December 7 - Day of Remembrance of the Great Martyr Catherine

Saint Catherine of Alexandria is one of the great ascetics of the first centuries of Christianity, who lived shortly before the faith of Christ became the official religion throughout the vast Roman Empire. The memory of the Great Martyr Catherine is equally venerated by both Eastern and Western Christians. Many temples and monasteries around the world have been consecrated in her honor and glory. The relics of the ascetic are in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and their particles are in the chapel of the Fourteen Holy Helpers at the Church Museum in the city of Fulda (Germany), in the German Museum of Cold Weapons in Solingen (here, next to the shrine, there is a flask with the peace flowing from it) and at the Catherine Cathedral in Tsarskoe Selo.

December 7 marks the day of its heavenly patroness - the great martyr Catherine - one of the ten largest Russian cities Yekaterinburg. So it was this year. On the evening before the holiday, an all-night vigil was held at Holy Trinity Cathedral, which was celebrated by Metropolitan Kirill of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye, Bishop Alexy of Nizhny Tagil and Nevyansk, and Bishop Spiridon of Birsk and Beloretsk. On the morning of a holiday in city churches, where they gathered for common prayer believers, divine liturgies took place.

The program of this year's celebrations includes the announcement of the names of the laureates of the head of the Metropolitan's Prize in the field of culture and art, a concert 'Offering to Saint Catherine' performed by the artists of the Theater of the Word, People's Artist of Russia Tamara Voronina at the Tsarsky Center, and a number of other solemn events. The Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region Yevgeny Kuyvashev and the Chairman of the Regional Legislative Assembly Lyudmila Babushkina congratulated the residents of the capital of the Urals on Saint Catherine's Day.

“Under the name of St. Catherine, the city has a happy destiny, lives a full dynamic life, develops and flourishes, strengthens the traditions of mercy and charity. For 10 years now, the main charitable event of the region, the Catherine Assembly, has been taking place on these December days. Over the years Many Ural children and families received vital assistance thanks to the funds raised at the Assembly, ”the head of the region said in a festive address to the residents of Yekaterinburg. In his congratulations, Evgeny Kuvaishev recalled that St. Catherine's Day was the main city holiday even in pre-revolutionary times, and in modern times this good tradition has been renewed.

The Great Martyr Catherine of Alexandria, who lived at the end of the ancient era, is revered as the patroness of sciences, knowledge and teachings, various crafts and mining - as well as brides. Having received an excellent education in the center of Hellenistic scholarship - the city of Alexandria, where Catherine was born - the girl believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and received Holy Baptism at the hands of a certain Syrian monk. According to Tradition, after this, the Savior Himself appeared to her in a dream, calling the girl his bride. Catherine managed to convert two hundred soldiers with their leader to the faith of Christ, which aroused the wrath of the pagans and reached the ears of the emperor who patronized them Maximin. The girl was tortured and thrown into prison.

Two hundred philosophers descended to convince the ascetic to renounce Christ. All of them were defeated by Saint Catherine in a dispute - and the emperor, in anger, ordered to betray the defeated wise men to fire. In addition, Catherine convinced the wife of the emperor, the military leader Porfiry, and the servants who were with them, who visited her in prison, of the truth of the Christian faith. All of them, by order of the pagan emperor, were also put to death.
To frighten the saint, a sophisticated instrument of torture was made, consisting of many rotating wheels. However, an angel who descended from heaven destroyed the savage mechanism. Then the emperor turned to Catherine for the last time, inviting her to renounce her faith in the Lord true God, to sacrifice to pagan deities and become his wife. After the girl rejected this offer, her head was cut off with a sword. Holy Tradition says that milk flowed from the neck of the great martyr instead of blood.

After the execution, the body of the saint disappeared: angels carried it to the highest peak of Sinai, and where three centuries later it was found by the imperishable monks and identified by the ring. The holy monastery, where its relics were transferred with great honor, later became known as the monastery of St. Catherine.