Great Martyr Catherine of Alexandria

Catherine of Alexandria is known from her Life, which tells that she was a young woman of royal birth in Alexandria, learned in philosophy and rhetoric, in the time of the emperor Maximin (traditionally c. 305–313). When the emperor ordered a festival for the gods, she went before him and declared that the gods were nothing. He summoned fifty philosophers to refute her.

The Life says that she silenced them, and that they were burned alive by the emperor's order after converting. Catherine refused his offer of marriage and was beaten and imprisoned. According to the Life, the empress Augusta and the officer Porphyry visited her in prison and came to believe, and were put to death. Catherine was beheaded. The Life reports that her relics were carried by angels to Mount Sinai. Historians doubt that the story is reliable.