On the 25th of November – FEAST-DAY OF THE HOLY AND GREAT MARTYR KATHERINE

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

On the 25th of November our Holy Orthodox Church commemorates
the Holy and Great Martyr KATHERINE.

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn. Plagal of First Tone

LET us praise the all-lauded and noble bride of Christ, the godly
Katherine, the guardian of Sinai and its defence, who is also our
support and succour and our help; for with the Holy Spirit’s
sword she hath silenced brilliantly the clever among the godless;
and being crowned as a Martyr, she now doth ask great mercy
for us all.

Kontakion Hymn. Second Tone

ROUSE up now a choir, O ye that love the martyred Saints, august
and inspired, acclaimed the supremely-wise Martyr Katherine,
who hath proclaimed and preached of Christ in the stadium and
hath trampled the serpent down and spat on the knowledge of
the eloquent.

The Holy and Great Martyr Katherine, who was from Alexandria, was the daughter of Constas (or Cestus). She lived with her mother in Alexandria after her father’s death. Her mother was secretly a Christian and, through her spiritual father, brought Katherine to the Christian faith. In a vision, Saint Katherine received a ring from the Lord Jesus Himself as a sign of her betrothal to Him. This ring remains on her finger to this day. Saint Katherine was greatly gifted by God, exceptionally well-educated in Greek philosophy, medicine, rhetoric and logic. She was an exceedingly beautiful maiden, most chaste, and illustrious in wealth, lineage, and learning. By her steadfast understanding, she utterly vanquished the passionate and unbridled soul of Maximinus, the tyrant of Alexandria; and by her eloquence, she stopped the mouths of the so-called philosophers who had been gathered to dispute with her. When the wicked pagan Roman Emperor Maxentius offered sacrifice to idols and ordered everyone to do the same, Saint Katherine came with daring before him and denounced his idolatrous errors. The Emperor, seeing that she surpassed him in wisdom and learning, summoned fifty of the wisest men, to dispute with her about faith and put her to shame, but Katherine was wiser than they, and put them to shame. The furious Emperor commanded that all fifty wise men be burned. These wise men, at Saint Katherine’s prayers, all confessed the name of Christ at the moment of death, and proclaimed themselves Christians. She was crowned with the crown of Martyrdom in the year A.D 305. Her holy relics were taken by Angels to the Holy Mountain of Sinai, where they were discovered many years later; the famous Monastery of Saint Katherine was originally dedicated to the Holy Transfiguration of the Lord and the Burning Bush, but later was dedicated to the Holy and Great Martyr Katherine. [Resources: The Great Horologion and The Prologue from Ochrid]

____________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
+ + +

With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George