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The saints

St. Catherine of Alexandria

A young philosopher who, the legend says, out-argued the emperor’s wise men.

Feast: 25 November · died about 310 · The early Church · Alexandria, Egypt

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Painting of St. Catherine of Alexandria seated beside a broken wheel, holding a palm.

Caravaggio, 1595. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Catherine of Alexandria

Alexandria, Egypt, early 4th century

Catherine’s story comes to us as legend: a learned young noblewoman of Alexandria who became a Christian.1

She confronted the emperor about persecuting Christians.1

He brought fifty philosophers to argue her out of it, and she converted them instead.

Patron of philosophers1; students and teachers1; librarians1; lawyers1

01St. Catherine of Alexandria

The wheel

She was sentenced to be broken on a spiked wheel, which shattered, and then she was beheaded.1

Devotion to her was enormous in the Middle Ages, and Joan of Arc heard her voice.1

Live it this week

Think before you argue

Catherine is the patron of philosophers. The next time you’re in an argument about faith this week, ask two honest questions before you make one point.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Catherine of Alexandria”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.