Life
Saint Catherine the Great Martyr was born at the end of the third century in Alexandria, the most illustrious center of science and philosophy in the ancient world, as the daughter of the ruler Constus. Already in her early youth she displayed extraordinary gifts — she had mastered the works of Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras, knew Homer and Virgil by heart, and had studied medicine, rhetoric, geometry, astronomy, and all the sciences then considered the summit of human knowledge. She was endowed with eloquence and beauty, and suitors came from the noblest houses of the Empire; but she told them all that she would only accept a husband who was her equal in wisdom, nobility, beauty, and wealth.
Her mother, who was a secret Christian, brought her to a certain holy elder — her spiritual father — who said to her: “I know a Bridegroom who surpasses all your conditions — it is Christ, the Son of the living God.” He gave her an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos with the Infant and taught her to pray. That same night, in a dream, the Mother of God appeared to her with Christ, but Christ turned away from her, saying she was not yet beautiful enough, for she had not yet been baptized. Baptized the following day, Catherine that night saw Christ again, and He placed a ring on her finger as her Betrothed — the ring was found on her hand after waking as a visible sign of her heavenly betrothal.
In the time of Emperor Maxentius, who was then residing in Alexandria and offering great sacrifices to idols, Saint Catherine stood boldly before him and openly confessed Christ. The Emperor, astounded by her wisdom, summoned fifty of the most learned philosophers of his realm to debate her. Saint Catherine engaged them all in public disputation and defeated them utterly — to such a degree that they all immediately confessed faith in Christ. The furious Emperor had them all burned at once, but their blood became their baptism. Then, witnessing Catherine’s bearing in prison and the miracles occurring there, the Empress Augusta herself and the general Porphyrius with two hundred soldiers came to believe in Christ — and all became martyrs for Him.
She was tormented by hunger and flogging, and then brought before a great wheel fitted with sharp iron spikes, on which she was to be torn apart — hence the name “Catherine’s wheel” in Western art. An angel of God shattered the wheel before her, and the broken instruments of torture struck down many of her tormentors. The Emperor finally sentenced her to beheading; Saint Catherine was executed around 305–313, at eighteen years of age. Milk rather than blood flowed from her wounds.
Tradition holds that angels transported her pure body to the summit of Mount Sinai, where it rests to this day in Saint Catherine’s Monastery — one of the oldest continuously inhabited monasteries in the world, built in the sixth century by Emperor Justinian. Saint Catherine is the heavenly patron of philosophers, theologians, students, professors, and lawyers.
Tropar (Tone 4)
Let us praise the wise Catherine, crowned by Christ, who gave herself for love of Him, rejecting all that is fleeting; for she discovered philosophy’s true path, and having received wisdom from Him, she defeated the orators in disputation — crowned martyr, intercede with Christ God for us.
Kontakion (Tone 4)
Now let the choir of godly lovers lift up a hymn of praise to the wise and eloquent Catherine: she preached Christ and trampled the serpent underfoot, rejecting the wisdom of the rhetoricians.
About the Feast
Katarinin dan — the feast dedicated to Saint Catherine the Great Martyr — is celebrated on December 7 by the New (Gregorian) calendar, corresponding to November 24 by the Old (Julian) calendar. It falls in the midst of the Nativity Fast, so the feast table is entirely meatless.
Katarinin dan is a less widespread patron feast among the Serbian people than major celebrations like Nikoljdan or Aranđelovdan, but it is still kept today in certain families — particularly those in which women named Katarina, Kata, Kaja, or Katica have been prominent in the family line, or where ancestors worked in education, the judiciary, medicine, or theology, and took Saint Catherine as the patron of their household learning.
Traditional foods on Katarinin dan: since it falls within the Nativity Fast, the feast table is meatless. The slava bread and koljivo occupy the central place. Alongside them are prepared Lenten stuffed cabbage, prebranac, Lenten fish (permitted in the Nativity Fast except on Wednesdays and Fridays), boiled potatoes, Lenten salads of pickled cabbage, beets, radishes, and horseradish, dried fruit, walnuts, hazelnuts, Lenten honey cake, and unleavened bread. The host lights the slava candle, and the priest blesses the bread and koljivo with a prayer to Saint Catherine, asking for a blessing on the students in the household, for advancement in learning and wisdom.
In Serbian tradition Saint Catherine is also invoked as the patron of young women before marriage — girls would formerly fast on her feast day, light candles, and pray for a wise choice of life’s companion, following the example of the wise virgin of Alexandria who chose Christ Himself as her only Bridegroom.