Cyclists / Catherine of Alexandria, 287–305,
Feast Day: November 25

An Egyptian noblewoman, Catherine complained to the emperor about the persecution of the Christians in such a way that she converted his wife and the fifty philosophers who came to argue against her. When all except Catherine were executed, the emperor demanded to marry her. Because she refused, he ordered her to be broken on a spiked wheel, which crumbled to pieces at her touch. She was then beheaded. Because of the wheel, many careers that use wheels were put under her patronage.

Other patronages: University of Paris; knife grinders, librarians, mechanics, millers, nurses, philosophers, potters, spinners, students, wheelwrights; dying people, unmarried girls

Invoked: to find a husband; against diseases of the tongue