Editing Catherine of Alexandria (section)

==Historicity==
Sometimes cited as a possible inspiration of Catherine, [[Eusebius]] wrote around 320 that Maximinus had ordered a young Christian woman to come to his palace to become his mistress, and when she refused he had her punished by having her banished and her estates confiscated.<ref name=crawley>{{cite web |url= http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/C/stcatherineofalexandria.asp |title= Catherine of Alexandria, ''Lives of Saints''|publisher= John J. Crawley & Co., Inc. |access-date= 26 August 2013}}</ref> Eusebius did not name the woman but [[Tyrannius Rufinus|Rufinus of Aquileia]] names her Dorothea ({{lang|grc|Δωροθέα}}) in his translation of Eusebius' work. A sixteenth century Italian historian, [[Caesar Baronius]] (c.1538-1607), suggested that Catherine and Dorothea were the same person and that Catherine (Hecaterina) was her former pagan name while Dorothea (the gift of God) was the name given to her at the time of baptism.<ref>Çetinbaş, E., 2020. "A BRIDE OF CHRIST AND AN INTERCESSOR OF MUHAMMAD: COMPARATIVE SAINTS’CULTS OF ST CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA AND RABI’A OF BASRA IN THE MIDDLE AGES", MA Thesis in Late Antique, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Central European University, Budapest, 19-24</ref>
[[File:Artemisia Gentileschi - Saint Catherine of Alexandria.jpg|thumb|left|''Saint Catherine of Alexandria'' by [[Artemisia Gentileschi]], c. 1619]]

The ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'', while not denying her historicity, states that most of the details that embellish the narrative, as well as the long discourses attributed to Catherine, are to be rejected as later inventions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Catherine of Alexandria, Saint |url=https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/catherine-of-alexandria-saint |access-date=2021-12-11 |website=Catholic Answers}}</ref> According to the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', no extant written mention of Catherine of Alexandria is known before the 9th century, and "her historicity is doubtful".<ref name="britannica1">{{Cite web|title=St. Catherine of Alexandria {{!}} Egyptian martyr |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Catherine-of-Alexandria|access-date=2021-12-11|website=Britannica |language=en}}</ref>

[[Donald Attwater]] dismisses what he calls the "legend" of Saint Catherine, arguing for a lack of any "positive evidence that she ever existed outside the mind of some Greek writer who first composed what he intended to be simply an edifying romance."{{sfn|de Azevedo|2005|p=324}} Harold Davis writes that "assiduous research has failed to identify Catherine with any historical personage".<ref>Harold Thayer Davis, ''Alexandria: The Golden City'' (Principia Press of Illinois, 1957), p&nbsp;441</ref>{{sfn|Allen|1997|pp= 214–217}}

[[Anna Brownell Jameson]] was the first to argue that the life of Catherine was confused with that of the slightly later [[Neoplatonism|neoplatonist]] philosopher [[Hypatia|Hypatia of Alexandria]].{{sfn|Walsh|2007|p=10}} Hypatia was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who was murdered by the [[Parabalani]] after being accused of exacerbating a conflict between two prominent figures in Alexandria, the governor [[Orestes (prefect of Egypt)|Orestes]] and the bishop [[Cyril of Alexandria|Cyril]].{{sfn|Watts|2006|pp=197–198}}{{sfn|Deakin |1994|pp= 234–243}} The idea that Catherine's life was either based on or became confused with the life of the pagan Hypatia has become a popular theory among modern scholars since. However, while Christine Walsh accepts the many parallels between Catherine and Hypatia, she does not believe there is any evidence for or against the idea that Catherine was created based on Hypatia.{{sfn|Walsh|2007|p= 10}}{{sfn|Deakin|2007|pp=135, 202}}<ref>[[Maria Dzielska]]: ''Hypatia of Alexandria'', Cambridge (Massachusetts) 1995, p. 21; Christian Lacombrade: ''Hypatia''. In: ''Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum'', Bd. 16, Stuttgart 1994, Sp. 956–967, here: 966; Gustave Bardy: ''Catherine d'Alexandrie''. In: ''[[Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques]]'', Bd. 11, Paris 1949, Sp. 1503–1505, here: 1504.</ref>
[[File:Anthony van Dyck - The Mystic Betrothal of Saint Catherina.jpg|thumb|279px|''The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherina'' by [[Anthony van Dyck]], 1618-20.]]

The earliest surviving account of Catherine's life comes around 600 years after the traditional date of her martyrdom, in the ''[[Menologion of Basil II|Menologium]]'', a document compiled for Emperor [[Basil II]] in 976, although the alleged rediscovery of her relics at [[Saint Catherine's Monastery]] at the foot of Mount Sinai was about 800<ref name=ArdeeneDobson>S. R. T. O d'Ardeene and E. J. Dobson, ''Seinte Katerine: Re-Edited from MS Bodley 34 and other Manuscripts'' (Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]], 1981), xiv.</ref> and presumably implies an existing cult at that date (though the common name of the monastery developed after the discovery).

In her book ''The Cult of St Katherine of Alexandria in Early Medieval Europe'', Christine Walsh discusses "the historical Katherine": {{blockquote|As we have seen, the cult of St Katherine of Alexandria probably originated in oral traditions from the 4th-century [[Diocletianic Persecution]]s of Christians in Alexandria. There is no evidence that Katherine herself was a historical figure and she may well have been a composite drawn from memories of women persecuted for their faith. Many aspects of her ''Passio'' are clearly legendary and conform to well-known hagiographical [[Literary topos|topoi]].|
source={{harvnb|Walsh|2007|p=143}} }}