The Emperor could think of nothing but how he might bring Saint Katherine to accept his impious beliefs. Unable to accomplish it he commanded that Katherine be stripped of her purple robe, left naked, and beaten mercilessly with leather straps. For two hours the servants lashed the martyr upon the shoulders and belly until the whole of her virginal body was covered with stripes. The Saint endured with such bravery that those who beheld her could only marvel. After this, that beast ordered that Katherine be cast into prison, permitting her neither food nor drink while he pondered how to put her to death.

Saint Katherine awoke, marveling at what she had seen and heard in the dream. The next morning, she went with a number of her maids to the cell of the holy elder and fell down in tears at his feet. She told him what she had seen in the dream and asked him what she must do to gain the love of Him Whom she so desired. The godly elder (geronda) spoke to her at length of the mysteries of the True Christian faith, beginning with the creation of the world and our forefather Adam and continuing up to the Second Coming of the Master Christ. He told her of the ineffable glory of Paradise and the terrible and eternal torments of hell, and she, being an educated and wise maiden, straightway understood and believed with her whole heart. Then she received Holy Baptism at the elder's hands, and he instructed her to pray fervently to the Most Holy Theotokos as before.

Saint Katherine, the glorious holy Martyr of Christ, came from the metropolis of Alexandria. She struggled during the reign of the ungodly and pagan Emperors Maximian (306-308 A.D., Maxentius (308-312 A.D.), and Maximinus (308-314 A.D.). The blessed one's life and martyrdom is so marvelous, sweet, and compunctious that each soul who reads it with care and attention will greatly rejoice and be inspired by the fruit garnered there from.

And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host" (St. Luke, Ch. 2)

Impious worship of the Angels spread throughout many lands in the days of the Holy Apostles. The Holy Apostle Paul sought to root it out when he wrote to the Colossians, saying, "Let no man beguile you in voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head" (Col., Ch. 2), which is Christ; for there were at the time certain heretics who made a show of humility but proudly imagined that they were like the Angels because of their abstinence and the purity of their lives.

Saint John Maximovitch (1896-1966) writes that Mary was settled in the quarters for virgins which existed in the Temple. She spent so much time in prayer in the Holy of Holies that one might say that she lived in it. She desired to fulfill the commandment of God, "Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am Holy (Leviticus 19:2)."