died с early 4th century, Alexandria, Egypt; feast day November 25
Early Christian martyr.
According to tradition, she was a learned girl of noble birth who protested the persecution of Christians during the reign of the Roman emperor Maxentius. She converted the emperor's wife and defeated in debate the best scholars he sent to oppose her. She was sentenced to be killed with a spiked wheel (the Catherine wheel), but, when it broke, she was beheaded instead. Her body was transported by angels to the top of Mount Sinai. One of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages, she was patron of philosophers and scholars. Her historicity is doubtful.