Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Saint Catherine was born in Alexandria, Egypt, into a wealthy and noble family.

Catherine’s conversion to Christianity occurred by a miraculous event in which Jesus appeared to her and took her as his fiancée.

This was not well seen by Maxentius, Roman emperor who summoned the saint and her subjects to a party in honor of pagan deities.

Catherine attended the festive event, but challenged the imperial authority and eloquently urged the ruler to convert to Christianity.

Catherine’s insistence on keeping her faith angered Maxentius, who ordered her to be tied to a cogwheel that broke when it came into contact with the saint’s body.

Before the miraculous fact, the emperor ordered the beheading of the saint. For this reason, in her representations a sword appears as the main iconographic attribute.

The veneration of Saint Catherine began in the East around the 10th century. In medieval Europe her cult was strengthened thanks to the crusaders, who spread her story, and authors such as Jacobus de Voragine (1230-1298).

Saint Catherine had many devotees in the New Kingdom of Granada, especially in Santafé, between the second half of the 17th century and the first decades of the 18th century. This woman is, in fact, one of the saints with the largest number of representations in the Museum.

This martyr is considered the patron saint of philosophers and, in general, of all those who carry out intellectual work.