Catherine’s Pure Philosophy
In one of those ironies of God’s history – choosing what seems weak to confound the apparently strong – the patron saint of philosophers is a teenage virgin martyr from the fourth century. Catherine of Alexandria (+305) dedicated herself to study ‘from a young age’, as her disputed biography (written centuries after her death) relates. In a contest arranged by the emperor Maxentius, young Catherine bested the best pagan philosophers of her time. When Maxentius perceived she could not be beaten by logic and argument, he attempted to win her over in his own clumsy way by the art, if you will, of love, with an impromptu proposal of marriage, which Catherine of course refused, being already wedded to Christ, besides her awareness of the futility, incompatibility and ineluctable unhappiness of such a union. In his anger – hell hath no fury like an emperor scorned – Maxentius had her tied to a torture wheel to ‘break’ her, but the wheel broke instead (hence, the mediaeval ‘Catherine Wheel’). In the end, Catherine was summarily beheaded.
While in prison awaiting death, she was fed miraculously by a dove, and her wounds tended by angels – for she had been cruelly scourged – the pure goodness of the saint converted hundreds to the Faith, including the emperor’s own wife. After death, her body was transported to Mount Catherine, in Egypt, next to Mount Sinai, where her reputedly incorrupt body still resides in the famous monastery named after her, which has stood since its foundation in the mid-sixth century. It is in the hands of the ‘Orthodox’ – but Catherine is likely one mighty spiritual force in the ecumenical movement.
Some revisionists claim that Catherine’s story is actually an inversion of the later death of the pagan philosopher-mathematician Hypatia (+415), who was lynched by a mob comprised of Christian ‘lectors’ – apparently for political reasons. Hypatia’s ‘martyrdom’ is one of those anti-Catholic tropes, hyperbolically exaggerated from its origins in a complex history, along with Galileo, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and so on.
But Catherine’s historical veracity is attested by the consistent devotion of the faithful, who have always been attached to her intercession as one of the most popular of early saints. It was Saint Catherine who appeared to Joan of Arc, prompting her on her own military mission in freeing France from English domination in the 15th century.
Perhaps in response to such sensus fidelium, Catherine’s feast, removed in the sometimes too-hasty revisions after Vatican II, was put back into the universal calendar in 2002 on this day, November 25th, under Saint John Paul II, no mean philosopher himself. She is also the patron saint of unmarried women and students.
Besides her philosophical acumen, Catherine’s name means ‘purified’ and ‘cleansed’, a fitting thought in today’s all-too impure world, mired in deviance of various forms, and getting more degraded. As the Catechism declares, there is a deep connection between “charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith“, or, as it may be put “between purity of heart, of body and of faith” (cf., #2518).
This is a large part of the reason why the modern world cannot see truths which seem so obvious and clear. Pope John Paul in Evangelium Vitae taught that one of the primary causes of the current abortion holocaust is the ‘trivialization of sexuality’. Saint Thomas rightly claimed – and evidence is not wanting – that nothing so blinds the mind and distorts the reason as lust, and his own angelic chastity, which he maintained from his youth, was a large part of the reason he could see the truth so clearly. Alas, the world – and even many members of the Church on earth – immersed in a blizzard of lustful lies, are now learning this the long, long way around.
Pray to Saint Catherine, that we all may be given pure hearts, as well as eyes to see, and ears to hear.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER MASS IN ST PETER’S SQUARE FOR THE CANONIZATION OF SR MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA Sunday, 30 April 2000 1. “Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”; “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→