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Description: | Catherine, a young aristocrat and an early Christian living in the time of the Emperor Maxentius, is famous for her protests against the state religion. She contended with fifty philosophers on the matter, demolishing their arguments: the Fairfax House painting shows this event. The philosophers were burnt alive for their failure to answer her; she was tortured on a spiked wheel for her faith, but legend has it that the wheel fell to pieces and she was unhurt. Eventually, Catherine was beheaded for her beliefs. Her body was carried to Mount Sinai, where the Orthodox monastery of St Catherine was built. The cult built on the legend of Saint Catherine of Alexandria was very popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. As a woman who had called herself a bride of Christ', despising marriage with the Emperor, who had triumphed over the philosophers, and who was seen as the protectress of the dying, her intercession was valued. She became the patron saint of young girls; of students (and hence the clergy), especially philosophers and apologists; of nurses, because milk instead of blood was believed to have flowed from her severed head; and of craftsmen whose work revolved around a wheel, such as spinners and millers. The earliest English life of St Catherine was written in the thirteenth century. Cycles of her life in stained glass survive in whole or in part around England, including York Minster. | Subjects: | religion (St Catherine) | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: German School Æ Attributed to | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8721... | Go to resource |
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