St Catherine was the beautiful daughter and scholar of a pagan King and Queen who ruled Alexandria in Egypt. At around fourteen, following an appearance from the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Catherine converted to Christianity and gave herself in mystical marriage to Jesus. Her beliefs and actions influenced many others who followed her example and likewise, converted to Christianity. Emperors, rulers and great philosophers attempted to dispute her teachings but she outwitted them with her pro-Christian arguments. In the process, several of them converted to Christianity but they were immediately martyred.
Emperor Maxentius also tried to win her over by proposing marriage. Again she refused, so in his fury, he ordered her execution by the “Breaking Wheel.” (The execution process involved tying the subject to a cartwheel, breaking their bones with hammers or other available instruments and leaving them to die – it was a barbarous form of torture and execution.) The wheel, however, miraculously fell apart when St Catherine touched it so, he ordered her immediate beheading. St Catherine’s Feast Day is the 25th of November.
Almighty and eternal God, with lively faith and reverent worship, I bow before You and invoke, with absolute trust, Your supreme power and mercy.
Illumine the darkness of my mind with a ray of Your heavenly light and inflame my heart with the fire of Your Divine love, so that I may contemplate the great virtues and merits of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in whose honour I make this novena, and following her example imitate, like her, the life of Your Divine Son.
Moreover, I beseech You to graciously grant,
through the merits and intercession of St Catherine,
the petition that I humbly place before You, devoutly acknowledging, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
(Make your request…)
Merciful God, graciously grant my request, if it is for Your greater honour and glory, and the salvation of my soul.
Say: Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be…
… St Catherine of Alexandria: Pray for Us …
