By Fr. George Dorbarakis
“Katherine was Wise and a Virgin, and a Martyr by the sword, O beautiful triad!” These verses of the synaxarion reveal the gifts with which Katherine won Heaven and acquired such a great place in the firmament of the Church. This is not about the so-called natural gifts, which all people on earth have to a greater or lesser extent. Although the Saint, as her synaxarion notes, was indeed endowed with these as well – for she had rare physical beauty and was a genius and modest in moral character – yet by the grace of God and her free will she acquired the spiritual gifts, with which alone one is sanctified in God and enters the Kingdom of Heaven. And spiritual gifts are those that come to light when a person becomes aware of the gift of God that He gave him in Holy Baptism, that is, when he feels that he has become a member of Christ and tries to activate his new life in Christ by keeping the commandments of Christ.
So it is with Saint Katherine: according to the verse we mentioned, she was wise, in the sense of beyond human wisdom, she was enlightened primarily by God and received His wisdom. This enlightenment, in fact, according to the Saint’s hymnographer, Saint Theophanes, was given through the intercession of the Archangel Michael. Through his mouth the Saint received true wisdom, that from heaven. “You indeed received wisdom from Heaven, through the mouth of Michael, all-praised Martyr.” The Hymnographer, however, insists on this subject, especially with a verse that seems to parallel her with Solomon himself. Without naming the truly wise king of Israel, and indeed from his childhood, he may mean him, because Katherine also “received the wisdom from God from childhood,” something she proved when, with this wisdom in particular, having as an instrument of course also the external, that is, the worldly wisdom that she had acquired, she was able to initiate into the faith of Christ one hundred and fifty eminent orators, who used only its worldly meaning as their weapon. And she not only converted them, but also made them, by the grace of God, also become martyrs of the Lord. It is known that during the Synaxarion of the day, “the holy one hundred and fifty orators, who believed in Christ through Saint Katherine, who were consumed by fire” are also celebrated with her. “You have become the boast of martyrs, the initiate of piety, because you have led the common martyrs to your glorious Bridegroom, Christ."
And this all-wise bride of the Lord gives us the opportunity, in relation to the wisdom of the orators she encountered, to note what the Hymnographer also points out and which has timeless value: the worldly wisdom of the orators, precisely because it was not inspired by the grace of God and was based only on the plots of human vain reasoning, was ultimately “a flood of ignorance,” that is, completely full of ignorance. “Rejoice, you who have rebuked the insolent mouth of the orators, as something that was full of lack of education.” Truly: an education without Christ, that is, without the grace of God, what can it be? According to the saying of a holy Elder: it is a clever demonism. How much we should all reflect on this observation of the Holy Hymnographer! Especially today, when without shame or thought, many "responsible people with position and power" are engaged in a struggle to eliminate from Greek education any Christian element.
But Saint Katherine was both a Virgin and a Martyr. That is, she had those gifts that are considered the most powerful for one to “conquer” heaven. In fact, the blood of her martyrdom was her offering to the Lord, something similar to the offering of the woman in the Gospel, who bought myrrh and offered it to Him, anointing His feet, as an expression of her love. “Like an alabaster jar of myrrh, you offered your blood to your Bridegroom Christ, Katherine, invincible champion.” And her blood was like myrrh, because it was the fruit of her deep love for Him, of her desire that burned her like fire. “Burning with desire, O most renowned Martyr, for your Master.” And of course, her virginity, as has been emphasized many times, is not understood as a gift primarily in terms of physicality – there are many with this gift who are far from God: let us remember the Parable of the Ten Virgins – but in terms of the soul and spirituality: as psychic purity due to a sanctified life. “She willingly cleansed herself by her behavior.” The power of Saint Katherine’s double grace before God, that is, virginity and martyrdom, is established by the Hymnographer in an impressive way. He sees the Saint in bright chambers in Paradise, adorned with bridal ornaments, holding the candle of virginity in her right hand and her severed head in her left. Just as Saint John the Baptist is represented in his icon with his severed head, so is Saint Katherine. “You have been transferred to luminous chambers, adorned with bridal ornaments, holding a virgin's candle in your right hand, while in the other you bear your severed head.”
The Holy Hymnographer guides us to other dimensions of her multi-talented personality. And the dimension that should not be left uncommented is his emphasis on the results of the Saint’s sanctified life and martyrdom. He notes, among other things, in the Exapostelarion of the Service: “You strengthened the mind of women, O virgin and all-honorable Katherine, you who are the glory of the prizewinners." The feeling of the Hymnographer, the feeling of the entire Church, that Saint Katherine, with what she lived and did, energized the spirit of women, made them stronger, is something important. In an era when women's rights are emphasized, when the so-called feminism, as a movement for women to obtain what they are entitled to in a male-dominated society, often comes to the fore, the finding that female martyrs, like Saint Katherine, are the ones who essentially and drastically strengthen their spirit, must be proclaimed. We think that here we are at the highest point that has been given as an impetus for feminism. Because this is not found in words, but in example. And there is no more powerful example than a woman who gave her life for faith in God and in man.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
