philosophers the emperor Maximinus sent to argue with her, and they became Christians. She was condemned to die on a wheel, but it broke apart at her touch, and the emperor had her beheaded. The legend adds that angels carried her body to Mount Sinai, where a church and a monastery were later built in her honour.
“St. Catherine of Alexandria”, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908; The Roman Martyrology, 1916, 25 November
Her feast days
24 November: Her feast in the Orthodox Church in America. The Russian and other churches on the old calendar keep it on 7 December.
25 November: Her feast in the Catholic Church.
The Roman Martyrology, 1916, 25 November; Great Martyr Catherine, 24 November, Orthodox Church in America
Why people ask St Catherine of Alexandria
Students and exams
In the Middle Ages scholars asked her to light their minds before they studied, wrote or preached, and she became the patroness of women students.
Where it comes from
Who wrote it
A prayer of a Paris society for Christian study and teaching that bore her name. In 1907 Pope St Pius X granted an indulgence to all who say it.
Acta Sanctae Sedis 40 (1907), pp. 374-376, the decree of 29 April 1907
In French
O glorieuse sainte Catherine, vierge sage et prudentequi avez mis la science de Jésus-Christ au-dessus de toute science,
obtenez-nous de demeurer inviolablement attachés à la foi catholique,et de ne chercher, dans nos études et dans notre enseignement,qu’à étendre en nous et dans les autresle règne de Jésus-Christ Notre-Seigneur et de sa sainte Eglise.Ainsi soit-il.
