This round 12kt. gold-filled St. Catherine medal is 3/4in. in diameter. It depicts St. Catherine kneeling before the Blessed Mother holding Jesus, who is putting a ring on her finger. In a dream St. Catherine was made a mystical bride of Christ, and she awoke with a ring on her finger. She is patroness of firefighters, those ridiculed for their piety, against illness and miscarriage. Her feast day is April 29. The medal comes with an 18in. gold plated brass chain in a deluxe gift box.
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Profile Apocryphal. Nobility. Learned in science and oratory. Converted to Christianity after receiving a vision. When she was 18 years old, during the persecution of Maximus, she offered to debate the pagan philosophers. Many were converted by her arguments, and immediately martyred. Maximus had her scourged and imprisoned. The empress and the leader of Maximus' army were amazed by the stories, went to see Catherine in prison. They converted and were martyred. Maximus ordered her broken on the wheel, but she touched it and the wheel was destroyed. She was beheaded, and her body whisked away by angels.
Immensely popular during the Middle Ages, there were many chapels and churches devoted to her throughout western Europe, and she was reported as one of the divine advisors to Saint Joan of Arc. Her reputation for learning and wisdom led to her patronage of libraries, librarians, teachers, archivists, and anyone associated with wisdom or teaching. Her debating skill and persuasive language has led to her patronage of lawyers. And her torture on the wheel led to those who work with them asking for her intercession. One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
While there may well have been a noble, educated, virginal lady who swayed pagans with her rhetoric during the persecutions, the accretion of legend, romance and poetry has long since buried the real Catherine.
Died beheaded c.305 in Alexandria, Egypt
Canonized Pre-Congregation
Representation spiked wheel; woman strapped to the spiked wheel on which she was martyred; woman arguing with pagan philosophers