Almoutran

 Great-Martyr Catherine the All-Wise of Alexandria

November 25th

At first glance, she seemed to be a beautiful princess in some golden fairy tale.

She was a lovely young maiden, everyone agreed – but also chaste, modest in her habits, and quietly steadfast in her faithfulness to her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Who would have guessed – meeting the youthful Catherine of Alexandria, a maiden of aristocratic bearing and lineage – that she would end her life while being tortured on the spikes of an iron wheel, and then ruthlessly beheaded? taken from “Saints and Martyrs from the Holy Land,”

The story of Catherine the All-Wise began in that great Egyptian center of learning, Alexandria, where she was born around 287

A.D., as the daughter of a wealthy nobleman named Constas (or Cestus, according to some historians). Raised in a setting of privilege and luxury, the young St. Catherine soon became adept at rhetoric and philosophy. But her heart would belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, and not to mere books, after she was converted to the Christian faith by her pious and devoted mother.

Already strong, St. Catherine’s faith grew even deeper after she prayed through the night before an icon of The Theotokos and Jesus . . . and then watched both of them materialize in a dream. The young girl was amazed, but also disheartened when the Holy Redeemer seemed to avoid her eyes, while noting that she was unworthy.
After reviewing this strange dream with a holy man (he recommended prayer and fasting), she experienced the vision a second time. But this time the Lord God appeared to approve of her, and presented her with a beautiful keepsake. When she awoke, she discovered that a glittering ring had indeed been placed on her finger during the night. It would remain there for the rest of her virginal life as a “bride” of Christ who would never marry a mortal man.
St. Catherine’s world had changed forever now, but her celibate life of prayer and meditation did not please the Emperor Maximinus, a longtime admirer who had proposed marriage to her more than once. Refusing him politely, the youthful saint also dared to challenge his attachment to the pagan gods he so frequently worshipped.
While observing his enslavement to the pagan gods and sacred animals of his misguided faith (but more in sorrow than in anger), St. Catherine told the Emperor that these false deities were actually demons of pure illusion. “There is only one God,” she told the increasingly angry tyrant in words like these, “and his Word maintains the World!”
Maximinus disagreed violently with her revolutionary ideas, however . . . and soon assembled more than a hundred of his most accomplished philosophers and rhetoricians to debate the faithful young maiden. Among the brilliant thinkers was the formidable Rhetors, a debater of exquisite skill who seemed certain to overwhelm this young girl with his vast learning and his immense ability to argue.
Surprisingly enough, however, the outcome was quite different.
Thanks to the Grace that flowed from her Savior (and also to a visit from the Archangel Michael), St. Catherine was able to outwit the debaters – along with the nimble-tongued Rhetors – by quoting phrases from their own gods and poets. Again and again, she showed how their ancient words actually foretold the arrival of the One True God, the Redeemer Jesus Christ.
Enraged by their failure, the infuriated Maximinus instantly condemned the entire assemblage of philosophers to death . . . only to watch her convert them to Christianity in a moment by making the Sign of the Cross above their heads!
Realizing that he could not change her mind with flattery – or with offers to marry her and thus make her a great queen – the embittered Emperor at last gave up his quest and gave orders for her execution to proceed.
Astounded by her courage and her obvious faith, the Emperor's wife, his military commander, and 200 of his soldiers visited St. Catherine in prison – and all were converted to the Gospel. (They soon paid for their conversion with their lives, however.)
In the year 305, the virgin of Alexandria was tortured hideously by being torn on a spiked wheel . . . although an Angel of the Lord appeared when she was near the point of death and smashed the device to slivers with his fiery sword. Yet the Angel had arrived too late. St. Catherine was beheaded with a sword, and the gaping onlookers were then amazed to see that great quantities of fresh milk flowed from her body, rather than blood.
Eventually, her holy relics were conveyed by Angels to Mt. Sinai, where they were discovered many years later and then preserved at a well-known monastery that was named for her.
The life of St. Catherine offers us a revealing example of how our earthly, finite love is rooted in the Infinite Love of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Instead of choosing an earthly husband, the valiant young woman pledged her life to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. Her story also demonstrates how the wisdom of God easily demolishes any human claims to “wisdom.” Faced with Divine Wisdom, the one hundred human philosophers of the Emperor were instantly reduced to the “foolishness” that St. Paul so powerfully describes, while reflecting on the limitations of merely human thought.
Perhaps St. Catherine’s greatest significance can be found in the way she believed in Christ’s Redemption of humankind from sin – and in the fact that she was willing to forfeit her life rather than renounce His saving message. Would that we could all own that kind of courage!
Apolytikion in the First Tone
Let us praise the all-lauded and noble bride of Christ, the godly Catherine, the guardian of Sinai and its defence, who is also our support and succour and our help; for with the Holy Spirit’s sword she hath silenced brilliantly the clever among the godless; and being crowned as a Martyr, she now doth ask great mercy for us all.
Kontakion in the Second Tone
Rouse up now a choir, O ye that love the martyred Saints, august and inspired, acclaiming the supremely-wise Martyr Catherine, who hath proclaimed and preached of Christ in the stadium and hath trampled the serpent down and spat on the knowledge of the eloquent.