08 — Veneration

Catherine’s liturgical veneration and her image: the feast on November 25 and November 24, the title of Holy Great-Martyr, the relics at Sinai, and the iconography — the wheel, the sword, the book, and the contrast between the Eastern icon of the Great-Martyr and the Western mystical marriage. This section sets out the firm liturgical and iconographic facts per METHODOLOGY §3.5 and §4.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Great-Martyr)

This section treats how the Church venerates and depicts Catherine. Feast and Relics sets out the feast (November 25 in the Greek and Roman calendars, November 24 in the Slavic), the Great-Martyr title, the relics venerated at Sinai, and the hymnography, treating the date difference and its folk explanations honestly. Iconography sets out her attributes — the wheel above all, with the sword, book, crown, and palm — and the deep East–West division between the Orthodox icon of the Great-Martyr and the Western painted theme of the mystical marriage.

Section Contents

• Feast and Relics — the feast November 25/24; the Great-Martyr title; the relics at Sinai; the hymnography; the date difference and its disputed explanations
• Iconography — Catherine’s attributes (wheel, sword, book, crown, palm); the Eastern icon versus the Western mystical marriage; the lateness of the imagery

See Also

• The Monastery of Sinai — the relics and the monastery
• East and West — the mystical-marriage theme in Western art
• The Breaking Wheel — the wheel, Catherine’s primary attribute
• The Medieval Popularity — the feast’s 1969 removal and 2002 restoration
• Orthodoxy Guide: Women in Orthodoxy — holy women in the Orthodox tradition

References

• “Great-Martyr Catherine of Alexandria.” Orthodox Church in America (oca.org), November 24.
• “Catherine of Alexandria” and “Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine.” Wikipedia and OrthodoxWiki.
• Holy Monastery of Sinai (official accounts of the relics).
• Farmer, David Hugh. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, s.v. “Catherine of Alexandria.”