Saint Catherine of Alexandria

“ The Maronite scholar, Joseph Simon St Catherine, virgin and martyr. Assemani (1687-1768) , first identified her with the royal and wealthy lady of Alexandria (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. viii. 14) who, for refusing the solicitations of the emperor Maximinus, was deprived of her property and banished. But Rufinus (Hist. Eccl. viii. 17) called this lady Dorothea, and the old Catherine legend, as recorded in the Roman martyrology and by Simeon Metaphrastes, has quite other features. According to it Catherine was the daughter of King Konetos, eighteen years old, beautiful and wise. ”

“ I Catherine, servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in His precious Blood: with desire to see you so lose yourselves that you shall seek nor peace nor quiet elsewhere than in Christ crucified, becoming an-hungered upon the table of the Cross, for the honour of God, the salvation of souls, and the reformation of Holy Church, whom to-day we see in so great need that to help her one must come out from one's wood and renounce one's self. If one sees that he can bear fruit in her, it is no time to stay still nor to say, "I should forfeit my peace." ”

“ The soul of Catherine became daily more enriched with the grace of the Saviour. She flew rather than walked in the paths of virtue, and she conceived the holy desire of arriving at so perfect a degree of faith, that nothing would henceforth be capable of separating her from her divine Spouse, whom her heart aspired alone to please. She therefore besought God to augment her faith, and render it sufficiently strong to resist any and every enemy. Our Blessed Lord answered her, "I will espouse thee in faith." And each time Catherine renewed her prayer, Jesus Christ repeated the same answer. ”

“ Follow therefore courageously, the inspiration which will enlighten thee; for I shall draw, by thy aid, numerous souls from the gulf of hell, and I will conduct them, with the help of my grace, to the Kingdom of Heaven." Catherine heard these words several times, and when our Lord repeated to her: "Fear nothing, be not troubled," she answered: "you are my God, and I am but thy little handmaid: may thy will ever be accomplished, but remember me and incline unto my aid, according to the greatness of thy mercy. ”

“ It is never the sins of the world that most torture Catherine: always, as here, the sins of the Church. She does not pause till she comes to the terrible climax: "I see the Christian religion lying like a dead man, and I neither mourn nor weep over him." It is the very light of most holy faith that has confused the vision of men. And again we hear the familiar refrain, "I believe that my iniquities are the cause of it." ”

“ After the death of Sabinella, Emperor Maximin came to Alexandria and declared a persecution against the Christians. Catherine appeared in the temple and held an argument with the tyrant, utterly confounding him. The emperor ordained that fifty of the most learned men of the empire be brought to dispute with her; but, sustained by the power of God, Catherine not only vanquished them in argument, but converted them to the true Faith. In his fury Maximin commanded that the new Christians be burned ”

“ Catherine arose from the place in which she was praying, and advancing to meet him, graciously and respectfully saluted him. The aged knight said to her with a profound inclination: " Madame, I have done what you prescribed to me; I confessed all my sins to Friar Thomas, who assigned me a penance, and I am resolved to accomplish it, such as it is imposed on me." Catherine responded: " You have acted wisely for the salvation of your soul, now avoid all your former practices and combat as valiantly for Jesus Christ, as you have done for the world." ”

“ Drown you and bathe you in the Blood of Christ crucified. Love, love one another. I send you some of the olive of peace. Remain in the holy and sweet grace of God. Sweet Jesus, Jesus Love.
TO THREE ITALIAN CARDINALS Catherine had ardently wished to see in the Seat of Peter a reformer, who should have courage to apply surgery to the festering wounds of the Church. She had her desire; Urban began at once a drastic policy of Church reform. But his domineering asperity proved unbearable to the College of Cardinals, and schism broke upon a horrified world. ”

“ Prayer was her refuge, and she poured out at the Saviour's blessed feet tears of melancholy hope, humbly supplicating him to deign to make his will known to those who opposed her, above all to her Confessor, whom she dreaded to offend.
She could not say to him, as did the apostles to the chief priests: "It is better to obey God than men." (Acts V. 29) She would have been answered that the demon transforms himself into an angel of light; that we should not rely on our own prudence, but follow the counsels given. The Lord heard Catherine on this occasion as in others ”

“ In the full imitation of her whom she had chosen for Mistress, she afflicted her body by fasts, vigils, and every variety of mortification: prayer and contemplation occupied her continually; she persevered with so much constancy and perfection that Catherine, in the latter portion of her life, made her, I think, depositary of all her secrets, and wished, that after her own death, Alessia should become the superior and model of her companions. I found her also at Rome, when I returned there and she gave me many pieces of information ”

“ In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:
Dearest daughter in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine, thy poor unworthy mother, want thee to attain that perfection for which God has chosen thee. It seems to me that one wishing so to attain should walk with and not without moderation. And yet every work of ours ought to be done both without and with moderation: it befits us to love God without moderation, putting to that love neither limit nor measure nor rule, but loving Him immeasurably. And if thou wish to reach the perfection of love, it befits thee to set thy life in order. ”

“ It is evident that Catherine possessed the spirit of prophecy, for she knew at a distance of twenty-four miles, a mental prayer addressed to her, and was capable of granting so promptly and perfectly the help implored.
How advantageous is it to be in the friendship of persons who see like the angelic spirits, and who being clothed with power divine may aid us in every danger; and if Catherine's prayers were so powerful while she was yet in this terrestrial vale, what must be her influence now in Heaven. ”

“ The saint took from the hands of one among them a crown, very beautiful and shining like gold, and she put it upon the empress's head. This crown was the sign of martyrdom. For indeed the names of this queen and of the knight Porphyrius were already written in the book of eternal rewards.
On his return Maxentius commanded Catherine to be brought before him, and said unto her: "Choose between two things: to sacrifice and live, or to die in torment."
Catherine made answer: "It is my desire to offer to Jesus Christ my flesh and my blood. He is my lover, my shepherd, and my husband." ”

“ Do not intercede for him; it is just that he burn in eternal flames; he merits death a thousand times."
Catherine prostrated herself at the feet of her divine Spouse, and bathed them with her tears — and prayed in aspirations like these: "Didst thou not, loving Jesus I bear this man's sins with ours on thy venerable shoulders ? Am I here to dispute thy justice, or to invoke thy mercy ? Remember Lord thou didst promise to aid me in saving souls; I have no other consolation but that of seeing them return to thee; it is the only circumstance that renders me capable of enduring thy absence. ”

“ The mind is baffled in seeking to find human speech which shall even adumbrate reality. What Catherine has to describe is the culmination of her earthly life: the final triumph of faith over despair, the final offering of herself as a sacrificial victim, in obedience, as she believes, to the express Voice of God. The second letter is more calm. The sacrifice has been accepted. She is dying, not indeed by the violence of men, like the martyrs for whose fate she has yearned, but by the agony of her own heart, breaking for the sins of Holy Church. ”

“ It is better to renounce these follies ere you become their victim, you can yet enjoy the world, you are young and your body would speedily recover its strength. You desire to please God, but there are many among the Saints who were married, as Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel, why be so imprudent as to select a mode of life in which you cannot persevere." To all these discourses Catherine only opposed prayer, and as to perseverance she simply replied, "I trust in the arm of the Lord, and not in mine." The devils could never obtain more. ”

“ I know that those of earth are accompanied with ills and dangers, and I wish that they may not be exposed to them." God heard her prayer: extraordinary circumstances reduced her parents to extreme poverty, without any fault on their part, as can be easily proved by those who know them. After laying such foundations, Catherine began to raise the edifice of her perfection, like an industrious bee she profited by every occasion of advancing and took every means possible of living a more retired life and one more closely united to her divine Spouse. ”

“ In the beginning of her visions, Catherine related to her Confessors, that our Lord appeared to her, while she was meditating and said to her: " Know, my daughter, what you are and what I am; if you learn these two things, you shalt be truly blest: you are what is not, and I am the great I Am; if thy soul is deeply penetrated with this truth, the enemy cannot deceive you and you will avoid all his snares; you will never consent to do any thing against my commandments, and you will acquire without difficulty, grace, truth and peace." ”

“ But when she turns to a holy hermit, the tone changes. The commonplaces of the moral life are assumed or left behind; she speaks to a soul that has presumably already brought its will into accord with the divine will in regard to all outward happenings, and she takes calmly for granted that this is a light and little thing. We proceed to the analysis of temptations more subtle and more alluring. Catherine has few superiors among religious thinkers in the power to trace self-will to its remotest lairs, in the deeper reaches of personality. ”

“ Catherine therefore repaired to the bedside of her cherished parent, and found him wholly disposed to quit the world without regret, and she thanked God with all the fervor of her heart.
But her filial affection was not yet satisfied: she endeavored to obtain from the Source of all grace not only that her father's faults might be pardoned, but also that at the hour of death his soul might be borne to heaven without passing through the flames of purgatory. It was answered her that justice could not lose its rights, and that the soul must be perfectly pure to enjoy the splendors of glory. ”

“ But it was the psycho-physical peculiarities of the life of Catherine, and the more or less complete incorruption of the body: these two things, neither of which has any necessary connection with that faithful and heroic use of free-will and that spirit and grace of God in which the whole substance of sanctity consists, which, each leading on and back to and strengthening the impression and tradition of the other, determined the outbreak and onflow of popular devotion in the one case, and the absence of which prevented the growth of any such cultus in the other. ”

“ Catherine was, therefore at once satisfied and fasting; deprived of all exteriorly, but abundantly nourished in the interior; thirsty in her body, but inundated in her soul, by torrents of living waters, and always when necessary strong and joyous. But the old and tortuous serpent could not endure such a great favor from Heaven, without seeking to empoison it with the venom of envy. He excited against the servant of God, on the occasion of her extraordinary fast, all those who knew her, whether laymen or Religious. ”

“ Dear reader, observe the wonderful virtue of Catherine. Admire that inspiration of charity which inclines her to perform an act so repugnant to nature: consider the zeal which influences her, notwithstanding the revolt of her senses; remark that amazing courage that cannot be intimidated by the shocking calumny and odious ingratitude of the sick woman; contemplate, in fine, that soul which derives its strength from God, which praise cannot render haughty, and which gains over the flesh a last triumph, by drinking what it shuddered with horror merely to see! ”