Agia Ekaterini
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St. Catherine of Alexandria, aka St. Catherine of the Wheel and The Great Martyr St. Catherine is, according to tradition, a Christian saint, a virgin who was martyred in the early 4th c. at the hands of emperor Maxentius.
According to her hagiography, she was a princess and a noted scholar, who became a Christian at around the age of fourteen, and then converted hundreds of people to Christianity. She was martyred around the age of 18. The Orthodox Church venerates her as a Great Martyr. According to the traditional narrative, Catherine was the daughter of Constus, the governor of Alexandrian Egypt. From a young age she devoted herself to study. When the persecutions began, she went to the emperor and rebuked him for his cruelty. The emperor summoned fifty of the best philosophers and orators to dispute with her, hoping that they would refute her pro-Christian arguments, but Catherine won the debate. Several of her adversaries, conquered by her eloquence, declared themselves Christians and were at once put to death. Catherine was then scourged and imprisoned, during which time over 200 people came to see her, including Maxentius' wife, Valeria Maximilla; all converted to Christianity and were subsequently martyred. The emperor condemned Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel, but, at her touch, the wheel shattered. Maxentius finally had her beheaded. Tradition has it that angels carried her corpse to Mt. Sinai. Her body was discovered around the year 800 at Mt. Sinai. In the 6th c., Emperor Justinian established what is now St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt (dedicated to the Transfiguration of Christ).
According to her hagiography, she was a princess and a noted scholar, who became a Christian at around the age of fourteen, and then converted hundreds of people to Christianity. She was martyred around the age of 18. The Orthodox Church venerates her as a Great Martyr. According to the traditional narrative, Catherine was the daughter of Constus, the governor of Alexandrian Egypt. From a young age she devoted herself to study. When the persecutions began, she went to the emperor and rebuked him for his cruelty. The emperor summoned fifty of the best philosophers and orators to dispute with her, hoping that they would refute her pro-Christian arguments, but Catherine won the debate. Several of her adversaries, conquered by her eloquence, declared themselves Christians and were at once put to death. Catherine was then scourged and imprisoned, during which time over 200 people came to see her, including Maxentius' wife, Valeria Maximilla; all converted to Christianity and were subsequently martyred. The emperor condemned Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel, but, at her touch, the wheel shattered. Maxentius finally had her beheaded. Tradition has it that angels carried her corpse to Mt. Sinai. Her body was discovered around the year 800 at Mt. Sinai. In the 6th c., Emperor Justinian established what is now St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt (dedicated to the Transfiguration of Christ).