“It is noteworthy that Saint Catherine seems wonderful in five things: the first, wisdom, the 2nd speaking, the 3rd firmness, the 4th chaste cleanliness, and the fifth privilege of dignity.”

«De Senta Katherina», Vides de sants rosselloneses (13th century).

Catherine, patron saint of scholasticism in the west

According to the hagiographical accounts, in the time of the Emperor Maxentius, Catherine, the daughter of King Costus, refused to offer sacrifices to the idols. A dialectical debate was then arranged in Alexandria (Egypt) between her and fifty pagan philosophers, who, persuaded by her rhetoric, converted to Christianity. Catherine was subjected to all manner of torture, such as the wheel studded with knives, but she survived all of them thanks to divine intervention. She was eventually beheaded and her body was miraculously taken by angels to Mount Sinai, where it has been venerated ever since.

Between the 11th and 13th centuries the pilgrimages to the Holy Land and the Crusades gave rise to a very special devotion for the saint from Alexandria in the West. Held up as an example of wisdom, in Paris she became the patron saint of scholars and theology students, and a saint especially venerated by the Dominican friars, the defenders par excellence of Catholic orthodoxy against heretics. The first Dominican convent in Catalonia, founded in Barcelona in 1221, was dedicated to Saint Catherine.